CENTOS 7 – USING THE POWERDNS WEB API TO ADD AND EDIT RECORDS

In a previous post I’ve talked about how to install PowerDNS on a CentOS 7 as both recursive and authoritative server for my lab environment.

In this post I’ll explain you how I use the experimental web API to add records to my DNS authoritative server to solve requests for a local domain called artemit.local.

I’m using the official documentation as a reference but also adding more examples so they can be helpful for you (I’ll be updating this post from time to time). The PowerDNS server has a web server listening on the 127.0.0.1 address port 8081 and I’ll use curl to use the API.

Important: Please replace changeme to the API key you had configured

  1. Adding or editing a new zone/domain called artemit.local and assigning a name server called ns1.artemit.local 
    curl -X POST --data '{"name":"artemit.local", "kind": "Master","dnssec":false,"soa-edit":"INCEPTION-INCREMENT","masters": [], "nameservers": ["ns1.artemit.local"]}' -v -H 'X-API-Key: changeme' http://127.0.0.1:8081/servers/localhost/zones | jq .
  2. Adding or editing a Start Of Authority (SOA) record for the artemit.local domain. The name server is ns1.artemit.local and the contact mail address is hostmaster.artemit.com.es. 
    curl -X PATCH --data '{"rrsets": [ {"name": "artemit.local", "type": "SOA", "changetype": "REPLACE", "records": [ {"content": "ns1.artemit.local hostmaster.artemit.com.es 0 10800 3600 604800 3600", "disabled": false, "name": "artemit.local", "ttl": 86400, "type": "SOA", "priority": 0 } ] } ] }' -H 'X-API-Key: changeme' http://127.0.0.1:8081/servers/localhost/zones/artemit.local | jq .
  3. Adding or editing an address record (A) so ns1.artemit.local record has the IP address 192.168.4.4 
    curl -X PATCH --data '{"rrsets": [ {"name": "ns1.artemit.local", "type": "A", "changetype": "REPLACE", "records": [ {"content": "192.168.4.4", "disabled": false, "name": "ns1.artemit.local", "ttl": 86400, "type": "A", "priority": 0 } ] } ] }' -H 'X-API-Key: changeme' http://127.0.0.1:8081/servers/localhost/zones/artemit.local | jq .
  4. Adding or editing an alias record (CNAME) so tornasol.artemit.local has the same IP address as ns1.artemit.local. 
    curl -X PATCH --data '{"rrsets": [ {"name": "tornasol.artemit.local", "type": "CNAME", "changetype": "REPLACE", "records": [ {"content": "ns1.artemit.local", "disabled": false, "name":"tornasol.artemit.local", "ttl": 86400, "type": "CNAME", "priority": 0 } ] } ] }' -H 'X-API-Key: changeme' http://127.0.0.1:8081/servers/localhost/zones/artemit.local | jq .
  5. Adding or editing a reverse lookup zone/domain if you want to ask for the hostname for an IP address in the 192.168.4.0/24 network: 
    curl
-X POST --data '{"name":"4.168.192.in-addr.arpa",
"kind":
"Master","dnssec":false,"soa-edit":"INCEPTION-INCREMENT","masters":
[], "nameservers": ["ns1.artemit.local"]}' -v -H
'X-API-Key: changeme' http://127.0.0.1:8081/servers/localhost/zones
| jq .
  6. Adding or editing the SOA for the reverse lookup: 
    curl -X PATCH --data '{"rrsets": [ {"name": "4.168.192.in-addr.arpa", "type": "SOA", "changetype": "REPLACE", "records": [ {"content": "ns1.artemit.local hostmaster.artemit.com.es 0 10800 3600 604800 3600", "disabled": false, "name": "4.168.192.in-addr.arpa", "ttl": 86400, "type": "SOA", "priority": 0 } ] } ] }' -H 'X-API-Key: changeme' http://127.0.0.1:8081/servers/localhost/zones/4.168.192.in-addr.arpa | jq .
  7. Adding or editing a reverse PTR record (e.g when asking for the 192.168.4.4 IP address we’ll get ns1.artemit.local
  8. curl -X PATCH --data '{"rrsets": [ {"name": "4.4.168.192.in-addr.arpa", "type": "PTR", "changetype": "REPLACE", "records": [ {"content": "ns1.artemit.local", "disabled": false, "name": "4.4.168.192.in-addr.arpa", "ttl": 86400, "type": "PTR", "priority": 0 } ] } ] }' -H 'X-API-Key: changeme' http://127.0.0.1:8081/servers/localhost/zones/4.168.192.in-addr.arpa | jq .
  9. Deleting a zone/domain (e.g artemit.local)
curl -X DELETE -v -H 'X-API-Key: changeme' http://127.0.0.1:8081/servers/localhost/zones/artemit.local | jq .

Mmmm. Don’t like these commands? Well I can’t blame you however I find them useful as I’m preparing a Python script to help you to manage PowerDNS easily (check my GitHub account from time to time). Don’t worry, you have some web GUIs and you can always add records using your favourite PostgreSQL client.

Enjoy!

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