Self-hosting a dynamic dns service?

Question

Is there a way to self-host a dynamic DNS service? I really like the flexibility of DynDNS et al, but I'd like to host my own dynamic DNS service so I can have better control and the ability to send my owned domains to the nameserver without having to pay a fee. Are FOSS implementations of dynamic DNS available, or is there a way to do this in BIND?

Answer 1

bind v9 has support for dynamic updates:

zone "example.net" {
    type master;
    file "zones/example.net.db";

    update-policy local;

    auto-dnssec allow;
    key-directory "keys/example.net";
};

---

• You can use nsupdate to manage the zone locally,

• or call nsupdate from a CGI script (accessed by the client PC, like DynDNS updater),

• or use nsupdate remotely using TSIG.

  zone "example.net" {
      update-policy {
          grant <keyname> name <hostname> A AAAA TXT;
          //grant * self * A AAAA TXT;
      };
  };
  
  key <keyname> {
      algorithm HMAC-MD5;
      secret "<keydata>";
  };
  

  (docs: update-policy)

• Windows has native support DDNS using GSS-TSIG, which requires a working Kerberos setup (not necessarily Active Directory).

• In a local network, updates can be performed by either the DHCP client (ISC dhclient) or server (ISC dhcpd). This is also described in the Secure dynamic DNS page.

• bind can automatically sign dynamic zones.