How to run pdns-auth in a Docker Container with custom configuration file

The pdns-auth product is available in the official dockerhub registry of PowerDNS. This post details how to execute pdns-auth in docker container, custom configuration file with sqlite3 database. We assume you have a containers environnement already available.

Custom config

local-address=0.0.0.0
local-port=53

launch=gsqlite3
gsqlite3-database=/var/lib/powerdns/pdns.sqlite3

dnsupdate=yes
enable-lua-records=yes

Deploy container

Deploy the dnsdist image with the custom configuration

docker run -d -p 53:53/udp -p 53:53/tcp --restart unless-stopped --name=pdns01 \
--volume=$PWD/pdns.conf:/etc/powerdns/pdns.conf:z powerdns/pdns-auth-45:4.5.2

Docker composer

version: "3"
services:
  pdns:
    image: powerdns/pdns-auth-45:4.5.2
    ports:
      - mode: host
        protocol: udp
        published: 53
        target: 53
      - mode: host
        protocol: tcp
        published: 53
        target: 53
    user: "1000:1000"
    volumes:
      - ${APP_CONFIG}/pdns/pdns.conf:/etc/powerdns/pdns.conf
      - ${PDNS_STORAGE}/run:/var/run/pdns
      - ${PDNS_STORAGE}/db:/var/lib/powerdns

Persistent database

Download database schema for sqlite3

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerDNS/pdns/rel/auth-4.5.x/modules/gsqlite3backend/schema.sqlite3.sql

Create the database

sqlite3 pdns.sqlite3 < schema.sqlite3.sql

Create zone

pdnsutil create-zone <dnszone> ns1.<dnszone>
pdnsutil add-record <dnszone> ns1 A 3600 192.168.1.221

Enable DNS Update

pdnsutil generate-tsig-key tsigkey hmac-sha256
pdnsutil set-meta <dnszone> TSIG-ALLOW-DNSUPDATE tsigkey
pdnsutil set-meta <dnszone> TSIG-ALLOW-AXFR tsigkey
pdnsutil set-meta <dnszone> ALLOW-DNSUPDATE-FROM 0.0.0.0/0

Test with nsupdate

touch dnsupdate_add.txt
server <dns_ip_server>
zone <dnszone>
update add dnsupdate.<dnszone>. 3600 A 10.10.10.10
show
send

touch dnsupdate_del.txt
server <dns_ip_server>
zone <dnszone>
update del dnsupdate.<dnszone>. 3600 A 10.10.10.10
show
send

Create record

nsupdate -p 53 -v -y hmac-sha256:tsigkey:$TSIGKEY -v dnsupdate_add.txt

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