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I'm looking for free opensource DNS server that can keep all the data in DB backend.

Currently I found next solutions:

  • MyDNS-ng (looks OK - fork from MyDNS)
  • PowerDNS (looks like OK)
  • Bind9 with DLZ (additional patches, can be tricky to configure, last update in 2004)

It need to be fast and get new zones nearly immediately as they appear in database (not every 10 minutes or so). In my scenario I create many subdomains to one main domain. The zone layout will be the same for all subdomains.

So, can anyone tell me any other options or some glitches with current one?

Thanks

Ok, I decided to use MyDNS or PowerDNS as hidden zone master (will try both). Slave servers (probalby BIND9) will see updates immediately by using RFC1996 (DNS NOTIFY).

Any additional updates?

Mike
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  • I know you will hate the answer but "It need to be fast and get new zones immediately as they appear in database (not every 10 minutes or so)." is puzzling. You really need new zones so quickly? – bortzmeyer Jun 09 '09 at 07:29
  • Sure no. But it should be fast - < 60 seconds. – Mike Jun 09 '09 at 09:53

2 Answers2

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We currently used PowerDNS to host many zones using a MySQL server.

PowerDNS has been great to us. Some pros/cons:

Pros:

  • Uses MySQL backend - other DB backends are available
  • Updates to DB are published instantaneously
  • Very friendly to MySQL Replication. We run two servers with replication and updates published instantaneously to both DBs (and dns queries are instant on both)
  • SQL Scheme is very easy to use and manipulate. They provide a front-end which is hard to use for larger zones.

Cons:

  • Upgrading major versions not very fun
  • Lack of quality frontend means that you need to have a frontend to do the work. This is a good/bad thing.
Dave Drager
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  • Thanks for the answer ddragger. Do you also use PowerDNS as a secondary name server? – Mike Jun 08 '09 at 17:49
  • We use PowerDNS as primary and secondary. I suppose if you want further redundancy you could use a different server for secondary and delegate dns down to that server - instead of doing MySQL replication, although it would not update as fast at the primary one would. – Dave Drager Jun 08 '09 at 18:43
  • PowerDNS worked great when I was working in a very active pre-packaged virtual hosting environment. We used BIND as a secondary server. There was a cron job that checked the two for replication errors. – Karl Katzke Jun 09 '09 at 04:14
  • It's good to keep this server as hidden master while sending RFC1996 (DNS NOTIFY) to secondary dns when zone updates. This should be more secure and faster, and in case of db failure on any problems on master everything will still work OK. – Mike Jun 09 '09 at 10:04
  • I concur. Also, if PowerDNS happened to have a 0-day and gets hacked, running a totally different DNS server would further insulate you from problems (although if a malicious user started changing DNS records, it would just propagate to the secondary DNS still). We keep SQL backups with retention in case of problems. – Dave Drager Jun 09 '09 at 13:36
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I`m using MyDNS-ng wich is just the same project forked, its great when you put it together with MyDNSConfig.

ntw1103
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Ariel Antigua
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