Unable to start BIND DNS server service on a server with Plesk for Debian/Ubuntu: option ‘dnssec-enable’ no longer exists

Symptoms

• When starting the BIND DNS service, the process hangs on "activating" and then fails to load with the following error messages in /var/log/syslog:

  named[54044]: loading configuration from '/etc/named.conf'
  named[54044]: /etc/named.conf:5: option 'dnssec-enable' no longer exists
  named[54044]: loading configuration: failure
  named[54044]: exiting (due to fatal error) 

• DNSSEC extension for Plesk is not installed on the server:

  # plesk bin extension --list | grep -i dnssec
  # {empty response}

Cause

Leftover from DNSSEC extension remain in BIND service configuration.

Resolution

1. Connect to the Plesk server via SSH.

2. Open the file /etc/named.conf in a text editor. In this example, we are using the vi editor:

   # vi /etc/named.conf

3. Comment out the line with dnssec-enable by putting // at the beginning of the line:
   the line 

   // dnssec-enable no;

4. Save the changes and close the file.

5. Restart the service:

   # service named restart