Best DNS Service With API Access? 221
netaustin writes "My company runs quite a few media websites, mostly on Drupal, and about half on ec2. We have a good server setup with ec2 which allows us to route requests through Pound, a cluster of Varnish servers, then a cluster of Apache servers. We manage 50 domains (one per state) like this. Problem is, anytime things change, we have to manually adjust DNS for all 50 states, which is very boring and usually causes negative side effects too as we can't ever adjust all 50 DNS entries at once. We'd like to just change DNS providers and be done with it, but there are a lot of options, and I don't often shop for DNS services. I use EveryDNS for my personal domains, but I don't think they provide an API and it'd feel a little dishonest to reverse engineer the forms on their site since they're an esteemed donations-based service. I wouldn't feel bad about doing that to DNSPark, but they have a CAPTCHA image accompanying their login form, so goodbye DNSPark. I found a couple services that seem to do what I'm looking for, but they both feel a bit Microsoft-y and since I only want to change once, I want to get this right. Advice?"
DynDNS (Score:5, Informative)
DynDNS.
That was easy.
Re:DynDNS (Score:5, Informative)
This [dyndns.com] seems like an appropriate link.
Re:DynDNS (Score:5, Informative)
DynDNS also offers another service, more business class. It has a MUCH more robust API, offers Failover, Load Balancing, Anycast, etc. Multiple users, node-based permissions. 37Signals, Mozilla, and RackSpace use Dynect. Highly recommended, give them a call!
http://dynect.com/technology/developers.html [dynect.com]
http://dynect.com/features/api.html [dynect.com]
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Re:DynDNS (Score:5, Informative)
This should be emphasized. DynDNS is both reliable and ethical, and have been for a long time. Indeed, since before they went commercial. When they were non-com, you could get unlimited custom DNS services for a $30 donation. Guess what? When they went commercial they honored that pledge. I still have a number of "never expires" services because of this.
Seriously, it's not worth dicking around with DNS. Get it done right the first time.
Re:DynDNS (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually I have had two accounts 'vanished' by DynDNS now and would never use them again, including one that has been with them for about 8 years first using their dyndns service and more lately (over the last few years) using their staticdns service. Both appear to have been clobbered by their 'stuff must get updated at least every 30 days' policy [1]. Which of course makes utterly no sense for a staticdns service. The staticdns account was for a domain with a PR of about 5 (it was on the air and highly linked-to for over seven years...), so I was understandably upset to see it suddenly vanish off the air one day with no warning whatsoever.
Totally unimpressed, I would never, ever touch them for things I cared about again.
[1] Read the first couple of sentences of the second paragraph on this page:
https://www.dyndns.com/account/resetpass/index.html
Re:DynDNS (Score:5, Insightful)
You should have gotten your own domain, not the host sitting on their domain, and used the CustomDNS service. I have an account that has been inactive for over a year and it is still there. CustomDNS domains will never expire if you have been with them since the begining when they were free; all those domains were grandfathered and remain free of charge.
Totally unimpressed, I would never, ever touch them for things I cared about again.
With the free DynamicDNS service, you get what you pay for. If the infrastructure is that important to you, pay for the account.
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You depended on a free service that had limitations for a critical function of your web and email. I am not sure why you decided to use the DynamicDNS service instead of CustomDNS unless you did not want to pay for your own domain. I can understand not wanting to spend any money but you got exactly what the service offers. DynamicDNS has always had the 30 day rule. That is what the word dynamic means. An update client could have been used; the IP address does not have to change but the record needs to be re
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You depended on a free service that had limitations for a critical function of your web and email. I am not sure why you decided to use the DynamicDNS service instead of CustomDNS unless you did not want to pay for your own domain. I can understand not wanting to spend any money but you got exactly what the service offers. DynamicDNS has always had the 30 day rule. That is what the word dynamic means. An update client could have been used; the IP address does not have to change but the record needs to be refreshed. You needed to upgrade to the premium level in order to remove the auto expire, and the upgrade was a onetime fee many years ago. Did you not read the account details before signing up?
The old ml.org asked for donations, which did not work out too well. The premium level is how DynDNS was going to make some cash in the begining because it actually costs money to host servers.
I understand what you are saying, but it doesn't change the problem in any way. If they suspend an account like this and say "you won't have to deal with suspensions if you help us out a little", that is one thing. When they just delete it completely, as if it never existed and then say "tough, you were relying on our goodness and we ain't that good mister", then I say I'll never give you money. :)
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Actually I have had two accounts 'vanished' by DynDNS now and would never use them again, including one that has been with them for about 8 years first using their dyndns service and more lately (over the last few years) using their staticdns service. Both appear to have been clobbered by their 'stuff must get updated at least every 30 days' policy [1]. Which of course makes utterly no sense for a staticdns service. The staticdns account was for a domain with a PR of about 5 (it was on the air and highly linked-to for over seven years...), so I was understandably upset to see it suddenly vanish off the air one day with no warning whatsoever.
Totally unimpressed, I would never, ever touch them for things I cared about again.
[1] Read the first couple of sentences of the second paragraph on this page:
https://www.dyndns.com/account/resetpass/index.html [dyndns.com]
This is absolutely true... and they don't just suspend it with a warning, they just flat out and immediately delete. Giving everyone your IP address would be less painful than dealing with those people.
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I don't know so much about 'ethical' anymore. Their free service now expires monthly or so, with only a five-day warning. One of these months I'm going to be on vacation for a week and when I return will discover that my domain has expired:-(
just have a dynamic dns entry that updates itself every <less than one month>.
this happened to me already. I had a 7 year old account with them which expired because a dynamic DNS entry updated itself only when the PPPOE connection was made to one of my providers -- which, oddly enough, is rock solid and only reconnects once every 2-3 months. so I just force the updates every other week. this way the account stays enabled.
ps: I have my own domain, I don't depend on DynDNS entirely, but they are ni
Dear Mr. Rho, (Score:5, Funny)
Hi there, I am representing my client, Staples, Inc. Your use of the phrase "That was easy" treads upon the Intellectual Property right of Staples, Inc. Use of my client's slogan without prior written authorization is not permitted. You will immediately cease claiming that anything other than Staples, Inc. "was easy". This includes everything from DynDNS to your girlfriend and/or wife.
Sincerely yours,
Mr. Vatwozeezee
GoDaddy dba WildWest (Score:5, Informative)
GoDaddy dba WildWest has an API, but we seem to have ended up being guinea pigs for it, and it didn't go well. Their documentation had features that didn't exist, promised 24-hour turnaround on support failed, ...
It's working OK now, but I can't really recommend it.
diy?? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why not run your own??
Re:diy?? (Score:5, Insightful)
>Why not run your own??
Apparently the article submitter isn't competent enough to do this on his/her own: Why else would he/she submit something so obviously mission critical to Slashdot?
I *hate* seeing articles such as these on Slashdot: They fall into the "do my job for me" category, and should be tagged as such... only, now days, there are *so* many people on Slashdot lacking basic networking skills, it's almost moot: Hell, articles such as these generate traffic/revenue for Slashdot (to which I am contributing, of course), simply because of that fact. I imagine that such are the second highest traffic/revenue generator, right behind the "RIAA/MPAA"-type articles.
My advice: If you can't figure out a viable method to accomplish what you need, using the skills and knowledge you possess, perhaps you should *hire* someone that can? And, learn from them, as they are doing it?
Slashdot: News For Wannabes, Stuff That Matters To Them.
Captcha: bitterly
Now THAT is a nice one.
Re:diy?? (Score:4, Funny)
That's what HE was hired for.
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I wouldn't mind helping or the company I work at (the last would be for pay, maybe the first one as well).
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All too often that's exactly how these situations work. Hire someone to do a job that they think they know how to find the people to do.
I run tinydns for the record, to host my DNS entries. Can't imagine why I'd get someone else to do it.
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You can do both
I run my own primary DNS server, but there are times that machine needs to be down, while the service machines are not. But, nobody could get to anything while the DNS server was down unless they had the name in their cache.
So, I signed up with DNS Made Easy [dnsmadeeasy.com] for $15/year and get 3 DNS servers as secondary DNS, but those three are really many boxes around the world. For not much more, you can have them host all your DNS. They don't have API support, though, so it's not for the original ques
Re:diy?? (Score:5, Insightful)
I know replying to an AC won't do much, but I just feel like it, and have not much else to do right now.
Begin Rant...
Slashdot was _the_ site for breaking news a few years ago, and sites would be regularly slashdotted, etc. Now, blogs have taken over, and push out news MUCH faster than slashdot. I think slashdot has the ability/potential to become more of a community. I used to read the comments of slashdot for more insight, as there are truely intelligent people on this site that leave comments, but lately, the S/N ratio has gone bad.
Stories like this are (I think) an attempt to bring back the good S/N ratio. No, slashdot no longer breaks stories, nor does it need to, the slashdot community has probably read about the articles somewhere else, and now comes here to discuss them. Yes, people flame, and there are many FPs, but thats slashdot, and it adds a little something.
So when I read this story, I read it because I'm looking to learn something from the comments. I think thats the direction the slashdot community is going towards.
End of Rant...
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Err, umm, not so much.
Sure, they weren't too far behind, but being first was NEVER the motivation behind /. I can recall numerous times they waited for DAYS after some major event before picking the best of 100,000 submissions to finally post.
The internet has bigger pipes, as do providers.
There are now numerous large 3rd parties that are happy to offer central hosting services of large images, videos, an
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No, I see where the AC is coming from. At $DayJob I'm an email admin. Seeing more and more small businesses going the Google Apps route, or outsourcing their infrastructure just rubs me the wrong way. It seems like the new solution for everything is "outsource it to Google" or one of the other "big names" in services these days. The problem is that this approach just serves to make EVERYONE dependent upon one particular provider. Assume Google breaks, goes away, etc-- how many sites that you visit dail
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Sure, but email isn't 1. regulated, 2. supported nearly as well as the power infrastructure, 3. a service people depend upon for life or death situations.
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There are technical and business reasons NOT to run your own DNS, even if you are capable. I'm using PAID DNS services from companies that specialize in DNS to save cost. One example is a dnd service that watches for my websites to go down and redirects to what's left up. It will also send people to the server that's geographically closest. Sure, I could pay a few hundred a month for some colo'd servers around the internet. Then either buy some expensive DNS software to do this for me, or try to roll m
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Apparently the article submitter isn't competent enough to do this on his/her own: Why else would he/she submit something so obviously mission critical to Slashdot?
In fairness, I've asked questions on Slashdot that I'm technically competent to research on my own, but I want some real-world information about the alternatives. For example maybe one CPU specs faster than another but has huge heat problems that aren't apparent in the datasheet. Or suppose I were looking to start using either MySQL or PostgreSQL but wasn't sure of the differences because the feature lists look similar. That's when asking for advice makes a lot of sense, because you're looking for inform
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Run a master? (Score:5, Insightful)
How about running your own master DNS server, and having your provider slave from that.
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If you don't mind running your own master DNS server like this poster recommends, DNS Made Easy has a very cheap and very redundant IP anycast based DNS service that we use for all corporate sites. For dollars a month you could have access to their nameservers, which run all over the world. Other services offer similar enterprise DNS functionality, but comparing performance with price, we haven't been able to find a better deal yet.
Re:Run a master? (Score:5, Informative)
Me, too. (That means "mod parent up")
You can use DNSpark (whom I use) or other providers as slaves. Your master doesn't even need to be publicly accessible, just as long as you allow the appropriate zone transfers. This way you can have your own little scripts that generate the zone files on a host you fully control, while having the world query those professionally managed servers.
Re:Run a master? (Score:5, Interesting)
to heck with zone files, set up something like PowerDNS and set it up with a database backup. Do one update query and push out to the slaves. PDNS is also quite snappy, and configuration is far less arcane compared to Bind - in five minutes I had an authoritative, non-recursing DNS server which was not vulnerable to the Kaminsky vulnerability (even if it did recurse). It does things same, logs sanely, and doesn't make me feel like a clueless newbie like Bind does (even after ten years of adminning DNS servers).
Check it out, it's worth it.
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err. Database backEND. Silly iPhone text correction.
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What sort of load can the DB backend handle?
Enough.
Does it use caching?
Yes.
There's a DLZ-bind mod out there, but it executes at least one SQL query for every DNS query; which can't handle even moderate load.
That's their problem. PowerDNS rocks. No more pesky start-up times, no more wondering if the syntax is OK so everything can start up again after a reload, let client have a web interface to his zone using simple SQL...
Re:Run a master? (Score:4, Insightful)
That's the ideal way to do it. Setup your own master server using BIND or whatever, and you get the best of both worlds. You can script access to your DNS server entries, make updates however you want to, and make it as secure as you want to.
Then let the DNS provider simply serve as secondary servers for your DNS domains. Even if your primary DNS server is down for maintenance, the NS records on your domains are pointing at the DNS provider's pool of servers which are geographically separated.
(Alternately, you could try a service like DNSMadeEasy, which allows you to make API-style updates to your DNS entries. Unfortunately, security is a bit thin and you have to hard-code usernames and passwords.)
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Or has stuff changed since I last did this a few years back?
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"who would you go to for DNS glue records?"
If really needed, your DNS registrar will do.
"you need DNS glue from someone above you in order for those DNS servers to be valid."
No, you don't.
"Or has stuff changed since I last did this a few years back?"
No, it hasn't.
You only need glue records... when you need glue records. For a NS that means only if the name server for a domain happens to be within the same domain (so NS for example.com is for instance ns.example.com). On the typical scenario DNSs will be s
Run your own dns servers .... try powerdns (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Run your own dns servers .... try powerdns (Score:4, Informative)
If you indeed do need to run your own dns servers, then I second the PowerDNS recommendation. Having a proper sql backend is just paradise compared to the flat files of, uh, a certain other dns server that should be killed off. It's also worth noting that PowerDNS splits the authoritative server and the recursor into two separate daemons, which is quite a nifty idea.
Re:Run your own dns servers .... try powerdns (Score:4, Informative)
It's not nifty to split authoritative and recursive, it's sane (security).
"media-based company" (Score:4, Interesting)
Are we talking any sort of budget here, or does it have to be free?
Quite a few places will charge a nominal per-year fee for dns, and provide good uptime...
A lot of those are the places you register the domains from, and they make more money on registrations than dns service, but provide both.
Please provide details
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Quite a few places will charge a nominal per-year fee for dns, and provide good uptime...
Could you be more specific?
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MyDNS (Score:2)
You can always run your own DNS server on a slice somewhere using MyDNS. I've had really good luck with it for over 5 years.
Elastic IPs? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Yeah, that's what I don't get. Amazon's Elastic IPs are free as long as there's a host running that they are assigned to. Plus they have an API for re-assigning them on the fly. Just assign them to the front end pound box and be done with it.
FreeDNS (Score:3, Interesting)
FreeDNS [afraid.org] I've been using them for a few years. Updating the DNS info can be done in a single click for all domains. They have a few free update clients, or you can use their API to write your own client.
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Unclear (Score:4, Insightful)
Are you looking for features in a registrar or dns provider? While most registrars also provide DNS service, there's never a requirement that you have to use them. And use them I don't.
I got good and comfortable with Bind many years ago, and have the DNS administration stuff down pat. I have some really nice administration scripts that manage changes by service. Throw in a few variables, some regex, and some DNS boilerplate definition files, and I get the ability to re-ip a service (EG: websites, email, https, dbserver, etc. ad nauseum) for hundreds of domains in 60 seconds flat if you include updating the actual DNS servers with the changes. (I publish 2, I maintain 5 so that I can quickly switch nameservers in case of hardware/network failure)
Other than that, I have all my domains linked to two DNS servers by name, and occasionally I have to move a DNS server. It takes a few minutes.
Is this what you are looking for?
ZoneEdit (Score:4, Informative)
I've been using ZoneEdit [zoneedit.com] for years and they're great. Free for small domains, and really cheap for huge domains. It never, ever breaks. And it's super easy to work with.
I concur (Score:2)
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They did in face have an outage in December 2006. It knocked many folk off the web - even folk who had paid for three servers.
I use them as a primary and secondary service, but also have 3rd and 4th nameservers elsewhere, also geographically dispersed. It'd take something pretty special to knock them all off line.
UltraDNS (Score:3, Informative)
Great infrastructure, robust, API, good people. I've been using them for around nine years now - http://ultradns.com/ [ultradns.com] - highly recommended.
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I recently switched to UltraDNS for my important domains after a string of problems related to my old providers going down under DDoS attacks. So far it seems good. A little pricey but that doesn't really matter so long as they deliver everything they promise.
Their support has already proven to be good too - they even answered a question that was more about my registar than DNS serving.
EasyDNS (Score:2)
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with Bind a simple run of sed through the text config files and a restart and you're done.
Not quite. You would still need to update serial numbers which is very important. I can't think of a simple line of sed that would both update the config itself and the serial numbers in all relevant files.
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Since no one mentioned them... (Score:2)
dnsmadeeasy.
I only know about them because RightScale is using them.
Of course, when presented with this problem, I took an entirely different approach -- I wrote a DNS-as-REST server in Rails, and then a simple pipeclient-to-REST client/plugin for PowerDNS. The assumption is, it doesn't really have to perform well -- so long as it supports AXFR, you can set up any DNS server (or just about any provider) as a slave.
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DNSMADEEASY works for me. Reasonable price and excellent service.
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They also support TXT records, which is something that a lot of DNS providers don't do (or don't do well). So we were able to publish SPF records for our domains without much trouble.
PowerDNS (Score:3, Interesting)
Run your own hidden master (Score:5, Insightful)
Pay a nominal fee to have an ISP slave their big bad never-down DNS servers against your hidden master. Make sure it is set up to allow DDNS updates from your master so there is no lag making the new data public. All you have to worry about is TTL.
Your server server will not take the load and will not have the uptime requirement as the public servers. You can put just about any DNS software on your server so you can use any API you want there.
Run your own servers. (Score:3, Informative)
1) Install and DNS server that supports what is technically called 'dynamic updates' and make sure that the updates can be authorized by keys. This server will be internal.
2) man nsupdate
Here, I'll even do this step for you: http://linux.die.net/man/8/nsupdate [die.net]
3) Set the public facing DNS servers to transfer the zones from your internal DNS server.
4) Tada.
Using ISC BIND, I've setup my zones in a similar fashion. I configured the zone update authorization to be key based instead of IP based.
nsupdate uses no special magic, just RFC based standards to allow zone updates. If nsupdate doesn't fit your bill (and it should, it allows you to batch updates and send them), you can roll your own.
Keep in mind that 'dynamic update' doesn't mean 'low TTL value.' You can set it to whatever you please, it just means that you can updates records without any special zone magic.
What the heck? (Score:5, Interesting)
I wrote:
-davidu
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Comments made to articles in the firehose do not make it to the live site. It's like a BRAND NEW firehose.
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Well that obviously makes a lot of sense. :-)
Thanks for letting me know.
-davidu
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davidu,
I actually met you in college at one point; you were a senior, I was a [self involved] freshman, and you gave me some very good advice then too. FWIW.
Thanks to everyone for all the great advice. I'm going to probably roll with EveryDNS one way or the other out of loyalty to their service which has never let me down.
And we'll donate our savings from DNSPark.
We use and love OpenDNS too. If you're ever in New York, I owe you a beer.
-netaustin
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I'll second Slicehost. Never used their DNS, but with how right they've gotten everything else, I suspect the DNS will rock.
You're kidding, right? (Score:2)
If you are managing that many domains, perhaps its time you, oh, I dunno, ran your *OWN* DNS server?
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See how well your DNS stays up under a massive DDoS attack when you're running your own little server on a T1 line. I've learned from experience that it sucks.
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And the DDoS won't stop the entire service being inaccessible from the outside anyway? DNS is the least of your issues because of DNS caching across the globe. If you're being DDoS'd then you're in trouble anyway... that's not a reason to not run your own DNS or, indeed, to choose an external one. If your DNS host gets DDoS'd, people will still find your IP and get to your services. But if YOU get DDoS'd, there's no service to get to anyway, so it doesn't matter where the DNS is.
Reliability, reduced sup
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Who said anything about a 'little server on a T1'? I would suggest colo a box at one of any number of facilities that provide that service, that certainly have more than a DS1.
And even if he was using a 'little server on a T1', running your own server doesnt mean you can't arrange for slave service from any number of providers around the net, who certainly have more than a DS1.
Nominum ANS (Score:2)
Zerigo (Score:3, Interesting)
Try Zerigo:NS (http://ns.zerigo.com/ [zerigo.com]). The template feature may be enough to meet your needs. Change one template and every domain dependent on it changes at once.
If the templates aren't enough, there's also a REST API (brand new, not yet announced on the site, but should be functional).
Shoot me an email after setting up an account and I'll comp you at least 6mo of whatever level account you need to fit your domains. Be sure to let me know what level account you need.
To the rest of /. -- I'll comp any of you too: just mention this thread and let me know what account level.
(Disclaimer: If it wasn't obvious, I am affiliated with Zerigo.)
Tooting my own horn... (Score:2)
Run your own ... (Score:2)
... DNS servers, using the reliable, secure, high performing, authoritative-only, name server software called NSD [nlnetlabs.nl]. Generate your zone files from a script in your favorite language, and be done with the issues.
DNS Made Easy (Score:2, Informative)
Enom provides API access to their services (Score:2)
"...they both feel a bit Microsoft-y..." (Score:2)
What, precisely, is that supposed to mean?
Oh, the ol' slip in a M$ jibe to get posted on Slashdot? I thought so.
Try GoDaddy (Score:2)
I am surprised nobody I have seen mentions GoDaddy. They don't have a API that I know of, but they have a copy feature that allows you to copy setting(s) from one domain to all the domains. Makes mass updates very easy, and their DNS is rock solid and fast. Plus they are free if you have a GoDaddy account.
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specifically (Score:2)
dyndns.org and your done.
Uh, just run your own DNS server? (Score:3, Informative)
It isn't all that hard you know...
And even a pretty busy DNS server doesn't require vast hardware resources. You already obviously have a hosting infrastructure, etc. Bind 9 can serve up a LARGE amount of DNS requests on a couple of fairly low end machines.
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A bunch of uncoordinated EC2 nodes hardly counts as a "hosting infrastructure".
EC2 nodes are just that: nodes. They're handy if you want to scale the cluster on-demand, but for a lot of the things people use them, they are more trouble that they're worth.
I'm quite glad Amazon doesn't offer fixed IPs on EC2, as that would encourage even more of these nonsensical setups.
Yeah, well. (Score:2)
The cost of setting up a couple DNS servers in a couple of different locations is going to be pretty trivial for anything but the very smallest shops. Basically depends on if it is worth the bother and minor expense.
But EasyDNS does have an API! (Score:2)
EasyDNS does have an API for "Dynamic" IP addresses.
Their clients are listed here: http://support.easydns.com/dyndns.php [easydns.com]
And the API is here:
http://support.easydns.com/tutorials/dynamicUpdateSpecs.php [easydns.com]
IMarv.
Someone please kill the Ask Slashdot category (Score:2)
Let's look at the facts:
- You have 50 domains.
- You're running a multi-layered cluster of web servers on EC2 (why?!)
- You're (ab)using a free DNS service
How hard could it possibly be for you to set up ONE conventional dedicated server as the front-end ? You could run your own DNS on there along with Pound/Varnish or whatever perverse setup you think you need. More importantly you shouldn't be using DNS as your node list... just write your own simple scripts to keep track of all your nodes, then you won't
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Are all your domains hosted on the same set of servers? Could you CNAME the 50 domains to a smaller subset of domain names, and then you only have to change the A records of that subset whenever you have a change?
I second this idea.
I'd also point out that you can ease your DNS transitions by carefully planning a "drawdown" of the TTL values of your records prior to the actual change and/or setting up HTTP redirection on the legacy addresses, redirecting to the new location, during the interval of time in which the new DNS information is still replicating and/or resident in DNS caches.
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The trouble with EC2 and CNAMEs is that you cannot CNAME a base domain.
So you can easily cname www.example.com to whatever you need, but you cannot cname example.com at all.
The better solution (as noted below) is Amazon's Elastic IP offering. Which is free if it attached to a running EC2 instance.
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Just set up a redirect from example.com to www.example.com and never change that. You can move www.example.com around any way you want. It also works better with google indexing.
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You sound like you've had a long drive home. How about posting in the relevant forum next time, m'kay?
I dunno ... it was a pretty damn good rant.
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Look, I just happened to point out that this commercial entity just happens to have one of those! Own your own!"
Hey! It works for the Microsoft Windows guys.
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Re:Try Neustar (formerly UltraDNS) they have an ap (Score:2)
Does the programming that calls the API actually run on their server?
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I second that, i've been a Linode customer for years and their service is great. I haven't used the DNS api but you might want to look into it; as long as it does what you want, I highly recommend the company itself.