NSD (Name Server Daemon) is an authoritative DNS server that is optimized for speed, performance, and security. It is an excellent alternative to BIND, and it is especially useful for serving large numbers of domains. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install NSD on NixOS Latest.
Before installing NSD, make sure your system is up to date:
sudo nix-channel --update
sudo nixos-rebuild switch
Ensure you have an Internet connection.
The first step to installing NSD on NixOS is to add it to your configuration.nix file.
Add the following line to your configuration.nix file:
services.nsd.enable = true;
Save and close the file.
Then, rebuild your system by running the following command:
sudo nixos-rebuild switch
This command will install NSD on your NixOS machine.
After you've installed NSD, the next step is to configure it.
Create a new configuration file for NSD by running the following command:
sudo nano /etc/nsd/nsd.conf
Add the following lines to the configuration file:
server:
username: nsd
hide-version: yes
## Control settings
control:
enable: yes
module-path: "/nix/store/8pmv0yp2fzmx0z58gjjssjkr6xyavht6-nsd-4.3.7/libexec/nsd"
database: "/var/db/nsd/nsd.db"
pidfile: "/run/nsd/nsd.pid"
key:
name: "rndc-key"
algorithm: hmac-sha256
secret: "<use a long randomized string in here>"
You can change the "secret" field to whatever key you want, but make sure it is a long randomized string.
Save and close the configuration file.
After configuring NSD, the next step is to start it.
To start NSD, run the following command:
sudo systemctl start nsd.service
This command will start NSD on your NixOS machine.
To check the status of NSD, run the following command:
sudo systemctl status nsd.service
This command will display NSD's status on your NixOS machine.
Now that you have installed and configured NSD on NixOS Latest, you can start using it to manage your DNS records.
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