This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Mohamed Hamdi
Integrating OpenShift CoreDNS with Active Directory (AD) enables your OpenShift cluster to resolve DNS records from your AD-managed domain. This article walks through the steps to configure CoreDNS to forward DNS queries to your AD DNS server.
Prerequisites
- OpenShift cluster with CoreDNS.
- Active Directory DNS server (e.g., 192.168.1.10 for domain example.local).
- OpenShift nodes must be able to reach the AD DNS server.
Steps to Configure CoreDNS for AD Integration
- Edit the CoreDNS ConfigMap
oc edit configmap coredns -n openshift-dns
- Modify the CoreDNS ConfigFile
. {
forward . 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 # External DNS (Google DNS)
forward . 192.168.1.10 # AD DNS server
cache 300 # Cache TTL for external queries (5 minutes)
log # Enable logging
metrics # Enable Prometheus metrics
health # Enable health check
}
example.local:53 {
forward . 192.168.1.10 # Forward queries for example.local to AD DNS
cache 600 # Cache TTL for AD domain queries (10 minutes)
log # Log queries for example.local
}
- Apply the Configuration
oc delete pod -n openshift-dns --all
- Test DNS Resolution
oc run -i --tty --rm debug --image=busybox --restart=Never -- nslookup myhost.example.local
- Monitor and Troubleshoot
oc logs -n openshift-dns <coredns-pod-name>
curl http://<coredns-pod-ip>:9180/health
Metrics: Monitor DNS metrics via Prometheus
Conclusion
By configuring CoreDNS to forward DNS queries to your AD DNS server, you enable your OpenShift cluster to resolve AD-managed domain records. With CoreDNS's caching, logging, metrics, and health checks, you can optimize DNS resolution and ensure a reliable DNS setup.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Mohamed Hamdi

Mohamed Hamdi | Sciencx (2025-01-09T21:35:09+00:00) Integrating OpenShift CoreDNS with Active Directory DNS. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/01/09/integrating-openshift-coredns-with-active-directory-dns/
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