Symptom:

Problem:

Solution

1. Open a shell and check the named.conf (the BIND configuration) by running

   sudo named-checkconf -z

   This will check the named.conf and also the master zone files for potential syntax errors. If this returns without issues, please proceed with step 2 otherwise please fix this errors first.
2. Open the file

   /etc/named.conf

   with admin rights with an editor (nano).  It will look similar to this:
   

   //
   // Include keys file
   //
   include "/etc/rndc.key";
   // Declares control channels to be used by the rndc utility.
   //
   
   // It is recommended that 127.0.0.1 be the only address used.
   // This also allows non-privileged users on the local host to manage
   // your name server.
   
   //
   // Default controls
   //
   controls  {
      inet 127.0.0.1 port 953 allow    {any;   }         keys    { "rndc-key";    };
   };
   
   options  {
      include "/etc/dns/options.conf.apple";
   };
   
   //
   // a caching only nameserver config
   //
   logging {
      include "/etc/dns/loggingOptions.conf.apple";
   };
   // Public view read by Server Admin  include "/etc/dns/publicView.conf.apple";
   // Server Admin declares all zones in a view. BIND therefore dictates
   // that all other zone declarations must be contained in views

3. Replace the 

   include "/etc/rndc.key";

   by the key statement itself, i.e. copy the contents of the ''rndc.key'' file into the ''named.conf'' and replace with the key statement the include statement.
4. Replace the include statement include "/etc/dns/options.conf.apple";  in the options section by the content of the included file itself (the content of "/etc/dns/options.conf.apple";)
   
   Usually the content is:

   directory "/var/named"; forwarders {}; allow-transfer { none; };

5. Comment out the thre lines of the logging section by prepending the lines by two slash (//), e.g.:

   // logging {
   //            include "/etc/dns/loggingOptions.conf.apple";
   // };

6. Comment out the include "/etc/dns/publicView.conf.apple"; statement in the named.conf file:

   // include "/etc/dns/publicView.conf.apple"; 

7. Open the file /etc/dns/publicView.conf.apple  and copy the "acl" statement, which is usually the first line into the named.conf file. E.g. right after the key {..}; statement.
   The acl line looks like:

   acl "com.apple.ServerAdmin.DNS.public" {localnets;localhost;.....};

   Then comment out the acl in the publicView.conf.apple file with two slash, like:

   // acl "com.apple.ServerAdmin.DNS.public" {localnets;localhost;.....};

8. Copy the 

   allow-recursion {"com.apple.ServerAdmin.DNS.public";};

   statement from the publicView.conf.apple file into the named.conf options statement. Then comment it out in the publicView.conf.apple
9. Comment out the first line of the view statement in the publicView.conf.apple:

   // view "com.apple.ServerAdmin.DNS.public" {

   and the last line that contains the closing curly bracket }; so that it looks like:

   // };

10. Concatenate the contents of the file publicView.conf.apple to the named.conf by running the following command:
    sudo cat /etc/dns/publicView.conf.apple >> /etc/named.conf
11. Run

    sudo named-checkconf -z 

    again to check the configuration. This should return with no errors.
12. Run the following bash script as root:

    #!/bin/bash
    for i in /var/named/zones/*.zone.apple do
      j=`echo $i | sed -e 's/^\/var\/named\/zones\//\/var\/named\//' -e 's/zone.apple$//'`
      cp -f $i $j
    done

    This script will replace the zone data includes by the real zone data. After step 12 please run again a final 
    sudo named-checkconf -z
    Which should denote the same zones with serial number the checkconf run in step 11.

key "rndc-key" {
 algorithm hmac-md5;
 secret "42c/oQADXzD0lYBJPNcZwQ==";
};


// Declares control channels to be used by the rndc utility.
//
// It is recommended that 127.0.0.1 be the only address used.
// This also allows non-privileged users on the local host to manage
// your name server.
//
// Default controls
//

controls  {
        inet 127.0.0.1 port 953 allow    {any;   }
        keys    { "rndc-key";    };
};

acl "com.apple.ServerAdmin.DNS.public" {localnets;localhost;.....};

options  {
    directory "/var/named";
    forwarders {};
    allow-transfer { none; };
    allow-recursion {"com.apple.ServerAdmin.DNS.public";};

};

// 
// a caching only nameserver config
// 
//logging {
//        include "/etc/dns/loggingOptions.conf.apple";
//};


// Public view read by Server Admin        
//include "/etc/dns/publicView.conf.apple";
// Server Admin declares all zones in a view. BIND therefore dictates
// that all other zone declarations must be contained in views.
<followed by the content of the altered file publicView.conf.apple which was appended in step 10>