Simplest way to setup a internal DNS server to serve very simple names

I want to setup a DNS server in the intranet so people won’t have to add records into their hosts file repeatedly like:

xx.xx.xx.xx server1 
xx.xx.xx.xx server2

Note that server1 and server2 are not conventional domain names, they are just simple one word host names.

My OS is Ubuntu, I tried bind only found it hard to configure. What’s the simplest solution out there for this kind of scenario?

Solution 1:

1. Install a DNS Server, dnsmasq for example.
2. Add entries to the host file of that server.
3. Start the dnsmasq daemon
4. Tell the people to use this server as DNS server in their network configuration.

that should be it.

dnsmasq also includes a dhcp service, but you don't have to activate it. reference