Web gui for BIND9?
I am on the hunt for the best UI for my BIND DNS server to use at an enterprise level. I have found some, but they are either too old and not really functioning, or they are GitHub repositories maintained by a single user. How is this? I have also found one…
I am on the hunt for the best UI for my BIND DNS server to use at an enterprise level. I have found some, but they are either too old and not really functioning, or they are GitHub repositories maintained by a single user. How is this? I have also found one that I like, but I can't wholeheartedly say that the code would be suitable for production. Do you have any suggestions? I have also used Webmin, but that's not what I'm looking for. I have also managed bind sevrers manually before without gui. But I am not sure how you guys do it today in 2026?
Collected discussion
Webmin, just disable all modules, except bind.
I am comfortable using linux and vim so it is not that. I have been managing it headless. Even if its straightforward It can be a bit cumbersome to maintain for some people. I want to make it easier for my colleagues to be doing it via gui. Otherwise you are right about the extra attack vector.
Tried Technicum but it can't even sort IP addresses properly. Was a pain to find a free IP in a big range.
Also its optional to use the clustering functionality (I use it without but each to each own :-)
If you’ve got colleagues also possibly in a position to be managing these systems, it’s an even strong argument to implement a configuration as code approach via Ansible. More cooks in the kitchen is a guarantee of configuration drift.
BIND9 is Linux based so the default is run it on a headless server and config with CLI or (ideally) Ansible so it’s all configuration as code. Using a web UI for any of this is not impossible but very uncommon and I can’t recommend it. It just adds complexity and overhead and an attack vector that doesn’t need to be there. The configuration is all just managing a few files so there’s no good reason to add a web UI for this. Suck it up and get comfortable in vim (or nano if you have to).
Or automate the deploy from a git repo and spin up gitlab... use the web ide as your editor, commit, validate, deploy, etc. all in a pretty web page... and, amusingly, it's a good step towards proper infrastructure as code.
I personally quite like technitium, the built in clustering is stupid simple to use and from what I have tried so far it's also reliable.
Having multiple people play with your BIND config - that always works out oh so well (with or without a gui).
We migrated from BIND to a PowerDNS stack(Authoritative Server, Recursor, and dnsdist) last year to gain a web interface. We're using PowerAdmin as a web frontend for PowerDNS Authoritative Server, and a PostgreSQL database as the storage backend. We host it all on-prem on our Proxmox cluster. I would definitely recommend the switch.
an attack vector that doesn’t need to be there On one hand I get what you're saying, but on the other hand if the web interface to your authoritative DNS servers is so easily reachable that it's a significant attack vector, I do feel you're doing something wrong.
Less is more, use the CLI.
bind is so simple that a gui isn't really necessary. it's kind of just set and forget. dnscontrol is a very useful abstraction over zonefiles though so i highly recommend giving that a shot!
Ever considered trying out technitium/dns-server? https://github.com/technitiumSoftware/DnsServer/ https://blog.technitium.com/ Works both as regular app in Linux, Windows, MacOSX etc but also as a container.
We use powerdns
We still use VIM.
freeipa with bind9 is my solution
InfoBlox. Works great.
Do it in the cli until they add bind to cockpit.
If you have enterprise money, get FusionLayer DNS and either Infinity or NameSurfer, or BlueCat Micetro.
Isn't poweredns the go to for this?
#!/bin/bash and "DNS & BIND 5th Edition". Edit: how often are you updating it anyways, it ain't AD?
the best UI for my BIND DNS server is https://man.archlinux.org/man/nsupdate.1.en after the configuration is complete. maintained by a single user is quite common https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2347:_Dependency though is not the case for nsupdate https://gitlab.isc.org/isc-projects/bind9/-/commits/main/bin/nsupdate/nsupdate.c?ref_type=heads gui are for users. tui are for builders.
But I am not sure how you guys do it today in 2026? With Ansible. That's not even a 2026 answer: I was using Ansible to manage bind more than a decade ago.
Perhaps bind UI in pfsense(+) would be okay? I am personally not yet using bind, so can not judge how much useful/limiting this UI would be. I plan to use to bind in the future to host more copies of some AD zones, but this is ahead of me. PS. Please share your findings kindly in this post. I am always keen on listening some opinions of people doing more advanced stuff.