[Sysadmin] [ronr at linuxdude.com: bounces]

[William Anderson]

David Kaufman wrote:
> William Anderson <neuro at well.com> wrote:
> 
>>David Kaufman wrote:
>>
>>>... I've have all of my domains on EveryDNS for
>>>over a year and have been 100% satisfied with the top-notch service
>>>David runs there.  Is there some configuration option you can't do
>>>through the EveryDNS.net web interface?
>>
>>I think we need to have local multiple-hands control over our DNS.
> 
> 
> Don't we?  EveryDNS has a web interface.  Don't we have a login?  If
> not, then we should.  As I mentioned in my post I have a great,
> easy-to-use web interface to manage the DNS for all my domains on
> EveryDNS.  I can edit zone files by hand, and configure tinydns data
> files too, but when you gotta make a change fast, I've found DavidU's
> web-based front-end hard to beat.
> 
> So, just to confirm, is the problem that we have evolt DNS pointed at
> EveryDNS, a fantastic web-based DNS editor, but then we rely on David U.
> alone to manually make any changes for us?  If so, perhaps we can get
> him to throw us a username and password to the uber-cool DNS control
> panel, so that the next time we wanna setup a newthing.evolt.org in the
> middle of the night we can, and need neither wake up DavidU nor set up a
> DNS server to do it...

OK, here's my take ...

I have no problem with everydns.  Someone at my work told me yesterday in 
the absence of information (a communications vacuum), people just make stuff 
up to fill the blanks :)  everydns is fine, I have no probs.  However, as an 
utterly paranoid bastard, I'd much prefer it if we ran bind locally on 
tempest (which we do now) and can make changes fast from anywhere in the 
world.  Tapping keys is always faster than a web interface IME, no offence 
to davidu and everydns.

Yes, it's maybe hardcore sysadmin indulgence and snobbery to consider a web 
interface to something as fundamental as our DNS information as being ... 
well, unpleasant and not nearly enough geeky to be usable, but hey that's 
just me.  I spend time during my day making DNS changes using our own 
bespoke DNS interface to zones we (my employer) manage or own simply because 
it's The Best Way To Do It In Our Environment.  I just feel comfortable 
looking at zone files for bind and seeing any hiccups when doing 
/etc/init.d/bind reload && tail -f /var/log/daemon.log :)

If there's a majority overrule here, then so be it and I'll use the web 
interface, but I personally would just feel better (again absolutely no 
insult intended to davidu and everydns) if we had primary control on 
tempest.  By all means have everydns slaving off tempest and providing 
primary/secondary(/tertiary/etc!) public name service for evolt.org and 
evolters.org, but I would just feel better ... I said that already :)

Quick vote?  I understand that John's not here, but there's enough of us to 
make some sort of interim decision at any rate, yes?

Howabout +1 for what I've suggested above, -1 if you disagree, and an 
assumption that you'd rather go with everydns as complete authoritative 
primary and point-of-management too unless you give an alternative alongside 
your -1 ...

I think it's a given I'm +1ing my own suggestion :)

Thoughts and/or votes please?

-- 
_ __/|  William Anderson      | "There's something about records which is
\`O_o'  neuro at well dot com |  really satisfying."
=(_ _)= http://neuro.me.uk/   |     -- John Peel (1939 - 2004)
    U  - Thhbt! GPG 0xFA5F1100 |