DNS Only licence

[DrWizzle]

Suppose i'm being cheeky here asking for this, but on the other hand, curious as to why it's not already a thing.

cPanel, whilst massively overpriced, offer a free licence for a DNS only setup. Admittedly it looks like it's only useful for DNS clustering if you have your own copy of cPanel and WHM, but looks dead handy.

I run servers with DA on, and love it, although my 2 DNS servers I'll end up paying $60 a year each just for the DA licence (Personal plus). Yes, DA personal comes with all the bells and whistles of a full licence, but if we're paying for full licences, shouldn't we get an offering, something like a stripped down DNS only setup for clustering and NameServers? (The multi-server setup is really nice). Even a token licence fee per year to cover admin costs would still be better

Has this been discussed before and is this something DA would consider looking at?

 

[ericosman]

I recently installed an PowerDNS server to sync the DNS works like a charm and is free.

 

[DrWizzle]

I recently installed an PowerDNS server to sync the DNS works like a charm and is free.

Might spin up a VM later and have a play with that. I know there's options, ie BIND9 with axfr, powerdns, directslave and maybe a few others and It won't be that hard to do, I just like the install, link and forget bit with DA. Suppose i'm getting lazy in my old age

 

[ericosman]

Might spin up a VM later and have a play with that. I know there's options, ie BIND9 with axfr, powerdns, directslave and maybe a few others and It won't be that hard to do, I just like the install, link and forget bit with DA. Suppose i'm getting lazy in my old age

Yeah, i had Directslave, but it's not maintained anymore.....

So i changed to PowerDNS now, made some tweaks so my Zabbix server notifies me whenn i need to update stuff, or whenn stuff is not running anymore...

 

[Richard G]

as to why it's not already a thing.

This is already an existing thing for several years even. You can use a personal license for this. If it's used for DNS only, then there are no DNS limits.

But as stated above, there are also free projects working great like PowerDNS and Directslave. We use Directslave on a VPS.

 

[DrWizzle]

This is already an existing thing for several years even. You can use a personal license for this. If it's used for DNS only, then there are no DNS limits.

But as stated above, there are also free projects working great like PowerDNS and Directslave. We use Directslave on a VPS.

Cheers Richard,

That's what i've done. I'm running 2 different vps servers in 2 different geographical locations with a copy of DA Personal Plus on both (solely for DNS resolution). Can't fault it as it works really well but as I said in my initial post, I was being cheeky. What I meant by that was cPanel have free DNS licences that go well with their cPanel and WHM (but very pricey) setups. Whilst I don't begrudge a few pounds every month as the exchange rate is vary favourable, free is always better, especially as DA is in direct competition with the likes of cPanel & Plesk.

Would be great to have a DNS only setup for DNS servers free to marry up with the full server/multi user licences and save the faff (as i'm inherently lazy in my golden years) of setting up a 3rd party software and keep it maintained. Would only need Bind, DA for the APIs and maybe CSF and Letsencrypt. Wouldn't need a web server or any of the email gubbins to keep it simple.

Anywho, sorry to waffle on! I am looking at other bits at the moment just to play about with but will keep the DNS as is I think as it's stable.

 

[Richard G]

What I meant by that was cPanel have free DNS licences that go well with their cPanel and WHM (but very pricey) setups.

Yes indeed. I do understand but as you state yourself already, in fact it's not free because you pay for it too with the very expensive main license which is required.

Ofcourse free is always better, but even with the 5/month extra you won't get anywhere near the cPanel pricing.
DA is in competition for many years, but I very much doubt they will give out free licenses for DNS only as pricing is already very low and until now even never changed since the beginning, in contrary of the competition.

If you realy want something like this the only way is to send in a feature request at feedback.directadmin.com but as said, due to the situation with lifetime licenses cutbacks and the already low pricing, chances that they will do this will be next to 0.

Directslave would be a nice alternative, that works the the DA multiserver setup and quite easy to install. Once installed there is not really any maintenance. And you only need CSF, Directslave and Bind.
Unless you want SSL connections then you have to create the SSL stuff too.
It's worth to have a look at. Really next to none maintenance (except maybe updatig Bind and the OS if you want), easy to setup and works great.