If you run into this error on a Ubuntu DNS Server, check your AppArmor configuration. To do so run the following command to pull up the AppArmor configuration.
sudo nano /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.named
Make sure the following lines are showing and add them if they are not.
/etc/bind/ r, /etc/bind/** r,
Now restart AppArmor with the following commands.
sudo /etc/init.d/apparmor stop sudo /etc/init.d/apparmor start
Now restart Bind and the error should be gone.
sudo /etc/init.d/bind9 restart