FreeBSD: Install bindgraph To Make Graphs About Queries Sent To BIND

How do I install bindgraph to make pretty query statistics about BIND servers?

Bindgraph was derived from well-known mailgraph package. It is a tool that makes pretty graphs about queries (such as A, MX, AAAA, TXT and so on) sent to your BIND name server. It will create graph for:

1. Last Hours Graph
2. Day Graph
3. Week Graph
4. Month Graph
5. Year Graph

There are two steps to create graphs:
a] You need enable query logging under bind by updating named.conf file itself. You can log queries to /var/log/query.log file.
b] Create bindgraph.rrd database by enabling bindgraph service.

Install bindgraph

Type the following commands:
# portsnap fetch update
# cd /usr/ports/dns/bindgraph
# make install clean

Configure BIND (named) logging

Open named.conf file, enter:
# vi /etc/namedb/named.conf
Append something as follows to logging options:
channel "querylog" { file "/var/log/query.log"; print-time yes; };
category queries { querylog; };

Here is my sample logging entry:

# Configure the logging options
logging {
    channel security_channel {
        # Send log messages to the specified file
        file            "/var/log/security.log";
        # Log all messages
        severity        debug;
        # Log the date and time of the message
        print-time      yes;
        # Log the category of the message
        print-category  yes;
        # Log the severity level of the message
        print-severity  yes;
    };
 
    channel default {
        # Send logs to the syslog 'local0' facility
        syslog          local0;
        # Log messages of severity 'info' or higher
        severity        info;
        print-category  yes;
        print-severity  yes;
    };
 
    # Logs about approval and denial of requests
    category security {
        security_channel;
        default;
    };
 
    # Ignore logs about misconfigured remote servers
    category lame-servers { null; };
 
    # Default logging options
    category default { default; };
 
   channel "querylog" { file "/var/log/query.log"; print-time yes; };
   category queries { querylog; };
};

Save and close the file. Restart bind server:
# /etc/rc.d/named restart

Configure bindgraph

Enable bindgraph service, enter:
echo 'bindgraph_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf
Finally, start bindgraph, enter:
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/bindgraph start

How do I view bindgrap rrd graphs?

By default Perl cgi script is installed at /usr/local/www/cgi-bin/bindgraph.cgi location. You can use the same or copy the script to your cgi-bin location. You also need to configure Apache or other web server to run Perl via cgi-bin. Once done, fire up a webbrowser and type the url
http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/bindgraph.cgi
OR
http://server.ip.add.ress/cgi-bin/bindgraph.cgi
You should see sample graphs:

Fig:01 BIND DNS Queries: Bindgraph In Action

Fig.02: BIND DNS Queries Day Grap

Updated for accuracy!