Provided by: nsd_4.3.9-1_amd64 
NAME
nsd.conf - NSD configuration file
SYNOPSIS
nsd.conf
DESCRIPTION
Nsd.conf is used to configure nsd(8). The file format has attributes and values. Some attributes have
attributes inside them. The notation is: attribute: value.
Comments start with # and last to the end of line. Empty lines are ignored as is whitespace at the
beginning of a line. Quotes can be used, for names with spaces, eg. "file name.zone".
Nsd.conf specifies options for the nsd server, zone files, primaries and secondaries.
EXAMPLE
An example of a short nsd.conf file is below.
# Example.com nsd.conf file
# This is a comment.
server:
server-count: 1 # use this number of cpu cores
database: "" # or use "/var/lib/nsd/nsd.db"
zonelistfile: "/var/lib/nsd/zone.list"
username: nsd
logfile: "/var/log/nsd.log"
pidfile: "/run/nsd/nsd.pid"
xfrdfile: "/var/lib/nsd/xfrd.state"
zone:
name: example.com
zonefile: /etc/nsd/example.com.zone
zone:
# this server is master, 192.0.2.1 is the secondary.
name: masterzone.com
zonefile: /etc/nsd/masterzone.com.zone
notify: 192.0.2.1 NOKEY
provide-xfr: 192.0.2.1 NOKEY
zone:
# this server is secondary, 192.0.2.2 is master.
name: secondzone.com
zonefile: /etc/nsd/secondzone.com.zone
allow-notify: 192.0.2.2 NOKEY
request-xfr: 192.0.2.2 NOKEY
Then, use kill -HUP to reload changes from master zone files. And use kill -TERM to stop the server.
FILE FORMAT
There must be whitespace between keywords. Attribute keywords end with a colon ':'. An attribute is
followed by its containing attributes, or a value.
At the top level only server:, key:, pattern:, zone:, tls-auth:, and remote-control: are allowed. These
are followed by their attributes or a new top-level keyword. The zone: attribute is followed by zone
options. The server: attribute is followed by global options for the NSD server. A key: attribute is used
to define keys for authentication. The pattern: attribute is followed by the zone options for zones that
use the pattern. A tls-auth: attribute is used to define credentials for authenticating an outgoing TLS
connection used for XFR-over-TLS.
Files can be included using the include: directive. It can appear anywhere, and takes a single filename
as an argument. Processing continues as if the text from the included file was copied into the config
file at that point. If a chroot is used an absolute filename is needed (with the chroot prepended), so
that the include can be parsed before and after application of the chroot (and the knowledge of what that
chroot is). You can use '*' to include a wildcard match of files, eg. "foo/nsd.d/*.conf". Also '?',
'{}', '[]', and '~' work, see glob(7). If no files match the pattern, this is not an error.
Server Options
The global options (if not overridden from the NSD commandline) are taken from the server: clause. There
may only be one server: clause.
ip-address: <ip4 or ip6>[@port] [servers] [bindtodevice] [setfib]
NSD will bind to the listed ip-address. Can be given multiple times to bind multiple ip-addresses.
Optionally, a port number can be given. If none are given NSD listens to the wildcard interface.
Same as commandline option -a.
To limit which NSD server(s) listen on the given interface, specify one or more servers separated
by whitespace after <ip>[@port]. Ranges can be used as a shorthand to specify multiple consecutive
servers. By default every server will listen.
If an interface name is used instead of ip4 or ip6, the list of IP addresses associated with that
interface is picked up and used at server start.
For servers with multiple IP addresses that can be used to send traffic to the internet, list them
one by one, or the source address of replies could be wrong. This is because if the udp socket
associates a source address of 0.0.0.0 then the kernel picks an ip-address with which to send to
the internet, and it picks the wrong one. Typically needed for anycast instances. Use ip-
transparent to be able to list addresses that turn on later (typical for certain load-balancing).
interface: <ip4 or ip6>[@port] [servers] [bindtodevice] [setfib]
Same as ip-address (for ease of compatibility with unbound.conf).
ip-transparent: <yes or no>
Allows NSD to bind to non local addresses. This is useful to have NSD listen to IP addresses that
are not (yet) added to the network interface, so that it can answer immediately when the address
is added. Default is no.
ip-freebind: <yes or no>
Set the IP_FREEBIND option to bind to nonlocal addresses and interfaces that are down. Similar to
ip-transparent. Default is no.
reuseport: <yes or no>
Use the SO_REUSEPORT socket option, and create file descriptors for every server in the
server-count. This improves performance of the network stack. Only really useful if you also
configure a server-count higher than 1 (such as, equal to the number of cpus). The default is no.
It works on Linux, but does not work on FreeBSD, and likely does not work on other systems.
send-buffer-size: <number>
Set the send buffer size for query-servicing sockets. Set to 0 to use the default settings.
receive-buffer-size: <number>
Set the receive buffer size for query-servicing sockets. Set to 0 to use the default settings.
debug-mode: <yes or no>
Turns on debugging mode for nsd, does not fork a daemon process. Default is no. Same as
commandline option -d. If set to yes it does not fork and stays in the foreground, which can be
helpful for commandline debugging, but is also used by certain server supervisor processes to
ascertain that the server is running.
do-ip4: <yes or no>
If yes, NSD listens to IPv4 connections. Default yes.
do-ip6: <yes or no>
If yes, NSD listens to IPv6 connections. Default yes.
database: <filename>
By default '/var/lib/nsd/nsd.db' is used. The specified file is used to store the compiled zone
information. Same as commandline option -f. If set to "" then no database is used. This uses
less memory but zone updates are not (immediately) spooled to disk.
zonelistfile: <filename>
By default /var/lib/nsd/zone.list is used. The specified file is used to store the dynamically
added list of zones. The list is written to by NSD to add and delete zones. It is a text file
with a zone-name and pattern-name on each line. This file is used for the nsd-control addzone and
delzone commands.
identity: <string>
Returns the specified identity when asked for CH TXT ID.SERVER. Default is the name as returned
by gethostname(3). Same as commandline option -i. See hide-identity to set the server to not
respond to such queries.
version: <string>
Returns the specified version string when asked for CH TXT version.server, and version.bind
queries. Default is the compiled package version. See hide-version to set the server to not
respond to such queries.
nsid: <string>
Add the specified nsid to the EDNS section of the answer when queried with an NSID EDNS enabled
packet. As a sequence of hex characters or with ascii_ prefix and then an ascii string. Same as
commandline option -I.
logfile: <filename>
Log messages to the logfile. The default is to log to stderr and syslog (with facility
LOG_DAEMON). Same as commandline option -l.
log-only-syslog: <yes or no>
Log messages only to syslog. Useful with systemd so that print to stderr does not cause duplicate
log strings in journald. Before syslog has been opened, the server uses stderr. Stderr is also
used if syslog is not available. Default is no.
server-count: <number>
Start this many NSD servers. Default is 1. Same as commandline option -N.
cpu-affinity: <number> <number> ...
Overall CPU affinity for NSD server(s). Default is no affinity. -n.
server-N-cpu-affinity: <number>
Bind NSD server specified by N to a specific core. Default is to have affinity set to every core
specified in cpu-affinity. This setting only takes effect if cpu-affinity is enabled. -n
xfrd-cpu-affinity: <number>
Bind xfrd to a specific core. Default is to have affinity set to every core specified in
cpu-affinity. This setting only takes effect if cpu-affinity is enabled. -n
tcp-count: <number>
The maximum number of concurrent, active TCP connections by each server. Default is 100. Same as
commandline option -n.
tcp-reject-overflow: <yes or no>
If set to yes, TCP connections made beyond the maximum set by tcp-count will be dropped
immediately (accepted and closed). Default is no.
tcp-query-count: <number>
The maximum number of queries served on a single TCP connection. Default is 0, meaning there is
no maximum.
tcp-timeout: <number>
Overrides the default TCP timeout. This also affects zone transfers over TCP. The default is 120
seconds.
tcp-mss: <number>
Maximum segment size (MSS) of TCP socket on which the server responds to queries. Value lower than
common MSS on Ethernet (1220 for example) will address path MTU problem. Note that not all
platform supports socket option to set MSS (TCP_MAXSEG). Default is system default MSS determined
by interface MTU and negotiation between server and client.
outgoing-tcp-mss: <number>
Maximum segment size (MSS) of TCP socket for outgoing XFR request to other namesevers. Value lower
than common MSS on Ethernet (1220 for example) will address path MTU problem. Note that not all
platform supports socket option to set MSS (TCP_MAXSEG). Default is system default MSS determined
by interface MTU and negotiation between NSD and other servers.
ipv4-edns-size: <number>
Preferred EDNS buffer size for IPv4. Default 1232.
ipv6-edns-size: <number>
Preferred EDNS buffer size for IPv6. Default 1232.
pidfile: <filename>
Use the pid file instead of the platform specific default, usually /run/nsd/nsd.pid. Same as
commandline option -P. With "" there is no pidfile, for some startup management setups, where a
pidfile is not useful to have.
port: <number>
Answer queries on the specified port. Default is 53. Same as commandline option -p.
statistics: <number>
If not present no statistics are dumped. Statistics are produced every number seconds. Same as
commandline option -s.
chroot: <directory>
NSD will chroot on startup to the specified directory. Note that if elsewhere in the configuration
you specify an absolute pathname to a file inside the chroot, you have to prepend the chroot path.
That way, you can switch the chroot option on and off without having to modify anything else in
the configuration. Set the value to "" (the empty string) to disable the chroot. By default "" is
used. Same as commandline option -t.
username: <username>
After binding the socket, drop user privileges and assume the username. Can be username, id or
id.gid. Same as commandline option -u.
zonesdir: <directory>
Change the working directory to the specified directory before accessing zone files. Also, NSD
will access database, zonelistfile, logfile, pidfile, xfrdfile, xfrdir, server-key-file, server-
cert-file, control-key-file and control-cert-file relative to this directory. Set the value to ""
(the empty string) to disable the change of working directory. By default "/etc/nsd" is used.
difffile: <filename>
Ignored, for compatibility with NSD3 config files.
xfrdfile: <filename>
The soa timeout and zone transfer daemon in NSD will save its state to this file. State is read
back after a restart. The state file can be deleted without too much harm, but timestamps of zones
will be gone. If it is configured as "", the state file is not used, all slave zones are checked
for updates upon startup. For more details see the section on zone expiry behavior of NSD.
Default is /var/lib/nsd/xfrd.state.
xfrdir: <directory>
The zone transfers are stored here before they are processed. A directory is created here that is
removed when NSD exits. Default is /tmp.
xfrd-reload-timeout: <number>
If this value is -1, xfrd will not trigger a reload after a zone transfer. If positive xfrd will
trigger a reload after a zone transfer, then it will wait for the number of seconds before it will
trigger a new reload. Setting this value throttles the reloads to once per the number of seconds.
The default is 1 second.
verbosity: <level>
This value specifies the verbosity level for (non-debug) logging. Default is 0. 1 gives more
information about incoming notifies and zone transfers. 2 lists soft warnings that are
encountered. 3 prints more information.
Verbosity 0 will print warnings and errors, and other events that are important to keep NSD
running.
Verbosity 1 prints additionally messages of interest. Successful notifies, successful incoming
zone transfer (the zone is updated), failed incoming zone transfers or the inability to process
zone updates.
Verbosity 2 prints additionally soft errors, like connection resets over TCP. And notify refusal,
and axfr request refusals.
hide-version: <yes or no>
Prevent NSD from replying with the version string on CHAOS class queries. Default is no.
hide-identity: <yes or no>
Prevent NSD from replying with the identity string on CHAOS class queries. Default is no.
drop-updates: <yes or no>
If set to yes, drop received packets with the UPDATE opcode. Default is no.
use-systemd: <yes or no>
This option is deprecated and ignored. If compiled with libsystemd, NSD signals readiness to
systemd and use of the option is not necessary.
log-time-ascii: <yes or no>
Log time in ascii, if "no" then in seconds epoch. Default is yes. This chooses the format when
logging to file. The printout via syslog has a timestamp formatted by syslog.
round-robin: <yes or no>
Enable round robin rotation of records in the answer. This changes the order of records in the
answer and this may balance load across them. The default is no.
minimal-responses: <yes or no>
Enable minimal responses for smaller answers. This makes packets smaller. Extra data is only
added for referrals, when it is really necessary. This is different from the --enable-minimal-
responses configure time option, that reduces packets, but exactly to the fragmentation length,
the nsd.conf option reduces packets as small as possible. The default is no.
confine-to-zone: <yes or no>
If set to yes, additional information will not be added to the response if the apex zone of the
additional information does not match the apex zone of the initial query (E.G. CNAME resolution).
Default is no.
refuse-any: <yes or no>
Refuse queries of type ANY. This is useful to stop query floods trying to get large responses.
Note that rrl ratelimiting also has type ANY as a ratelimiting type. It sends truncation in
response to UDP type ANY queries, and it allows TCP type ANY queries like normal. The default is
no.
zonefiles-check: <yes or no>
Make NSD check the mtime of zone files on start and sighup. If you disable it it starts faster
(less disk activity in case of a lot of zones). The default is yes. The nsd-control reload
command reloads zone files regardless of this option.
zonefiles-write: <seconds>
Write changed secondary zones to their zonefile every N seconds. If the zone (pattern)
configuration has "" zonefile, it is not written. Zones that have received zone transfer updates
are written to their zonefile. Default is 0 (disabled) when there is a database, and 3600 (1
hour) when database is "". The database also commits zone transfer contents. You can configure
it away from the default by putting the config statement for zonefiles-write: after the database:
statement in the config file.
rrl-size: <numbuckets>
This option gives the size of the hashtable. Default 1000000. More buckets use more memory, and
reduce the chance of hash collisions.
rrl-ratelimit: <qps>
The max qps allowed (from one query source). Default is on (with a suggested 200 qps). If set to 0
then it is disabled (unlimited rate), also set the whitelist-ratelimit to 0 to disable ratelimit
processing. If you set verbosity to 2 the blocked and unblocked subnets are logged. Blocked
queries are blocked and some receive TCP fallback replies. Once the rate limit is reached, NSD
begins dropping responses. However, one in every "rrl-slip" number of responses is allowed, with
the TC bit set. If slip is set to 2, the outgoing response rate will be halved. If it's set to 3,
the outgoing response rate will be one-third, and so on. If you set rrl-slip to 10, traffic is
reduced to 1/10th. Ratelimit options rrl-ratelimit, rrl-size and rrl-whitelist-ratelimit are
updated when nsd-control reconfig is done (also the zone-specific ratelimit options are updated).
rrl-slip: <numpackets>
This option controls the number of packets discarded before we send back a SLIP response (a
response with "truncated" bit set to one). 0 disables the sending of SLIP packets, 1 means every
query will get a SLIP response. Default is 2, cuts traffic in half and legit users have a fair
chance to get a +TC response.
rrl-ipv4-prefix-length: <subnet>
IPv4 prefix length. Addresses are grouped by netblock. Default 24.
rrl-ipv6-prefix-length: <subnet>
IPv6 prefix length. Addresses are grouped by netblock. Default 64.
rrl-whitelist-ratelimit: <qps>
The max qps for query sorts for a source, which have been whitelisted. Default on (with a
suggested 2000 qps). With the rrl-whitelist option you can set specific queries to receive this
qps limit instead of the normal limit. With the value 0 the rate is unlimited.
answer-cookie: <yes or no>
Enable to answer to requests containig DNS Cookies as specified in RFC7873. Default is no.
cookie-secret: <128 bit hex string>
Servers in an anycast deployment need to be able to verify each other's DNS Server Cookies. For
this they need to share the secret used to construct and verify the DNS Cookies. Default is a 128
bits random secret generated at startup time. This option is ignored if a cookie-secret-file is
present. In that case the secrets from that file are used in DNS Cookie calculations.
cookie-secret-file: <filename>
File from which the secrets are read used in DNS Cookie calculations. When this file exists, the
secrets in this file are used and the secret specified by the cookie-secret option is ignored.
Default is /etc/nsd/nsd_cookiesecrets.txt
The content of this file must be manipulated with the add_cookie_secret, drop_cookie_secret and
activate_cookie_secret commands to the nsd-control(8) tool. Please see that manpage how to perform
a safe cookie secret rollover.
tls-service-key: <filename>
If enabled, the server provides TLS service on TCP sockets with the TLS service port number. The
port number (853) is configured with tls-port. To turn it on, create an interface: option line in
config with @port appended to the IP-address. This creates the extra socket on which the DNS over
TLS service is provided.
The file is the private key for the TLS session. The public certificate is in the tls-service-pem
file. Default is "", turned off. Requires a restart (a reload is not enough) if changed, because
the private key is read while root permissions are held and before chroot (if any).
tls-service-pem: <filename>
The public key certificate pem file for the tls service. Default is "", turned off.
tls-service-ocsp: <filename>
The ocsp pem file for the tls service, for OCSP stapling. Default is "", turned off. An external
process prepares and updates the OCSP stapling data. Like this,
openssl ocsp -no_nonce \
-respout /path/to/ocsp.pem \
-CAfile /path/to/ca_and_any_intermediate.pem \
-issuer /path/to/direct_issuer.pem \
-cert /path/to/cert.pem \
-url "$( openssl x509 -noout -text -in /path/to/cert.pem | grep 'OCSP - URI:' | cut -d: -f2,3
)"
tls-port: <number>
The port number on which to provide TCP TLS service, default is 853, only interfaces configured
with that port number as @number get DNS over TLS service.
tls-cert-bundle: <filename>
If null or "", the default verify locations are used. Set it to the certificate bundle file, for
example "/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt". These certificates are used for authenticating
Transfer over TLS (XoT) connections.
Remote Control
The remote-control: clause is used to set options for using the nsd-control(8) tool to give commands to
the running NSD server. It is disabled by default, and listens for localhost by default. It uses TLS
over TCP where the server and client authenticate to each other with self-signed certificates. The
self-signed certificates can be generated with the nsd-control-setup tool. The key files are read by NSD
before the chroot and before dropping user permissions, so they can be outside the chroot and readable by
the superuser only.
control-enable: <yes or no>
Enable remote control, default is no.
control-interface: <ip4 or ip6 | interface name | absolute path>
NSD will bind to the listed addresses to service control requests (on TCP). Can be given multiple
times to bind multiple ip-addresses. Use 0.0.0.0 and ::0 to service the wildcard interface. If
none are given NSD listens to the localhost 127.0.0.1 and ::1 interfaces for control, if control
is enabled with control-enable.
If an interface name is used instead of ip4 or ip6, the list of IP addresses associated with that
interface is picked up and used at server start.
With an absolute path, a unix local named pipe is used for control. The file is created with user
and group that is configured and access bits are set to allow members of the group access.
Further access can be controlled by setting permissions on the directory containing the control
socket file. The key and cert files are not used when control is via the named pipe, because
access control is via file and directory permission.
control-port: <number>
The port number for remote control service. 8952 by default.
server-key-file: <filename>
Path to the server private key, by default /etc/nsd/nsd_server.key. This file is generated by the
nsd-control-setup utility. This file is used by the nsd server, but not by nsd-control.
server-cert-file: <filename>
Path to the server self signed certificate, by default /etc/nsd/nsd_server.pem. This file is
generated by the nsd-control-setup utility. This file is used by the nsd server, and also by
nsd-control.
control-key-file: <filename>
Path to the control client private key, by default /etc/nsd/nsd_control.key. This file is
generated by the nsd-control-setup utility. This file is used by nsd-control.
control-cert-file: <filename>
Path to the control client certificate, by default /etc/nsd/nsd_control.pem. This certificate has
to be signed with the server certificate. This file is generated by the nsd-control-setup
utility. This file is used by nsd-control.
Pattern Options
The pattern: clause is used to denote a set of options to apply to some zones. The same zone options as
for a zone are allowed.
name: <string>
The name of the pattern. This is a (case sensitive) string. The pattern names that start with
"_implicit_" are used internally for zones that have no pattern (they are defined in nsd.conf
directly).
include-pattern: <pattern-name>
The options from the given pattern are included at this point in this pattern. The referenced
pattern must be defined above this one.
<zone option>: <value>
The zone options such as zonefile, allow-query, allow-notify, request-xfr, allow-axfr-fallback,
notify, notify-retry, provide-xfr, zonestats, and outgoing-interface can be given. They are
applied to the patterns and zones that include this pattern.
Zone Options
For every zone the options need to be specified in one zone: clause. The access control list elements can
be given multiple times to add multiple servers. These elements need to be added explicitly.
For zones that are configured in the nsd.conf config file their settings are hardcoded (in an implicit
pattern for themselves only) and they cannot be deleted via delzone, but remove them from the config file
and repattern.
name: <string>
The name of the zone. This is the domain name of the apex of the zone. May end with a '.' (in FQDN
notation). For example "example.com", "sub.example.net.". This attribute must be present in each
zone.
zonefile: <filename>
The file containing the zone information. If this attribute is present it is used to read and
write the zone contents. If the attribute is absent it prevents writing out of the zone.
The string is processed so that one string can be used (in a pattern) for a lot of different
zones. If the label or character does not exist the percent-character is replaced with a period
for output (i.e. for the third character in a two letter domain name).
%s is replaced with the zone name.
%1 is replaced with the first character of the zone name.
%2 is replaced with the second character of the zone name.
%3 is replaced with the third character of the zone name.
%z is replaced with the toplevel domain name of the zone.
%y is replaced with the next label under the toplevel domain.
%x is replaced with the next-next label under the toplevel domain.
allow-query: <ip-spec> <key-name | NOKEY | BLOCKED>
Access control list. When at least one allow-query option is specified, then the in the
allow-query options specified addresses are are allowed to query the server for the zone. Queries
from unlisted or specifically BLOCKED addresses are discarded. If NOKEY is given no TSIG signature
is required. BLOCKED supersedes other entries, other entries are scanned for a match in the order
of the statements. Without allow-query options, queries are allowed from any IP address without
TSIG key (which is the default).
The ip-spec is either a plain IP address (IPv4 or IPv6), or can be a subnet of the form
1.2.3.4/24, or masked like 1.2.3.4&255.255.255.0 or a range of the form 1.2.3.4-1.2.3.25. Note
the ip-spec ranges do not use spaces around the /, &, @ and - symbols.
allow-notify: <ip-spec> <key-name | NOKEY | BLOCKED>
Access control list. The listed (primary) address is allowed to send notifies to this (secondary)
server. Notifies from unlisted or specifically BLOCKED addresses are discarded. If NOKEY is given
no TSIG signature is required. BLOCKED supersedes other entries, other entries are scanned for a
match in the order of the statements.
The ip-spec is either a plain IP address (IPv4 or IPv6), or can be a subnet of the form
1.2.3.4/24, or masked like 1.2.3.4&255.255.255.0 or a range of the form 1.2.3.4-1.2.3.25. A port
number can be added using a suffix of @number, for example 1.2.3.4@5300 or 1.2.3.4/24@5300 for
port 5300. Note the ip-spec ranges do not use spaces around the /, &, @ and - symbols.
request-xfr: [AXFR|UDP] <ip-address> <key-name | NOKEY> [tls-auth-name]
Access control list. The listed address (the master) is queried for AXFR/IXFR on update. A port
number can be added using a suffix of @number, for example 1.2.3.4@5300. The specified key is used
during AXFR/IXFR. If tls-auth-name is included, the specified tls-auth clause will be used to
perform authenticated XFR-over-TLS.
If the AXFR option is given, the server will not be contacted with IXFR queries but only AXFR
requests will be made to the server. This allows an NSD secondary to have a master server that
runs NSD. If the AXFR option is left out then both IXFR and AXFR requests are made to the master
server.
If the UDP option is given, the secondary will use UDP to transmit the IXFR requests. You should
deploy TSIG when allowing UDP transport, to authenticate notifies and zone transfers. Otherwise,
NSD is more vulnerable for Kaminsky-style attacks. If the UDP option is left out then IXFR will be
transmitted using TCP.
If a tls-auth-name is given then TLS (by default on port 853) will be used for all zone transfers
for the zone. If authentication of the master based on the specified tls-auth authentication
information fails, the XFR request will not be sent. Support for TLS 1.3 is required for XFR-over-
TLS.
allow-axfr-fallback: <yes or no>
This option should be accompanied by request-xfr. It (dis)allows NSD (as secondary) to fallback to
AXFR if the primary name server does not support IXFR. Default is yes.
size-limit-xfr: <number>
This option should be accompanied by request-xfr. It specifies XFR temporary file size limit. It
can be used to stop very large zone retrieval, that could otherwise use up a lot of memory and
disk space. If this option is 0, unlimited. Default value is 0.
notify: <ip-address> <key-name | NOKEY>
Access control list. The listed address (a secondary) is notified of updates to this zone. A port
number can be added using a suffix of @number, for example 1.2.3.4@5300. The specified key is used
to sign the notify. Only on secondary configurations will NSD be able to detect zone updates (as
it gets notified itself, or refreshes after a time).
notify-retry: <number>
This option should be accompanied by notify. It sets the number of retries when sending notifies.
provide-xfr: <ip-spec> <key-name | NOKEY | BLOCKED>
Access control list. The listed address (a secondary) is allowed to request AXFR from this server.
Zone data will be provided to the address. The specified key is used during AXFR. For unlisted or
BLOCKED addresses no data is provided, requests are discarded. BLOCKED supersedes other entries,
other entries are scanned for a match in the order of the statements. NSD provides AXFR for its
secondaries, but IXFR is not implemented (IXFR is implemented for request-xfr, but not for
provide-xfr).
The ip-spec is either a plain IP address (IPv4 or IPv6), or can be a subnet of the form
1.2.3.4/24, or masked like 1.2.3.4&255.255.255.0 or a range of the form 1.2.3.4-1.2.3.25. A port
number can be added using a suffix of @number, for example 1.2.3.4@5300 or 1.2.3.4/24@5300 for
port 5300. Note the ip-spec ranges do not use spaces around the /, &, @ and - symbols.
outgoing-interface: <ip-address>
Access control list. The listed address is used to request AXFR|IXFR (in case of a secondary) or
used to send notifies (in case of a primary).
The ip-address is a plain IP address (IPv4 or IPv6). A port number can be added using a suffix of
@number, for example 1.2.3.4@5300.
max-refresh-time: <seconds>
Limit refresh time for secondary zones. This is the timer which checks to see if the zone has to
be refetched when it expires. Normally the value from the SOA record is used, but this option
restricts that value.
min-refresh-time: <seconds>
Limit refresh time for secondary zones.
max-retry-time: <seconds>
Limit retry time for secondary zones. This is the timer which retries after a failed fetch
attempt for the zone. Normally the value from the SOA record is used, followed by an exponential
backoff, but this option restricts that value.
min-retry-time: <seconds>
Limit retry time for secondary zones.
min-expire-time: <seconds or refresh+retry+1>
Limit expire time for secondary zones. The value can be expressed either by a number of seconds,
or the string "refresh+retry+1". With the latter the expire time will be lower bound to the
refresh plus the retry value from the SOA record, plus 1. The refresh and retry values will be
subject to the bounds configured with max-refresh-time, min-refresh-time, max-retry-time and
min-retry-time if given.
zonestats: <name>
When compiled with --enable-zone-stats NSD can collect statistics per zone. This name gives the
group where statistics are added to. The groups are output from nsd-control stats and
stats_noreset. Default is "". You can use "%s" to use the name of the zone to track its
statistics. If not compiled in, the option can be given but is ignored.
include-pattern: <pattern-name>
The options from the given pattern are included at this point. The referenced pattern must be
defined above this zone.
rrl-whitelist: <rrltype>
This option causes queries of this rrltype to be whitelisted, for this zone. They receive the
whitelist-ratelimit. You can give multiple lines, each enables a new rrltype to be whitelisted for
the zone. Default has none whitelisted. The rrltype is the query classification that the NSD RRL
employs to make different types not interfere with one another. The types are logged in the
loglines when a subnet is blocked (in verbosity 2). The RRL classification types are: nxdomain,
error, referral, any, rrsig, wildcard, nodata, dnskey, positive, all.
multi-master-check: <yes or no>
Default no. If enabled, checks all masters for the last version. It uses the higher version of
all the configured masters. Useful if you have multiple masters that have different version
numbers served.
Key Declarations
The key: clause establishes a key for use in access control lists. It has the following attributes.
name: <string>
The key name. Used to refer to this key in the access control list. The key name has to be
correct for tsig to work. This is because the key name is output on the wire.
algorithm: <string>
Authentication algorithm for this key. Such as hmac-md5, hmac-sha1, hmac-sha224, hmac-sha256,
hmac-sha384 and hmac-sha512. Can also be abbreviated as 'sha1', 'sha256'. Default is sha256.
Algorithms are only available when they were compiled in (available in the crypto library).
secret: <base64 blob>
The base64 encoded shared secret. It is possible to put the secret: declaration (and base64 blob)
into a different file, and then to include: that file. In this way the key secret and the rest of
the configuration file, which may have different security policies, can be split apart. The
content of the secret is the agreed base64 secret content. To make it up, enter a password (its
length must be a multiple of 4 characters, A-Za-z0-9), or use dev-random output through a base64
encode filter.
TLS Auth Declarations
The tls-auth: clause establishes authentication attributes to use when authenticating the far end of an
outgoing TLS connection used in access control lists for XFR-over-TLS. It has the following attributes.
name: <string>
The tls-auth name. Used to refer to this TLS authentication information in the access control
list.
auth-domain-name: <string>
The authentication domain name as defined in RFC8310.
client-cert: <file name of clientcert.pem>
If you want to use mutual TLS authentication, this is where the client certificates can be
configured that NSD uses to connect to the upstream server to download the zone. The client public
key pem cert file can be configured here. Also configure a private key with client-key.
client-key: <file name of clientkey.key>
If you want to use mutual TLS authentication, the private key file can be configured here for the
client authentication.
client-key-pw: <string>
If the client-key file uses a password to decrypt the key before it can be used, then the password
can be specified here as a string. It is possible to include other config files with the include:
option, and this can be used to move that sensitive data to another file, if you wish.
DNSTAP Logging Options
DNSTAP support, when compiled in, is enabled in the dnstap: section. This starts a collector process
that writes the log information to the destination.
dnstap-enable: <yes or no>
If dnstap is enabled. Default no. If yes, it connects to the dnstap server and if any of the
dnstap-log-..-messages options is enabled it sends logs for those messages to the server.
dnstap-socket-path: <file name>
Sets the unix socket file name for connecting to the server that is listening on that socket.
Default is "/var/run/nsd-dnstap.sock".
dnstap-send-identity: <yes or no>
If enabled, the server identity is included in the log messages. Default is no.
dnstap-send-version: <yes or no>
If enabled, the server version if included in the log messages. Default is no.
dnstap-identity: <string>
The identity to send with messages, if "" the hostname is used. Default is "".
dnstap-version: <string>
The version to send with messages, if "" the package version is used. Default is "".
dnstap-log-auth-query-messages: <yes or no>
Enable to log auth query messages. Default is no. These are client queries to NSD.
dnstap-log-auth-response-messages: <yes or no>
Enable to log auth response messages. Default is no. These are responses from NSD to clients.
NSD CONFIGURATION FOR BIND9 HACKERS
BIND9 is a name server implementation with its own configuration file format, named.conf(5). BIND9 types
zones as 'Master' or 'Slave'.
Slave zones
For a slave zone, the master servers are listed. The master servers are queried for zone data, and are
listened to for update notifications. In NSD these two properties need to be configured separately, by
listing the master address in allow-notify and request-xfr statements.
In BIND9 you only need to provide allow-notify elements for any extra sources of notifications (i.e. the
operators), NSD needs to have allow-notify for both masters and operators. BIND9 allows additional
transfer sources, in NSD you list those as request-xfr.
Here is an example of a slave zone in BIND9 syntax.
# Config file for example.org options {
dnssec-enable yes;
};
key tsig.example.org. {
algorithm hmac-md5;
secret "aaaaaabbbbbbccccccdddddd";
};
server 162.0.4.49 {
keys { tsig.example.org. ; };
};
zone "example.org" {
type slave;
file "secondary/example.org.signed";
masters { 162.0.4.49; };
};
For NSD, DNSSEC is enabled automatically for zones that are signed. The dnssec-enable statement in the
options clause is not needed. In NSD keys are associated with an IP address in the access control list
statement, therefore the server{} statement is not needed. Below is the same example in an NSD config
file.
# Config file for example.org
key:
name: tsig.example.org.
algorithm: hmac-md5
secret: "aaaaaabbbbbbccccccdddddd"
zone:
name: "example.org"
zonefile: "secondary/example.org.signed"
# the master is allowed to notify and will provide zone data.
allow-notify: 162.0.4.49 NOKEY
request-xfr: 162.0.4.49 tsig.example.org.
Notice that the master is listed twice, once to allow it to send notifies to this slave server and once
to tell the slave server where to look for updates zone data. More allow-notify and request-xfr lines can
be added to specify more masters.
It is possible to specify extra allow-notify lines for addresses that are also allowed to send
notifications to this slave server.
Master zones
For a master zone in BIND9, the slave servers are listed. These slave servers are sent notifications of
updated and are allowed to request transfer of the zone data. In NSD these two properties need to be
configured separately.
Here is an example of a master zone in BIND9 syntax.
zone "example.nl" {
type master;
file "example.nl";
};
In NSD syntax this becomes:
zone:
name: "example.nl"
zonefile: "example.nl"
# allow anybody to request xfr.
provide-xfr: 0.0.0.0/0 NOKEY
provide-xfr: ::0/0 NOKEY
# to list a slave server you would in general give
# provide-xfr: 1.2.3.4 tsig-key.name.
# notify: 1.2.3.4 NOKEY
Other
NSD is an authoritative only DNS server. This means that it is meant as a primary or secondary server for
zones, providing DNS data to DNS resolvers and caches. BIND9 can function as an authoritative DNS server,
the configuration options for that are compared with those for NSD in this section. However, BIND9 can
also function as a resolver or cache. The configuration options that BIND9 has for the resolver or
caching thus have no equivalents for NSD.
FILES
"/var/lib/nsd/nsd.db"
default NSD database
/etc/nsd/nsd.conf
default NSD configuration file
SEE ALSO
nsd(8), nsd-checkconf(8), nsd-control(8)
AUTHORS
NSD was written by NLnet Labs and RIPE NCC joint team. Please see CREDITS file in the distribution for
further details.
BUGS
nsd.conf is parsed by a primitive parser, error messages may not be to the point.
NLnet Labs Dec 9, 2021 nsd.conf(5)