DNS app for directadmin?

empoweri

empoweri

Verified User
Joined
Feb 15, 2005
Messages
49
Location
New York
Hi guys I was wondering if there is a need for the transfer of DNS from directadmin servers to DNS servers, seperating DNS from the directadmin server.

How much would you be willing to pay for this?

I've seen some stuff on the forums that are somewhat complete.

The software we developed for our hosting setup could apply to any company that has multiple directadmin servers (and other control panels) with seperate DNS servers.

Some Features:
- Ability to exclude domains from transfering
- directadmin and custom DNS is supported (DNS outside of directadmin)
- immediate transfer of updates to the primary DNS after the customer makes DNS updates via directadmin control panel
- automatic creation of named.conf files for master and slave servers and transfer of slave config to slave DNS server.
- drop in placement of named startup script to appease directadmin

We are using named, SSH, with rsync and custom perl scripting and doesn't use DirectAdmin's API calls they recently created.
 
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Would consider it at the right price. There is a defenite need for it.
 
No offence, but there are already articles out there on how to do this...
Hell, I did it to a lot of servers yesterday.

However, the scripts we use are incomplete, I'll compare that to your solution:

Some Features:
- Ability to exclude domains from transfering Got that, however, not automated
- directadmin and custom DNS is supported (DNS outside of directadmin) Yeah, got it
- immediate transfer of updates to the primary DNS after the customer makes DNS updates via directadmin control panel I'd like to see how you did that; trusting on Bind to notify slave servers perhaps ?
- automatic creation of named.conf files for master and slave servers and transfer of slave config to slave DNS server. Got that
- drop in placement of named startup script to appease directadmin Not needed.

My solution uses:
Bind, custom scripting, some creative stuff with apache (yeah, I should do something about that).

I perhaps could be convinced to pay for such a solution if there were the following features:
1. Admin level interface in DA where domains can be excluded, or given a certain priority level
2. Priority levels for different servers with same domains (note: otherwise Bind would crash)

If at this time people already would like a solution to this problem, there are more than enough howto's and guide, and even people who can set it up and explain how to use it (for not a lot of money).
However, with the features I mentioned, you could get an advantage over the other solutions.
 
Icheb, I'm trying (hard :) ) to release the beta of DNS Replicator today.

Jeff
 
Icheb where is the information available to do what you are already doing?
 
- automatic creation of named.conf files for master and slave servers and transfer of slave config to slave DNS server. Got that
Click to expand...

Really? where? You are telling me if a customer adds a new domain to their hosting plan that the scripts found in the forum will add the NEW domain name to the named.conf files of the primary and slaves DNS Servers (not DirectAdmin's named.conf file)? if it exists... I haven't seen that script.

- immediate transfer of updates to the primary DNS after the customer makes DNS updates via directadmin control panel[/b] I'd like to see how you did that; trusting on Bind to notify slave servers perhaps ?
Click to expand...
We are not using hidden masters because it is not instant. It is also automated, unlike the things you mention above. It is also done securely .

- drop in placement of named startup script to appease directadmin Not needed.
Click to expand...

It IS needed in order to get instant updates of DNS. hidden masters is S L O W.

My solution uses:
Bind, custom scripting, some creative stuff with apache (yeah, I should do something about that).
Click to expand...

Is your solution secure to prevent an new domain name to be injected? I'm assuming the apache is not secure.

The info listed on the forums is not really complete and isn't automated.

Hence why I posted this message.

And the pricing range we were considering is more in the $100-$200 range. I realize that for some this is too much money, but the solution we have was very time intensive to develop and just works. For someone to hire or do the development themselves you would easily spend 10+ hours on this.
 
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empoweri,

Please be careful to NOT tread on anyone's toes in your post, to avoid having them edited/deleted and our being blacklisted from the forum.

You've come to our forum as a brand new poster offering to sell us something, and you seem to be doing it by putting down others' offerings.

In addition to Icheb's solution (I don't recall if he's posted details or his scripts previously, but I know what they do and I know what they don't do) there's my solution which resolves some of the issues he's had.

And you refuse to admit that a solution can be quite instant any other way but the way you've chosen to do it.

You may have an incredibly good solution, but you're offering to sell it for a large percentage of what many of us have paid for all of DirectAdmin. Hopefully you'll find a market for your solution.

But please respect those of us who have created our own solution, who have offered it to the community freely, or for whatever we want to charge as well.

Thanks.

Jeff
 
I wouldnt pay $100-200 for it, thats just my own opinion, I have paid less for software that has had 10x as many hours put into it, I just have a certian perspective of value for money. Also you are a new poster so I have less faith in you sticking around. Basically what I need is to have DA auto update a master dns server elsewhere whenever a dns change is made in the DA control panel. The rest of the system I have working with my own work, like I said I will pay but not extorniate amounts. Perhaps $20 or so.
 
Chrysalis said:
Icheb where is the information available to do what you are already doing?
Click to expand...
I don't have a lot of time at the moment, so I'll elaborate later on.

I did post it somewhere in these forums with the comment 'DO NOT USE THIS IF...' with it.

Really? where? You are telling me if a customer adds a new domain to their hosting plan that the scripts found in the forum will add the NEW domain name to the named.conf files of the primary and slaves DNS Servers (not DirectAdmin's named.conf file)? if it exists... I haven't seen that script.
Click to expand...
I have set up a bash script that dynamically creates a named.conf file from the available domains. It uses DA's setup.txt to determine the right server ip to use :).
But due to the cronjob, a new domain will be distributed within 15 min over all servers.

Furthermore my scripts detect changes made to the named.conf, and after a newer version of named.conf is in place, it will reload the daemon, which will cause a nice new synchronisation. I do admit, it can, sometimes, take a few minutes untill all new domains are loaded up. A zonechange is detected within 4 hours (TTL of the zone).

Is your solution secure to prevent an new domain name to be injected? I'm assuming the apache is not secure.
Click to expand...
It is safe against injections, it isn't safe if people can find the named.conf file, as I haven't included a .htaccess (which can be made quite easily).
As long as the person who wants to inject doesn't have ssh access (or similair), it's safe against injections.

Jeff: before you release, check out the DA ipswap.sh script, read the named part, donno if your latest version supports the places where DA stores it's info on different distro's already. I had to rewrite my script for Debian support during the move from datacenters... (I don't recommend this to anyone ;)).

Chrysalis: I'll post the public (non latest) version of my solution in my wiki at http://www.icheb.info/wiki/index.php/DNS_synchronisation
 
jlasman said:
You've come to our forum as a brand new poster offering to sell us something, and you seem to be doing it by putting down others' offerings.
Click to expand...

jlasman,

I'm not sure what you mean by putting down someelses offering. I have NEVER seen Icheb offering (or yours for that matter). If anything from rereading the thread it appears that my solution was being dissed.

If you reread this thread Icheb stated his app already had all of these features, I wanted to find if his script really did all of the features that ours did.

I also started this thread to see if anyone would be intrested in software we use for our directadmin setup. If no one wants it at the price we want then that answers my question :) I also spoke to my developer and it is more on the tune of 40-50 hours.

And you refuse to admit that a solution can be quite instant any other way but the way you've chosen to do it.
Click to expand...

Where did I state this??!?? I seem to have stated previously if you are using bind to transfer DNS (via hidden masters) it is S L OW (in most cases more than one hour), which is a fact. That's all.
 
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Chrysalis said:
Also you are a new poster so I have less faith in you sticking around. Basically what I need is to have DA auto update a master dns server elsewhere whenever a dns change is made in the DA control panel.
Click to expand...

Our company is new to DA BUT not new to hosting (we previously had our own custom developed CP) I've personally been doing web development and web hosting for over ten years.

So we are not going anywhere.
 
empoweri said:
I also started this thread to see if anyone would be intrested in software we use for our directadmin setup. If no one wants it at the price we want then that answers my question :) I also spoke to my developer and it is more on the tune of 40-50 hours.
Click to expand...

You might as well, you never know who might be interested ;).
I do think it's priced rather high for only 40-50 hours of work, but that's just me.
 
jmstacey said:
I do think it's priced rather high for only 40-50 hours of work, but that's just me.
Click to expand...

The reason for the price is because of:

1. A much much smaller market than say many other directadmin add on products. Many directadmin customers will never need this (because they only have one or two servers) A product like Installatron pretty much any DA customer could use it. How many DA customers have 3 or more servers? My guess reading the forums, less than 10% If directadmin has 3000 customers less than 300 would be POTENTIAL customers. That's pretty small market to price in the sub $50.00 range.

2. The time and $$$ required to support customers that purchased it.
 
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empoweri,

I read your first response to Icheb the way I read it, and I don't apologize for that.

And I don't agree that using hidden masters has to delay propagation.

We recommend our scripts (over the last few days I've been referring to DNS Replicator, but I've been confused, my partner has reminded me that my current scripts are part of an open-source solution we call "master2slave"), which are designed to run the DA server as master and the other server(s) as slave(s), to update the server via cronjob every 15 minutes, and we run our nameservers with a 600 second TTL, but that's us.

Certainly other methods can be used, including cronjobs every minute, or even rsync.

And certainly our scripts can be used in a hidden-master environment while they weren't designed for that use.

To quote the definition you get for "Hidden Master" if you just type "hidden master DNS" (without the quotes) into google and click on "Feeling Lucky":
You don't have to list the actual master server at all. It is sufficient that the listed servers know the IP address of the actual master. The registrar doesn't need this information. Then it's a "hidden master".
Click to expand...
And it's probably obvious to most of us that since there's no method built in to BIND to allow for propagation of the config file, no matter whether you use a "hidden master" or not, whether your rsync you zone files or use a slave configuration in the named.conf file and let the "slaves" retrieve the zones, you still have to use your own method of getting the contents of named.conf from the DA system to the other systems.

If you've looked at the posts already on the forums you know that we have had one problem that's kept us from releasing our code (certainly my code, and I believe it's responsible for the disclaimer/warning that Icheb has published), has been the issue of eliminating duplicates; if you're moving a domain from one of your DA servers to another, then you may have DNS records on both servers, and BIND will refuse to start if it's got duplicate zone references.

That's been the problem, and it is now resolved.

That all said, I do intend to release our code as soon as possible since it appears to work well now.

When I do, I'll be happy to clean this entire thread of the posts that don't answer the specific question you raised in your first post; leaving only the ones that refer to interest and price. Let me know if you'd like me to do that. (Note that email is best, but private message or even posting here will work; it'll just take longer for me to find it.)

Jeff
 
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