Unable to start BIND on CentOS 7: /etc/named.conf:10: change directory to ‘/var/named/chroot/var’ failed: file not found

Symptoms

• Unable to start BIND on CentOS 7 with the following error:

  # systemctl start named-chroot.service
  Job for named-chroot.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See “systemctl status named-chroot.service” and “journalctl -xe” for details.

• The status of the service shows the following error:

  # systemctl status named-chroot.service
  ….
  named-checkconf[1710]: /etc/named.conf:10: change directory to ‘/var/named/chroot/var’ failed: file not found
  named-checkconf[1710]: /etc/named.conf:10: parsing failed

Cause

The wrong directory parameter on the line 10 in configuration file /etc/named.conf.

Resolution

1. Connect to the server via SSH.

2. Create a backup of the configuration file /etc/named.conf:

   # cp /etc/named.conf /etc/named.conf_backup

3. Open the file /etc/named.conf in any text editor and change the line 10 from:

   directory "/var/named/chroot/var";

   to

   directory "/var";

4. Start the named-chroot service:

   # systemctl start named-chroot.service