This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
Unbound and BIND can be recursive resolvers or authoritative servers. dnsmasq is a small forwarder and DHCP helper. The generators draft a lab config. They do not install a service. Recursion combined with queries from any is an open resolver. That line is deleted.
Write who the clients are. A resolver chosen to evade a network you do not administer is out of scope. One role: recursive for your clients, or authoritative for a zone you hold. Not both by accident, and not for the internet.
Do not install during the reading. example.com and 192.0.2.0/24 stay documentation.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.
Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the clients you administer.
- Pick one program and one role.
- Delete recursion open to any.
- Keep the zone list short.
- Do not install it.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Unbound vs BIND vs dnsmasq goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- An open resolver left in the draft.
- A resolver used to bypass a network you do not administer.
- Authoritative and open recursion on the same host with no sentence.
- Installing during the reading.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Unbound vs BIND vs dnsmasq: The clients are yours. One role is chosen. The world cannot recurse. Nothing was installed. And no evasion is the goal.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The program is written. The role is written. allow-query any with recursion is gone. No service was started. And the clients are named. If one of those fails, stop.
| Program | The job it fits |
|---|---|
| Unbound | A recursive resolver for clients you name. |
| BIND | A zone you hold, or recursion you have closed to the world. |
| dnsmasq | A small site that forwards and maybe serves DHCP. |
Before you leave the device
Unbound vs BIND vs dnsmasq ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.
0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, a community string, or a pre-shared key you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the store.
One change is the window. A VLAN and a routing protocol and a VPN do not share it. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next feature waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied config produces a device nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the device name and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the device alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not a permission to touch a network you do not administer. The pillar guide owns the wider design. This page owns one lab proof.
Tools for this guide
These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.