Installing CoreDNS on Debian Latest

CoreDNS is a flexible DNS server that can be used as an alternative to traditional DNS servers such as BIND or NSD. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the installation of CoreDNS on Debian Latest.

Prerequisites

Before starting with the installation, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• Access to a Debian Latest server with root privileges
• A user account with administrative privileges
• Access to the internet

Step 1: Update the System

Before installing CoreDNS, it's a good practice to update the system with the latest patches and security updates. You can do this by running the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Step 2: Install CoreDNS

You can install CoreDNS using the Debian package manager (apt). To do this, follow these steps:

1. First, add the CoreDNS repository to your Debian system. To do this, create a new file named coredns.list in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory:

   sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/coredns.list
   

   Add the following line to the file:

   deb https://packagecloud.io/coredns/coredns/debian/ stretch main
   

   Save and exit the file.

2. Download and add the GPG key for the CoreDNS repository:

   curl -L https://packagecloud.io/coredns/coredns/gpgkey | sudo apt-key add -
   

3. Update the package list:

   sudo apt-get update
   

4. Install CoreDNS:

   sudo apt-get install coredns -y
   

Wait for the installation to complete.

Step 3: Configure CoreDNS

After installing CoreDNS, you need to configure it to work properly. By default, CoreDNS listens on the port 53. You can change this by editing the CoreDNS configuration file.

1. Open the Corefile configuration file in a text editor:

   sudo nano /etc/coredns/Corefile
   

2. Edit the file to define the DNS zones that CoreDNS will manage. For example, to define a zone for example.com, add the following lines:

   example.com {
       file /etc/coredns/example.com.db
   }
   

   Save and exit the file.

3. Create a forward zone file for the example.com domain:

   sudo nano /etc/coredns/example.com.db
   

   Add the following example contents to the file:

   $ORIGIN example.com.
   $TTL 86400
   example.com. IN SOA ns1.example.com. hostmaster.example.com. (
                       2022010100 ; Serial
                       3600 ; Refresh
                       1800 ; Retry
                       604800 ; Expire
                       86400 ; Minimum TTL
                       )
   example.com. IN NS ns1.example.com.
   ns1 IN A 192.168.1.1
   www IN A 192.168.1.2
   

   Save and exit the file.

4. Restart CoreDNS to apply the changes:

   sudo systemctl restart coredns
   

Conclusion

You have successfully installed and configured CoreDNS on Debian Latest. You can now use CoreDNS as an alternative to traditional DNS servers. Remember to update the DNS records when necessary and make backups of the configuration files.

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