[dns-operations] Welcome to the "dns-operations" mailing list

[Joseph S D Yao]

On Tue, May 23, 2006 at 07:39:46PM +0000, dns-operations-request at mail.oarc.isc.org wrote:
> Welcome to the dns-operations at lists.oarci.net mailing list! This list
> is open to humans but closed to bots.  New subscribers will be asked
> to describe themselves and their DNS environment before being added to
> the list.

OK.

I'm about 5' 11.75", dark hair with a little silver these days ...

Oh.  DNS.  Work.  Yah.  ;-)

And an odd sense of humor ...

I'm a computer person who's used Unix since 5th Edition and been pretty
hooked on it and its clones and sort-of-descendants ever since.  I used
the HOSTS.TXT;nnn file until well past it became non-viable, and was
glad to see DNS come into its own.  I currently help care for a number
of USG networks, each with their own peculiarities - some rather
peculiar! - when it comes to DNS, as well as a couple of "just for fun"
systems on the public Internet that pose no problems beyond the usual
(*sigh*!!!) lack of clue when trying to get things done Right.

As you might have guessed from that last, one of my peculiarities is
trying to do things Right.  As some of you may have noticed, I also try
to help other folks do things Right when I can, although my time has
gotten a bit short lately.

Other peculiarities include a campaign to stop calling SERVERS
"primary", "secondary", "master", and "slave", and acknowledge that to
the CLIENT they are all just "peer servers".  Who may happen to have a
master copy of a particular zone, or may happen to have a copy of a zone
that is slaved to another copy on another server.  But that doesn't
describe the SERVER, just the provenance of the copy of the zone on that
server.

*ahem* Right, DNS environment.  One firewalled-off network that has
subdomains of multiple TLDs inside, but also wants to resolve all
domains on the public Internet that are not inside it [including
subdomains of the same TLDs].  So, classic internal root doesn't work.
One completely separate network that is trying to partially merge with
another completely separate network - both using registered public IP,
so that's not a problem - but the DNS on the other network is in very
bad shape, and the struggle here is (a) to legitimately replicate enough
of the DNS on both sides that both can survive if there is a split, and
(b) to get the other guy's network DNS working well enough that my heart
stops aching for them every time I have to do a DNS operation over
there.  [Not my job, but then ...]  Yet another totally separate network
where people tried years ago to both merge separate networks with
separate DNS roots, and keep them separate at the same time - and are
starting to feel the pain for some possibly wrong decisions.

I think that's about all I want to say before either treading on
proprietary information, or on somebody else's toes.  ;-)

-- 
Joe Yao
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