Apologies for sounding dumb. I'm still trying to figure my way around. I specifically need to setup a public DNS server and would like to know which would be the cheapest datacenter with the minimum configuration of a server to make it work... i'm not looking to create an openDNS like service which handles millions of queries, but what is the minimum i'll need if i wanted to do that ??
Thanks!
Just a thought, but do you really need to setup a server, (or do you just heed the ability to host a few domains)
Again, not sure about your location, but you may find that something such as this Hosted DNS service is helpful.
What you will need most of is - bandwidth and low-latency. The server itself need not be too powerful as long as it is capable enough. So, you will need to shop for a datacentre that can provide you with a high-bandwidth usage.
I'm not quite sure what your requirements are. Do you want to host one Domain for yourself? Or possibly thouthands of domains for others? Also "handles millions of queries" - millions of queries in what? A month, a day, an hour, a minute?
I now assume that you want to host a handful of domains for yourself which get requested 1000 times per minute. So about 17 req/sec which is fairly low on traffic.
I can only speak for Germany. Here you can get relatively cheap virtual Servers as well as DNS service.
http://www.hetzner.de/en/hosting/domain/registrationrobot/
They charge the service of three Nameservers at 0.59 Eurocents per domain per year.
If you want to run your own DNS the cheapest available virtual Server will suffice. If you run PowerDNS which I can highly recommend, something like 128MB core memory and some slice of a single CPU Core will be more than enough.
Take a look at http://www.server4you.net/vserver/
The cheapest vServer is charged at 8.85 Euro per month. It includes 3GHz CPU Power, 1GB core memory, 25GB HDD and 5TB traffic. Which I think is more than sufficient for your DNS requirements.
Do you really need to run your own DNS server? Likely not.
No-Ip.com is about 30 bucks a year for a domain registration and their No-IP Plus DNS (basically self-serve DNS for your domain; you can do whatever you want with your zone). Zoneedit.com is free, but the interface is a bit crufty and somewhat slow TTL (that I don't think you can change).
