BIND: Setting up Remote Name Daemon Control(RNDC)

Updated: Sep 23, 2026

 
rndc-confgen -A hmac-sha512 -b 512 -k srv-rndc-key -p 953 -s 127.0.0.1 -u bind > /usr/local/etc/namedb/rndc.conf

ln -s /usr/local/etc/namedb/rndc.conf /etc/rndc.conf

cat /etc/rndc.conf

vim /etc/named.conf

 

 
// vim: set filetype=named :

key "srv-rndc-key" { 
	algorithm hmac-sha512; 
	secret "9ZkhaRf7FoyNLmkzUJiJxnmBdG0WSJDqUYQBn85X/Jp7eX6CHUBvdccpXsn4L0rroCmbcfROuL+QmV/9tz/0uQ=="; 
	};

controls { inet 127.0.0.1 port 953 allow { 127.0.0.1; } keys { "srv-rndc-key"; }; };

options {
        directory "/var/named";
	        pid-file "/var/run/named/pid";
		};
 

 
named-checkconf -c /etc/named.conf


vim /etc/rc.conf

named_enable="YES"
named_conf="/etc/named.conf"
named_flags="-4"



/usr/local/etc/rc.d/named start
(service named start)

rndc status

dig -4 @127.0.0.1 -t soa google.com