bind on bluecat's adonis 1000

[Greg Chavez]

> >  They plan to support views.  The current version (3.1rc6) does not.
>=20
>         Mine does.  Are you sure you've got the latest firmware?  Have
> you talked to your sales rep as to when the next firmware revision
> will come out?

Hrm.  I have the latest firmware available - 3.1rc6 -  and according
to their Web page:
=20
"As of version 3.1, the DNSone does not support BIND views.  The next
major release of code, version 3.2, will have BIND view support.=20
Please consult your Infoblox sales representative for more information
on this future release."

On top of that, I don't see where this would be configurable on my 3.1
GUI and my sales rep was very clear that it wasn't there.   Maybe you
have some beta firmware?

>         They definitely work to make the appliance as easy to monitor and
> manage as possible, and they're working on interfaces to expose more
> of the internal capabilities of the software in a user-friendly way,
> through the monitoring/management interface.
>=20
>         This kind of approach is critical when you're managing a large
> network of these things.  Just precisely what else would you expect
> an appliance vendor to do?  Ship you the parts and let you do it for
> yourself?

No, I don't expect that.  I agree with you entirely.  The whole
ease-of-use and TCO arguments are valid, but it comes with a price.=20
You can't tinker so much and at times it can be annoying.  That's all
I'm saying.
=20
> >                                                      *IF* this
> >  clustering feature works as advertised, multiple appliances can be
> >  effortlessly inserted into an existing environment with virtually
> >  identical configurations.
>=20
>         From what I've seen, it works as advertised.

Like I said, I look forward to trying it out (don't have the eval keys yet)=
.
=20
>         Uh, no.  It's absolutely plain-vanilla BIND, albeit configured to
> support threading because they've got two Opteron processors in the
> box and the OS supports threading and locking in a way that is
> efficient and fits well with the BIND model.

Well, then it's been changed hasn't it?  I did not mean "ersatz" as in
"ersatz coffee".  Probably a poor choice of words, come to think of
it.  Whenever you have an appliance, it's safe to say that its
familiar components have been changed in one or more important ways.

>         The only time I've seen it be "slow" is a result of my ancient
> Apple PowerBook G3/400 "Pismo" laptop that just can't execute Java
> code very quickly.  Today, I popped in a G4/550 upgrade module, and
> we'll see how much faster it is.  Certainly, everything else I do
> seems much faster, and I imagine that I'll see a similar benefit for
> Java.

There are slowness issues.  I can't say for sure, but I suspect that
part of it is a combination of network issues and my PC hardware/OS .=20
Regardless, it's the only Web GUI I work with that crawls and in any
case, it needs to be more forgiving of such shortcomings.  And you
can't deny that it takes forever for the thing to start up.  I am glad
to see Java in play, but the implementation has been disappointing
thus far.

> >                                         The worst part is they way the
> >  GUI "exits".  There is no log-off button.  Instead, you must exit your
> >  browser completely to reconnect.  This is so annoying, I can barely
> >  stop myself from foaming at the mouth as I type this paragraph.
>=20
>         I have seen some user interface issues that I'm going to be
> talking to them about, and I won't mince words when it comes to
> talking about them publicly, if they don't get them fixed pretty soon.

I have voiced many complaints in the past 3-4 months.  Not one has
been a first.  We will have to see how well they respond with the next
two major releases.

>         However, I haven't had it for long, and I haven't had that much
> opportunity to work with it.  I'm going to hold off judgement for a
> little while, until I get more experience with it.

Right on.

> >  Here, here.  Test.  *THEN* tell us how it works.  Corporate Web sites
> >  and marketing brochures and those who read from them are about as
> >  accurate as my shoe.
>=20
>         I am testing.  I haven't pulled any punches when it comes to
> products I've worked with in the past, and I'm not about to start now.

I did not intend to suggest otherwise, although as I Iook at what I
wrote it sure seems like I did.  You are one of a select group of
bind-users phenoms whose posts I go out of my way to read and whose
opinions I give special weight.   Having been forced to evaluate a few
appliances in the last two years, I have developed a trigger "oh yeah?
show me!" reflex.

I hope to see more Infoblox posts on this group - how it compares to
BIND, how it stacks up.  It has relevance I think, especially if they
become as successful and widespread as they hope to be.  This is not
djbdns we're talking about.  Dunno.  Maybe I should check my
bind-users FAQ.

--Greg Chavez