Emre Kurnaz`s IT Diary

Configuring a Basic Dns Server Using Adguard

Posted on Mar 20, 2022

As building many labs in my home environment, I usually need DNS server which is easily deployed. Knowing that there are many alternatives, if just in case of A records to be created, I leverage from AdGuard which is really helpful.

I am running AdGuard on a Docker container to simplifying the installation process, I recommend this way of setup to everyone. In the Docker Hub , AdGuard installation is clearly described with many customizations available as docker runtime parameters for the AdGuard container.

Assume we have installed the AdGuard successfully and it’s homepage is accessible from your desktop. When logged in you should be able to see the Dashboard of AdGuard. Here below you may see a sample of AdGuard of my setup.

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To be able to setup a DNS server on AdGuard, which is pretty easy. First you need to navigate to the “Custom Filtering Rules” page by clicking “Filters” from the page header.

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From the “Custom Filtering Rules” page, you will need to write your A records as if you are writing to /etc/hosts file.

  1. Firstly, each line holds one DNS A record
  2. Always start with IP Address, then names.
  3. Lastly, this is only applicable for Forward DNS A Records.

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You can run checks from your desktop, using legacy nslookup tool.

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You see, Using AdGuard as a DNS Server is piece of cake

Thanks for reading!