---
reviewers:
- bowei
- zihongz
title: Customizing DNS Service
content_template: templates/task
---

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This page explains how to configure your DNS Pod and customize the
DNS resolution process. In Kubernetes version 1.11 and later, CoreDNS is at GA
and is installed by default with kubeadm. See [Configuring CoreDNS](#config-coredns) 
and [Using CoreDNS for Service Discovery](/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/coredns/).
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* {{< include "task-tutorial-prereqs.md" >}} {{< version-check >}}
* Kubernetes version 1.6 or later. To work with CoreDNS, version 1.9 or later.
* The appropriate add-on: kube-dns or CoreDNS. To install with kubeadm,
see [the kubeadm reference documentation](/docs/reference/setup-tools/kubeadm/kubeadm-alpha/#cmd-phase-addon).
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## Introduction

DNS is a built-in Kubernetes service launched automatically
using the addon manager
[cluster add-on](http://releases.k8s.io/{{< param "githubbranch" >}}/cluster/addons/README.md).

The running DNS Pod holds 3 containers:

- "`kubedns`": watches the Kubernetes master for changes
  in Services and Endpoints, and maintains in-memory lookup structures to serve
  DNS requests.
- "`dnsmasq`": adds DNS caching to improve performance.
- "`sidecar`": provides a single health check endpoint
  to perform healthchecks for `dnsmasq` and `kubedns`.

The DNS Pod is exposed as a Kubernetes Service with a static IP.
The kubelet passes DNS to each container with the `--cluster-dns=<dns-service-ip>`
flag.

DNS names also need domains. You configure the local domain in the kubelet
with the flag `--cluster-domain=<default-local-domain>`.

The Kubernetes cluster DNS server is based on the
[SkyDNS](https://github.com/skynetservices/skydns) library. It supports forward
lookups (A records), service lookups (SRV records), and reverse IP address
lookups (PTR records).

## Inheriting DNS from the node

When running a Pod, kubelet prepends the cluster DNS server and searches
paths to the node's DNS settings.  If the node is able to resolve DNS names
specific to the larger environment, Pods should also be able to resolve.
But see [Known issues](#known-issues).

If you don't want this, or if you want a different DNS config for pods, you can
use the kubelet's `--resolv-conf` flag.  Set this flag to "" to prevent Pods from
inheriting DNS. Set it to a valid file path to specify a file other than
`/etc/resolv.conf` for DNS inheritance.

## Configure stub-domain and upstream DNS servers

Cluster administrators can specify custom stub domains and upstream nameservers
by providing a ConfigMap for kube-dns (`kube-system:kube-dns`).

For example, the following ConfigMap sets up a DNS configuration with a single stub domain and two
upstream nameservers:

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: kube-dns
  namespace: kube-system
data:
  stubDomains: |
    {"acme.local": ["1.2.3.4"]}
  upstreamNameservers: |
    ["8.8.8.8", "8.8.4.4"]
```

DNS requests with the “.acme.local” suffix
are forwarded to a DNS listening at 1.2.3.4. Google Public DNS
serves the upstream queries.

The table below describes how queries with certain domain names map to
their destination DNS servers:

| Domain name | Server answering the query |
| ----------- | -------------------------- |
| kubernetes.default.svc.cluster.local| kube-dns |
| foo.acme.local| custom DNS (1.2.3.4) |
| widget.com    | upstream DNS (one of 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4) |

See [ConfigMap options](#configmap-options) for
details about the configuration option format.

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### Effects on Pods

Custom upstream nameservers and stub domains do not affect Pods with a
`dnsPolicy` set to "`Default`" or "`None`".

If a Pod's `dnsPolicy` is set to "`ClusterFirst`", its name resolution is
handled differently, depending on whether stub-domain and upstream DNS servers
are configured.

**Without custom configurations**: Any query that does not match the configured
cluster domain suffix, such as "www.kubernetes.io", is forwarded to the upstream
nameserver inherited from the node.

**With custom configurations**: If stub domains and upstream DNS servers are
configured,
DNS queries are routed according to the following flow:

1. The query is first sent to the DNS caching layer in kube-dns.

1. From the caching layer, the suffix of the request is examined and then
   forwarded to the appropriate DNS, based on the following cases:

   * *Names with the cluster suffix*, for example ".cluster.local":
     The request is sent to kube-dns.

   * *Names with the stub domain suffix*, for example ".acme.local":
     The request is sent to the configured custom DNS resolver, listening for example at 1.2.3.4.

   * *Names without a matching suffix*, for example "widget.com":
     The request is forwarded to the upstream DNS,
     for example Google public DNS servers at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

![DNS lookup flow](/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/dns-custom-nameservers/dns.png)

## ConfigMap options

Options for the kube-dns `kube-system:kube-dns` ConfigMap:

| Field | Format | Description |
| ----- | ------ | ----------- |
| `stubDomains` (optional) | A JSON map using a DNS suffix key such as “acme.local”, and a value consisting of a JSON array of DNS IPs. | The target nameserver can itself be a Kubernetes Service. For instance, you can run your own copy of dnsmasq to export custom DNS names into the ClusterDNS namespace. |
| `upstreamNameservers` (optional) | A JSON array of DNS IPs. | If specified, the values replace the nameservers taken by default from the node’s `/etc/resolv.conf`. Limits: a maximum of three upstream nameservers can be specified. |

### Examples

#### Example: Stub domain

In this example, the user has a Consul DNS service discovery system they want to
integrate with kube-dns. The consul domain server is located at 10.150.0.1, and
all consul names have the suffix `.consul.local`.  To configure Kubernetes, the
cluster administrator creates the following ConfigMap:

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: kube-dns
  namespace: kube-system
data:
  stubDomains: |
    {"consul.local": ["10.150.0.1"]}
```

Note that the cluster administrator does not want to override the node’s
upstream nameservers, so they did not specify the optional
`upstreamNameservers` field.

#### Example: Upstream nameserver

In this example the cluster administrator wants to explicitly force all
non-cluster DNS lookups to go through their own nameserver at 172.16.0.1.
In this case, they create a ConfigMap with the
`upstreamNameservers` field specifying the desired nameserver:

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: kube-dns
  namespace: kube-system
data:
  upstreamNameservers: |
    ["172.16.0.1"]
```

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## Configuring CoreDNS {config-coredns}

You can configure [CoreDNS](https://coredns.io/) as a service discovery.

CoreDNS is available as an option in Kubernetes starting with version 1.9.
It is currently a [GA feature](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/keps/sig-network/0010-20180314-coredns-GA-proposal.md) and is on course to be [the default](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/keps/sig-network/0012-20180518-coredns-default-proposal.md), replacing kube-dns.


## CoreDNS ConfigMap options

CoreDNS chains plugins and can be configured by maintaining a Corefile with the ConfigMap. CoreDNS supports all the functionalities and more that is provided by kube-dns.
A ConfigMap created for kube-dns to support `StubDomains`and `upstreamnameserver` translates to the `proxy` plugin in CoreDNS.
Similarly, the `Federation` plugin translates to the `federation` plugin in CoreDNS.

### Example

This example ConfigMap for kube0dns specifies federations, stubdomains and upstreamnameservers:

```yaml
apiVersion: v1
data:
  federations: |
    {"foo" : "foo.feddomain.com"}
  stubDomains: |
    {"abc.com" : ["1.2.3.4"], "my.cluster.local" : ["2.3.4.5"]}
  upstreamNameservers: |
    ["8.8.8.8", "8.8.4.4"]
kind: ConfigMap
```

The equivalent configuration in CoreDNS creates a Corefile:

* For federations:
```yaml
federation cluster.local {
           foo foo.feddomain.com
        }
```

* For stubDomains:
```yaml
abc.com:53 {
        errors
        cache 30
        proxy . 1.2.3.4
    }
    my.cluster.local:53 {
        errors
        cache 30
        proxy . 2.3.4.5
    }
```

The complete Corefile with the default plugins:

```yaml
.:53 {
        errors
        health
        kubernetes cluster.local  in-addr.arpa ip6.arpa {
           upstream  8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
           pods insecure
           fallthrough in-addr.arpa ip6.arpa
        }
        federation cluster.local {
           foo foo.feddomain.com
        }
        prometheus :9153
        proxy .  8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
        cache 30
    }
    abc.com:53 {
        errors
        cache 30
        proxy . 1.2.3.4
    }
    my.cluster.local:53 {
        errors
        cache 30
        proxy . 2.3.4.5
    }
```

In Kubernetes version 1.10 and later, kubeadm supports automatic translation of the CoreDNS ConfigMap from the kube-dns ConfigMap.

## Migration to CoreDNS

A number of tools support the installation of CoreDNS instead of kube-dns.
To migrate from kube-dns to CoreDNS, [a detailed blog](https://coredns.io/2018/05/21/migration-from-kube-dns-to-coredns/) is available to help users adapt CoreDNS in place of kube-dns.

## What's next
- [Debugging DNS Resolution](/docs/tasks/administer-cluster/dns-debugging-resolution/).
