root nameserver hardware requirements

[Mark.Andrews at nominum.com]

> 
> some guys here on earth are setting up a set of nameservers to take over
> dns duties for a couple of isps.  they have a few thousand zones each.
> they expect moderate to large growth.
> 
> the implementation they finalized on was two cobalt's running linux as
> "the primary" with a hardware frontend load balancer and a netapp
> (shared with other applications) for common access to the zone files.

	Unless they are expecting many thousands of queries per second
	this is over kill, specially for authorative servers.  The main
	requirement is that they have enough real memory to hold all the
	data in memory and have a good I/O path to the net.  Normally
	it is the network that ends up being the limiting factor.  This
	will change w/ DNSSEC which is why it is a good idea to seperate
	the authorive servers from the caching server, the later will
	require more CPU as DNSSEC arrives.

> 
> i claim that is far more hardware than necessary and needlessly
> complex.
> 
> i am wondering if anyone knows what an average hardware configuration
> is for a root nameserver.

	http://www.isc.org/services/public/F-root-server.html

> this would be a nice point of reference.
> also, if performance is an issue, would it be wise to keep the
> recursive/caching and nonrecursive functions on seperate machines?

	Yes.
> 
> i have searched the bind-users mailing list and have found several
> posts to support my view, but knowing what the root servers are setup
> would be very helpful in arguing my position.
> 
> any input is greatly appreciated.
> 
> -jacob martinson
--
Mark Andrews, Nominum Inc.
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: Mark.Andrews at nominum.com