How to make a Virtualmin server (Ubuntu) a recursive DNS server

You might want to bring up your own name servers if you want to use Spamhaus that doesn’t like open resolvers like 1.1.1.1

Steps

Check if the current config is valid

named-checkconf

Then backup current options file as that’s where you’ll store the settings

cp /etc/bind/named.conf.options /etc/bind/named.conf.options.bak

You want to have these new bold section when you’re done:

root@server:~# cat /etc/bind/named.conf.options
acl "trusted" {
    127.0.0.1;
    a.b.c.d/29;
    e.f.g.h;
};

options {
...

    // allow recursion only for localhost and other select IPs
    allow-recursion { trusted; };
    allow-query { trusted; };
     allow-query-cache { trusted; };
    recursion yes;
}

service named restart