named.conf or named.conf.local

Question

First time installing BIND, the server will be a primary server with several zones which another server hosted elsewhere will slaves from.

We are currently running Solaris BIND and it uses the named.conf file but Ubuntu docs say to use named.conf.local for primary servers. Is this correct and if possible can someone explain the difference in the two files?

many thanks

Solution

named.conf - contains main configuration file for the DNS file.

named.conf.local - contains the local DNS server configuration, and this is where you declare the zones associated with the domain.

named.conf.local is basically included in named.conf (last line from named.conf):

include "/etc/bind/named.conf.local";

reference:

https://wiki.debian.org/Bind9