I've just downloaded bind and ran configure & make and it seemed to work ok. But now what ? I have read the arm html docs but can't see what I do to a) start it and b) start it each time the server is restarted. I know where the config files live etc as I have used bind previously when preloaded on a RH distro. This (virtual) server is rented through so I have to roll it all by hand. Thanks!!!

When you have it installed, to start it use something like this
/usr/local/sbin/named -u named
That's how I run it, it's installed in /usr/local/sbin (default when compiling from source) and I want it to run as user 'named'.
To start it at boot, add the line you use to start named to one of your starting scripts (I prefer /etc/rc.d/rc.local. You can add this line anywhere you wish in this file, I prefer the beggining.).

Thanks. Actually I did try just running "named" and assumed that because the daemon died immediately I'd done something wrong, in fact /var/log/messages told me its configs were missing. So, if I could trouble you a little further (;-), could you spot whats wrong now : I enter

>nslookup www.host-in-db-file.conf ww.xx.yy.zz

and nslookup fails after a delay with "connection timed out, no servers could be reached".

>ps -Af | grep named shows
admin 24319 1 0 22:42 ? 00:00:00 /usr/local/sbin/named -c /usr/local/bind-9.2.1/conf/named.conf

That named.conf is

options {
directory "/var/named";
};
zone "." in {
type hint;
file "db.cache";
};
zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" in {
type master;
file "db.192.168.1";
};
zone "0.0.127.in-addr.arpa" in {
type master;
file "db.127.0.0";
};
zone "host-in-db-file.com" {
type master;
file "db.host-in-db-file.com";
};

And finally db.host-in-db-file.com is:

$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA www.host-in-db-file.com. hostmaster.host-in-db-file.com. (
1 ; serial
10800 ; refresh
3600 ; retry
604800 ; expire
86400 ) ; default_ttl

IN NS my-nameservers-hostname.com.

IN A www.xxx.yyy.zzz

www IN A www.xxx.yyy.zzz


Some of the entries in named.conf have come from an intranet server running RH. Also, I'm not sure if my hosting company will allow this so it may be the setup is correct but they have blocked ns lookups on the ports. Thanks very much!!!

Hmm, I think your nslookup command does not look good. Do you really use www.host-in-db-file.conf ? I think it should be rather host-in-db-file.com .
BTW, nslookup is outdated, the new utility is dig. You use it this way:
dig @nameserver host
where 'nameserver' is the nemeserver you'd like to use for query and 'host' is the host you'd like to resolve.

That was a typo, I was running nslookup ok. Turns out it can't work as we don't have root access and the virtual server is setup such that only root can listen to port #53.

Hmm, when you run named from starting scripts, it runs as root (you can change it using named -u username), so there should be no problem.

They are running FreeVsd. Regular users have the usual privilege and each virtual server has an "admin" account not quite as powerful as the machines root user. Port #53 has been assigned read/write only to root, so no matter who I run it as I'm stuffed.

Anyone wiilling to let me stick a few domains on their nameserver please ;-)