Identity

Unit: named.service (Debian/Ubuntu) or bind9.service (newer Debian)
Config (Debian/Ubuntu): /etc/bind/named.conf, /etc/bind/named.conf.options, /etc/bind/named.conf.local, /etc/bind/named.conf.default-zones
Config (RHEL/Fedora): /etc/named.conf, /etc/named/ (included zone configs)
Zone dir (Debian): /var/lib/bind/ (dynamic/slave zones), /etc/bind/ (static master zones)
Zone dir (RHEL): /var/named/
Logs: journalctl -u named / journalctl -u bind9, /var/log/named/ (if configured), journalctl -u named -f for live
Runtime control socket: rndc communicates with named via port 953 (loopback only by default)
Distro install: apt install bind9 bind9utils / dnf install bind bind-utils

Key Operations

Operation	Command
Service status	`systemctl status named` (RHEL) or `systemctl status bind9` (Debian)
Reload all zones (no restart)	`rndc reload`
Reload a specific zone	`rndc reload example.com`
Check entire named.conf syntax	`named-checkconf /etc/bind/named.conf` (Debian) or `named-checkconf /etc/named.conf` (RHEL)
Check a specific zone file	`named-checkzone example.com /etc/bind/db.example.com`