Database backed DNS Management Solutions

Wed Feb 4 04:19:54 UTC 2009

At the last place I worked at we had an installation of NicTool v1.2.  
We pushed out DNS updates for our hosting company over 4 servers, two 
local and two off-site.  It was very nice to work with, but I havent 
used it in the 2.x iteration.

http://www.nictool.com/ - Give it a look-over.  Supports BIND, TinyDNS, 
and PowerDNS.

-Israel

Ross Dmochowski wrote:
> Dear NANOG:
>
> I hope I can solicit some feedback from this venerable group. :-)
>
> Currently, my group operates 16 BIND servers across 5 datacenters,
> handling internal and external namespace duties. These servers are
> responsible for both internal and external forward and reverse
> name and IP spaces.
>
> There are also a number of Windows AD servers that hold their own namespaces,
> that the BIND servers slave from this info from, so names resolve between these 
> domains. Windows AD forwards queries for internal zones it does not own
> to the appropriate namespace holder. 
>
> So Windows DNS server interoperability is a business requirement.
>
> Some of these zones are dynamic, some are static. 
> None of the dynamic zones are populated via DHCP, but by self-registration.
>
> We have heretofore used some in-house scripts for managing this, but
> obviously, the thought of keeping and managing this data in something
> other than its current form has caught on in our minds, and 
> so therefore we are looking at a proposal put forth, to replace all 
> of our BIND servers with a PowerDNS infrastructure.
>
> BIND has been the backbone of the Internet, and so many of us are 
> wary of replacing BIND, when in essence, BIND itself is not the issue, 
> nor is it broken.
>
> Has anyone done any in house comparance of PowerDNS versus BIND-DLZ?
> Googling has led to some useful info but no useful side by side
> comparances that are not obviously partisan.
>
> I favor something like ProBIND2, that keeps the data in the DB, but does not
> tie the serving of the data, etc to anything other than BIND.
>
> Any success/horror stories from implementing BIND management solutions is
> very welcome.
>
> If anyone has any success/horror stories about PowerDNS, BIND-DLZ, or 
> a system like ProBind2 or NetDB (from Stanford) to manage BIND and its configurations
> in a DB, I would be very interested in hearing them. :-)
>
> Thank you.
>
> Best Regards,
> Ross S. Dmochowski
> Sr. Linux Administrator
> IGN/Gamespy/Fox Interactive Media
> ross at ign.com
>   