Newbie question on lots of slave zones

[Simon Hobson]

David E. Smith wrote:

>I want to set up one DNS server (ns1.foo.com) that will be doing primary
>DNS for about 600 zones, plus acting as a caching server for a few
>thousand dialup customers. The caching thing is easy...
>
>What I'd like to do is set up ns1.foo.com so that any changes made to it
>are automatically propagated to ns2.foo.com. Change a zone file? It
>propagates. Create a new zone, or cease to be authoritative for a zone? It
>propagates. Et cetera.
>
>I know this can be done by putting a whole lot of slave directives on ns2,
>and telling it that ns1 is the master, but that doesn't cover the 'I got a
>new zone' part of the problem.
>
>I suppose I could just export the config file and zone directory via SMB
>or NFS or whatever, but that opens up a whole new can of ugliness that I'd
>prefer to avoid if I can.
>
>Any brilliant ideas, or am I gonna have to do this the hard way?

Your best bet is to store the details you want in some sort of 
database (it could be a flat text file, it could be something more 
sophisticated). When you make a change, you then run a script which 
reads the database and generates the config files for both the 
servers. Ideally, it would then copy the new files to the servers, 
and trigger a reload of the named processes. If you keep the design 
'clean' then it should also make it very difficult to create a bad 
configuration file as well.

I know that people do this for their DHCP configurations, and I 
assume that there are a number of solutions already written for DNS. 
However, it shouldn't be a difficult scripting job if you keep things 
simple.

Simon

-- 

NOTE: This is a throw-away email address which will reach me for as 
long as it stays spam-free, remove date for real address.

Simon Hobson, Technology Specialist
Colony Gift Corporation Limited
Lindal in Furness, Ulverston, Cumbria, LA12 0LD
Tel 01229 461100, Fax 01229 461101

Registered in England No. 1499611
Regd. Office : 100 New Bridge Street, London, EC4V 6JA.