Install PowerDNS on Debian

Setup Repositories & Install

Add the PowerDNS repository key and source:

sudo install -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo apt install curl
curl https://repo.powerdns.com/FD380FBB-pub.asc | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/auth-49-pub.asc

Add the pdns repository:

echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/auth-49-pub.asc] http://repo.powerdns.com/debian bookworm-auth-49 main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pdns.list

Create /etc/apt/preferences.d/auth-49 to prioritize this repository:

Package: auth*
Pin: origin repo.powerdns.com
Pin-Priority: 600

Install PowerDNS:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pdns-server

Configure Database Backend

This guide uses pdns-backend-pgsql. Install it:

sudo apt install pdns-backend-pgsql

The schema file is at /usr/share/pdns-backend-pgsql/schema/schema.pgsql.sql. Apply it to your PostgreSQL database to create the required tables.

Configuration

Edit the PowerDNS configuration:

sudo nano /etc/powerdns/pdns.conf

Example configuration:

api=yes
api-key=[StrongAPIKey]
include-dir=/etc/powerdns/pdns.d
launch=gpgsql
gpgsql-host=[dbhost]
gpgsql-dbname=[dbname]
gpgsql-user=[dbuser]
gpgsql-password=[Strong password]
gpgsql-dnssec=yes

log-timestamp=yes
loglevel-show=no
webserver=yes
webserver-address=0.0.0.0
webserver-allow-from=0.0.0.0/0,::/0
webserver-port=8081

Test the configuration (should see successful database connection):

sudo systemctl stop pdns.service
sudo pdns_server --daemon=no --guardian=no --loglevel=9

After successful test, enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl restart pdns
sudo systemctl enable pdns

Verify port 53 is open for DNS:

sudo ss -alnp4 | grep pdns

References

• PowerDNS repositories
• Computing for Geeks