How do I configure my DNS settings in Ubuntu server?

According to this page it appears to be simple. However, /etc/bind does not exist on the default installation of Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS server.

So, without installing any further software, how can configure DNS and remove dnsmasq on ubuntu server? I am quite familiar with sudo & nano.

5

5 Answers

Set DNS Servers

You need to configure the /etc/network/interfaces file if you want to change your DNS server via the command line.

It should look something like this:

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.X.X
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.X.X
dns-nameservers X.X.X.X 

If you have more than one DNS server, just add a space between each:

dns-nameservers X.X.X.X Y.Y.Y.Y Z.Z.Z.Z

Just replace the Xs, Ys, and Zs with your own IPs of the DNS servers of choice, and when this is done, run this command to update the settings:

sudo ifdown eth0 && sudo ifup eth0

Hope this helps!

13

However if you are on newer Ubuntu version, you might be using resolvconf (a package that manages the contents of /etc/resolv.conf).

In order to set dns-nameservers which won't be removed after reboot add them in

sudo nano /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/base 

like

nameserver x.x.x.x
nameserver x.x.y.y

And afer that just do

sudo resolvconf -u

6

As of 20.04 Focal Fossa, Ubuntu Server uses systemd-resolved to manage nameserver configuration. /etc/resolv.conf is a static file and should not be edited.

To configure your resolver, you set it in your netplan configuration file, like this:

network: version: 2 renderer: networkd ethernets: enp0s25: addresses: - 192.168.0.100/24 gateway4: 192.168.0.1 nameservers: search: [mydomain, otherdomain] addresses: [1.1.1.1, 8.8.8.8, 4.4.4.4]

For more information on how to use the netplan system, see the Ubuntu article on network configuration.

NetworkManager TUI: nmtui

Beside this alternative using nmcli connection edit you might like a more ncurses approach with nmtui, the GNOME's CLITUI alternative to nm-connection-editor.

^{Note: This anwer is more related to Ubuntu Desktop, but since the suitable question was marked as duplicate of this one (incorrectly, IMO) I post it here.}

1

I use ubuntu 20.04 and unfortunately non of the other answers worked for me so I share the way I fixed this problem

first install resolvconf if not installed

sudo apt update
sudo apt install resolvconf

check resolvconf service started and enabled

sudo systemctl status resolvconf.service

if service is not enabled you can start and enable it with :

sudo systemctl start resolvconf.service
sudo systemctl enable resolvconf.service

now edit resolv.conf.d/head configuration file

sudo nano /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head

add your DNS addresses to this file for example I use (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

now force resolvconf to run update scripts when invoked with -u

sudo resolvconf --enable-updates 

now run updates

sudo resolvconf -u

now if you check cat /etc/resolv.conf you must see your DNS configuration in this file if not try these commands and check again

sudo systemctl restart resolvconf.service
sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved.service

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