Win2K, BIND & Multi-master

[Kevin Darcy]

BIND does not support "multi-master replication", and I wouldn't want it to
-- then I'd have to deal with replication conflicts, replication-overhead
bloat (compared to IXFR) and unnecessarily-complex troubleshooting of
DDNS problems.

If you really need redundancy, use clustering technology. If you really
need administrative granularity, break up into subzones. Multi-master
replication is just Redmond's half-baked way of covering up the fact that
their DNS implementation isn't trustworthy to begin with (IMO, of course).


- Kevin

John Lindemann wrote:

> Hello all-
>
> I've got a consultant here telling me that BIND can be set up with a
> multi-master model.
> I've been trying to get it to work (for several days), but everything I
> currently know about BIND 8.2.3-REL goes against having multiple
> masters.
>
> Test #1:  I've configured just 2 servers.  A test domain -on server 1 is
> configured as "master",
> on server 2, it's a "slave".  Using nsupdate, (while on DNS server #1) -
> I add a record, the master sends a NOTIFY, it's received, the slave does
> a AXFR,  -and all's well.
> (I'd like for it to do a IXFR... I can't figure that out either!)
>
> Test #2:  I've configured just 2 servers.  A test domain -on server 1 is
> configured as "master",
> on server 2, it's also a "master".  When using nsupdate, again -on DNS
> server #1, it sends the NOTIFY to server #2, but [I presume 'cause it's
> also a master] I get:
>
>         notify: info: NOTIFY(SOA) for non-secondary name
>
> ....and, as expected, the second "master" server ignores the update from
> the "true" master.
>
> I've been playing with "notify yes;".. and that doesn't make any
> difference either.
>
> My goal is to find a way to get BIND 8.2.3 replication-model to mimmic
> Win2K's DDNS.  I need to allow for multiple company sites to each have
> their own master for ....say... the adaptec.com zone.  If a Win2K client
> in one site does a dynamic update- it'll update the DNS server specified
> in the clients DNS settings... right?  That would be their *local* DNS
> server.
> Any ideas on how can I get the other "master" DNS servers to see their
> update (and do IXFR's)?
>
> Thanks in advance-
> John