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PDNSUTIL(1) PowerDNS Authoritative Server PDNSUTIL(1) NAME pdnsutil - PowerDNS record and DNSSEC command and control SYNOPSIS pdnsutil [OPTION]... COMMAND DESCRIPTION pdnsutil (formerly pdnssec) is a powerful command that is the opera- tor-friendly gateway into DNSSEC and zone management for PowerDNS. Behind the scenes, pdnsutil manipulates a PowerDNS backend database, which also means that for many databases, pdnsutil can be run remotely, and can con- figure key material on different servers. OPTIONS -h, --help Show summary of options -v, --verbose Be more verbose -f, --force Force an action -q, --quiet Be quiet -s, --sort Sort output when applicable --config-name <NAME> Virtual configuration name --config-dir <DIR> Location of pdns.conf. Default is /etc/powerdns. COMMANDS There are many available commands. Most commands follow the pattern pdnsu- til <object> <action> [arguments...], where <object> is a noun and <action> is a verb; a few commands which do not apply to any particular object kind use only the verb. AUTOPRIMARY COMMANDS autoprimary add IP NAMESERVER [ACCOUNT] Add an autoprimary entry into the backend. This enables receiving zone updates from other servers. autoprimary list List all autoprimaries. autoprimary remove IP NAMESERVER Remove an autoprimary from backend. Not supported by BIND backend. CATALOG ZONE COMMANDS catalog list-members CATALOG List all members of catalog zone CATALOG" catalog set ZONE [CATALOG] Change the catalog of ZONE to CATALOG. If CATALOG is omitted, removes ZONE from the catalog it is in. ZONE METADATA COMMANDS metadata add ZONE KIND VALUE [VALUE]... Append VALUE to the existing KIND metadata for ZONE. Will return an er- ror if KIND does not support multiple values, use metadata set for these values. metadata get ZONE [KIND]... Get zone metadata. If no KIND given, lists all known. metadata set ZONE KIND [VALUE]... Set zone metadata KIND for ZONE to VALUE, replacing all existing values of KIND. An omitted value clears it. NETWORK COMMANDS network list List all defined networks with their chosen views. network set NET [VIEW] Set the VIEW for a the NET network, or delete if no VIEW argument. ZONE RECORD COMMANDS In these commands, the rrset object name may also be written as record. rrset add ZONE NAME TYPE [TTL] CONTENT Add one or more records of NAME and TYPE to ZONE with CONTENT and op- tional TTL. If TTL is not set, the configured default-ttl will be used. NAME must be absolute. rrset delete ZONE NAME TYPE Delete named RRSET from zone. NAME must be absolute. rrset hash ZONE RNAME This convenience command hashes the name RNAME according to the NSEC3 settings of ZONE. Refuses to hash for zones with no NSEC3 settings. rrset replace ZONE NAME TYPE [TTL] CONTENT [CONTENT...] Replace existing NAME in zone ZONE with a new set. TSIG RELATED COMMANDS These commands manipulate TSIG key information in the database. Some com- mands require an ALGORITHM, which can be any of the following: * hmac-md5 * hmac-sha1 * hmac-sha224 * hmac-sha256 * hmac-sha384 * hmac-sha512 tsigkey activate ZONE NAME {primary,secondary,producer,consumer} Enable TSIG authenticated AXFR using the key NAME for zone ZONE. This sets the TSIG-ALLOW-AXFR (primary/producer) or AXFR-MASTER-TSIG (sec- ondary/consumer) zone metadata. tsigkey deactivate ZONE NAME {primary,secondary,producer,consumer} Disable TSIG authenticated AXFR using the key NAME for zone ZONE. tsigkey delete NAME Delete the TSIG key NAME. Warning: this does not deactivate said key. tsigkey generate NAME ALGORITHM Generate new TSIG key with name NAME and the specified algorithm. tsigkey import NAME ALGORITHM KEY Import KEY of the specified algorithm as NAME. tsigkey list Show a list of all configured TSIG keys. VIEWS COMMANDS views add-zone VIEW ZONE..VARIANT Add the given ZONE VARIANT to a VIEW. views del-zone VIEW ZONE..VARIANT Remove a ZONE VARIANT from a VIEW. views list VIEW List all zones within VIEW. views list-all List all view names. ZONE MANIPULATION COMMANDS zone check ZONE Check zone ZONE for correctness. zone check-all [exit-on-error] Check all zones for correctness, aborting upon finding the first error in any zone if "exit-on-error" is specified. zone clear ZONE Clear the records in zone ZONE, but leave actual zone and settings un- changed zone copy ZONE NEW-ZONE Copies the contents of ZONE (records, comments, metadata, keys) to a new zone NEW-ZONE. The new zone must not exist and gets created as part of the copy, in the same backend as ZONE. zone create ZONE Create an empty zone named ZONE. zone delete ZONE Delete the zone named ZONE. zone edit ZONE Opens ZONE in zonefile format (regardless of backend it was loaded from) in the editor set in the environment variable EDITOR. if EDITOR is empty, pdnsutil falls back to using editor. zone increase-serial ZONE Increases the SOA-serial by 1. Uses SOA-EDIT. zone list ZONE Show all records for ZONE. Passing --sort or -s will sort the records according to their name, but may require a lot of memory and processor time on huge zones. zone list-all KIND List all active zone names of the given KIND (primary, secondary, na- tive, producer, consumer), or all if none given. Passing --verbose or -v will also include disabled or empty zones. zone load ZONE FILE Load records for ZONE from FILE. If ZONE already exists, all records are overwritten, this operation is atomic. If ZONE doesn't exist, it is cre- ated. zone set-account ZONE ACCOUNT Change the account (owner) of ZONE to ACCOUNT. zone set-kind ZONE KIND Change the kind of ZONE to KIND (primary, secondary, native, producer, consumer). zone set-option ZONE [producer | consumer] [coo | unique | group] VALUE [VALUE ...] Set or remove an option for ZONE. Providing an empty value removes an option. zone set-options-json ZONE JSONFILE Change the options of ZONE to the contents of JSONFILE. zone zonemd-verify-file ZONE FILE Validate ZONEMD for ZONE read from FILE. SECONDARY ZONE COMMANDS zone change-primary ZONE PRIMARY [PRIMARY]... Change the primaries for secondary zone ZONE to new primaries PRIMARY. All PRIMARYs need to to be space-separated IP addresses with an optional port. zone create-secondary ZONE PRIMARY [PRIMARY]... Create a new secondary zone ZONE with primaries PRIMARY. All PRIMARYs need to to be space-separated IP addresses with an optional port. DNSSEC-RELATED COMMANDS Several commands manipulate the DNSSEC keys and options for zones. Some of these commands require an ALGORITHM to be set. The following algorithms are supported: * rsasha1 * rsasha1-nsec3-sha1 * rsasha256 * rsasha512 * ecdsa256 * ecdsa384 * ed25519 * ed448 Note ed25519 and ed448 algorithms will only be available if adequate cryptographic libraries have been available while compiling Pow- erDNS on your particular system. In addition to the algorithm, some commands below may ask for a key size in bits. The key size may be omitted for the ECC algorithms, which support only one valid size per algorithm; for ECDSA256 and ED25519, it is 256; for ECDSA384, it is 384; and for ED448, it is... 456. zone dnssec-disable ZONE Deactivate all keys and unset PRESIGNED in ZONE. zone export-dnskey ZONE KEY_ID Export DNSKEY and DS of key with key id KEY_ID within zone ZONE to stan- dard output. zone export-ds ZONE Export all KSK DS records for ZONE to standard output. zone list-keys [ZONE] List DNSSEC information for all keys or for ZONE only. Passing --verbose or -v will also include the keys for disabled or empty zones. zone rectify ZONE Calculates the 'ordername' and 'auth' fields for a zone called ZONE so they comply with DNSSEC settings. Can be used to fix up migrated data. zone rectify-all Calculates the 'ordername' and 'auth' fields for all zones so they com- ply with DNSSEC settings. Can be used to fix up migrated data. zone secure ZONE Configures a zone called ZONE with reasonable DNSSEC settings. You should manually run 'pdnsutil zone rectify' afterwards. zone secure-all [increase-serial] Configures all zones that are not currently signed with reasonable DNSSEC settings. Setting increase-serial will increase the serial of those zones too. You should manually run 'pdnsutil zone rectify-all' af- terwards. zone set-nsec3 ZONE ['HASH-ALGORITHM FLAGS ITERATIONS SALT'] [narrow] Sets NSEC3 parameters for this zone. The quoted parameters are 4 values that are used for the NSEC3PARAM record and decide how NSEC3 records are created. The NSEC3 parameters must be quoted on the command line. HASH-ALGORITHM must be 1 (SHA-1). Setting FLAGS to 1 enables NSEC3 opt-out operation. Only do this if you know you need it. For ITERATIONS, please consult RFC 5155. And be aware that a high number might overload validating resolvers and that a limit can be set with max-nsec3-iterations in pdns.conf. The SALT is a hexadecimal string encoding the bits for the salt, or - to use no salt. Setting narrow will make PowerDNS send out "white lies" (RFC 7129) about the next secure record to prevent zone enumeration. Instead of looking it up in the database, it will send out the hash + 1 as the next secure record. Narrow mode requires online signing capabilities by the name- server and therefore zone transfers are denied. If only the zone is provided as argument, the 4-parameter quoted string defaults to '1 0 0 -', as recommended by RFC 9276. A sample commandline would be: pdnsutil zone set-nsec3 powerdnssec.org '1 1 1 ab' narrow WARNING: If running in RSASHA1 mode (algorithm 5 or 7), switching from NSEC to NSEC3 will require a DS update in the parent zone. zone set-presigned ZONE Switches ZONE to presigned operation, utilizing in-zone RRSIGs. zone set-publish-cdnskey ZONE [delete] Set ZONE to publish CDNSKEY records. Add 'delete' to publish a CDNSKEY with a DNSSEC delete algorithm. zone set-publish-cds ZONE [DIGESTALGOS] Set ZONE to respond to queries for its CDS records. the optional argu- ment DIGESTALGOS should be a comma-separated list of DS algorithms to use. By default, this is 2 (SHA-256). 0 will publish a CDS with a DNSSEC delete algorithm. zone show ZONE Shows various details of the zone called ZONE, including its DNSSEC re- lated settings. zone unset-nsec3 ZONE Converts ZONE to NSEC operations. WARNING: If running in RSASHA1 mode (algorithm 5 or 7), switching from NSEC to NSEC3 will require a DS up- date at the parent zone! zone unset-presigned ZONE Disables presigned operation for ZONE. zone unset-publish-cdnskey ZONE Set ZONE to stop publishing CDNSKEY records. zone unset-publish-cds ZONE Set ZONE to stop responding to queries for its CDS records. ZONE KEY COMMANDS zone activate-key ZONE KEY_ID Activate a key with id KEY_ID within a zone called ZONE. zone add-key ZONE [KSK,ZSK] [active,inactive] [published,unpublished] ALGO- RITHM [KEYBITS] Create a new key for zone ZONE, and make it a KSK (default) or a ZSK, with the specified ALGORITHM and KEYBITS. If KEYBITS is omitted, the value of default-ksk-size or default-zsk-size are used. The key is inactive by default, set it to active to immediately use it to sign ZONE. The key is published in the zone by default, set it to un- published to keep it from being returned in a DNSKEY query, which is useful for algorithm rollovers. Prints the id of the added key. zone deactivate-key ZONE KEY_ID Deactivate a key with id KEY_ID within a zone called ZONE. zone export-key ZONE KEY_ID Export full (private) key with key id KEY_ID within zone ZONE to stan- dard output. The format used is compatible with BIND and NSD/LDNS. zone export-key-pem ZONE KEY_ID Export full (private) key with key id KEY_ID within zone ZONE to stan- dard output in the PEM file format. The format is compatible with many non-DNS software products. zone generate-key {KSK,ZSK} [ALGORITHM] [KEYBITS] Generate a ZSK or KSK with specified algorithm and bits and print it on standard output. If ALGORITHM is not set, ECDSA256 is used. If KEYBITS is not set, an appropriate keysize is selected for ALGORITHM: for RSA keys, 2048 bits for KSK and 1024 bits for ZSK; for ECC keys, the algo- rithm-required size as mentioned above. zone import-key ZONE FILE [KSK,ZSK] [active,inactive] [published,unpub- lished] Import from FILE a full (private) key for the zone ZONE. The format used is compatible with BIND and NSD/LDNS. KSK or ZSK specifies the flags this key should have on import. Defaults to KSK, active and published. Prints the id of the added key. zone import-key-pem ZONE FILE ALGORITHM {KSK,ZSK} Import from PEM FILE a full (private) key for the zone ZONE with a spec- ified ALGORITHM. The format used is compatible with many non-DNS soft- ware products. KSK or ZSK specifies the flags this key should have on import. Prints the id of the added key. zone publish-key ZONE KEY_ID Publish the key with id KEY_ID within zone ZONE. zone remove-key ZONE KEY_ID Remove a key with id KEY_ID from zone ZONE. zone unpublish-key ZONE KEY_ID Unpublish the key with id KEY_ID within zone ZONE. OTHER/MISCELLANEOUS COMMANDS b2b-migrate OLD NEW Migrate data from one backend to another. Needs launch=OLD,NEW in the configuration. backend-cmd BACKEND CMD [CMD...] Send a text command to a backend for execution. GSQL backends will take SQL commands, other backends may take different things. Be careful! backend-lookup BACKEND NAME [TYPE [CLIENT_IP_SUBNET]] Perform a backend record lookup. bench-db [FILE] Perform a benchmark of the backend-database. FILE can be a file with a list, one per line, of zone names to use for this. If FILE is not spec- ified, powerdns.com is used. create-bind-db FILENAME Create DNSSEC database (sqlite3) at FILENAME for the BIND backend. Re- member to set bind-dnssec-db=*FILE* in your pdns.conf. hash-password [WORK_FACTOR] This convenience command reads a password (not echoed) from standard in- put and returns a hashed and salted version, for use as a webserver password or api key. An optional scrypt work factor can be specified, in powers of two, otherwise it defaults to 1024. ipdecrypt IP_ADDRESS PASSPHRASE_OR_KEY [key] Decrypt an IP address according to the 'ipcipher' standard. If the passphrase is a base64 key, add the word "key" after it. ipencrypt IP_ADDRESS PASSPHRASE_OR_KEY [key] Encrypt an IP address according to the 'ipcipher' standard. If the passphrase is a base64 key, add the word "key" after it. list-algorithms [with-backend] List all DNSSEC algorithms supported, optionally also listing the cryp- tographic library used if "with-backend" is specified. test-schema ZONE Test database schema, this creates the zone ZONE raw-lua-from-content TYPE CONTENT Display record contents in a form suitable for dnsdist's SpoofRawAction. SEE ALSO pdns_server (1), pdns_control (1) AUTHOR PowerDNS.COM BV COPYRIGHT PowerDNS.COM BV Jun 29, 2026 PDNSUTIL(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | COMMANDS | AUTOPRIMARY COMMANDS | CATALOG ZONE COMMANDS | ZONE METADATA COMMANDS | NETWORK COMMANDS | ZONE RECORD COMMANDS | TSIG RELATED COMMANDS | VIEWS COMMANDS | ZONE MANIPULATION COMMANDS | SECONDARY ZONE COMMANDS | DNSSEC-RELATED COMMANDS | ZONE KEY COMMANDS | OTHER/MISCELLANEOUS COMMANDS | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | COPYRIGHT
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