Quick feature - allow a description for entries in zone files.

[websafe]

Quick feature request - allow a description for entries in zone files.

Hello

It would be great to have a possibility to add a few words of description for zone-file entries.
With complex zones, multiple and often changing entries, it would be helpful to have a short description field.


Now it's this way (CMD_DNS_CONTROL):

NAME       TYPE   VALUE
_______    A      _________   ADD
_______    NS     _________   ADD
_______    SRV    _________   ADD

and it could be:

NAME       TYPE   VALUE       Description
_______    A      _________   ___________ ADD
_______    NS     _________   ___________ ADD
_______    SRV    _________   ___________ ADD

and rendered this way:

something	14400	IN	A	192.168.0.1	;; Description goes here
anotherone	14400	IN	A	192.168.0.2	;; And description goes here

Is this a good idea?


Peace & love

 

[Richard G]

I don't understand what good it should do.
If you understand DNS, there is no problem at all because every entry explains itself.

Do you have or can you show/create an example from something which would be complex and would be made easyer to understand if there would be a description option?

 

[chatwizrd]

No its not useful at all. No one should need to go in the zone files manually.

 

[nobaloney]

What does the method of editing have to do with presence of comments in th file?

Jeff

 

[websafe]

Thank You for Your comments. A few words of explanation.

It's because DA will do two things with entries in zone files:

1. Entries are sorted (can I disable this somewhere?)
2. Comments in zone files are removed after each zone update.

Users zone files are pretty standard - created from a template, that's ok.

But sometimes resellers have more complex zones. Just imagine a zone with 20 dedicated servers (A records) each dedicated server is running 3-7 virtual machines with public IP addresses. Sure no problem:

; dedicated servers
ds1 IN A 1.2.5.1
ds2 IN A 1.2.6.1
ds3 IN A 1.2.7.1
ds4 IN A 1.2.8.1

To keep the zone file readable (entries grouped by dedicated server), I have to name virtual machines this way:

; vmachines on ds1
ds1-vm1 IN A 1.2.5.1
ds1-vm2 IN A 1.2.5.2
ds1-vm3 IN A 1.2.5.3

; vmachines on ds2
ds2-vm1 IN A 1.2.6.1
ds2-vm2 IN A 1.2.6.2
ds2-vm3 IN A 1.2.6.3


because when I do it this way:

;virtual machines on ds1
vm1.ds1 IN A 1.2.5.1
vm2.ds1 IN A 1.2.5.1
vm3.ds1 IN A 1.2.5.3

;virtual machines on ds2
vm1.ds2 IN A 1.2.6.1
vm2.ds2 IN A 1.2.6.1
vm3.ds2 IN A 1.2.6.3

;virtual machines on ds3
vm1.ds3 IN A 1.2.7.1
vm2.ds3 IN A 1.2.7.1
vm3.ds3 IN A 1.2.7.3


the zone will look this way (after being sorted by DA):

vm1.ds1 IN A 1.2.5.1
vm1.ds2 IN A 1.2.6.1
vm1.ds3 IN A 1.2.7.1
vm2.ds1 IN A 1.2.5.2
vm2.ds2 IN A 1.2.6.2
vm2.ds3 IN A 1.2.7.2
vm3.ds1 IN A 1.2.5.3
vm3.ds2 IN A 1.2.6.3
vm3.ds3 IN A 1.2.7.3

The virtual machines are not always named `vmN` so the shown example is still kinda readable. Imagine virtual machines named www.something, mail.something and how the zone looks in DA after being sorted.

So maybe that's not really a comment related problem, but is there a way to tell DA "do NOT sort entries after changing the zone"?
For now, the only solution I see is to not edit those zones via DA, but directly in zone-files.

 

[nobaloney]

I believe that even if you don't edit them in DirectAdmin they'll still be rewritten whenever zones files are rewritten by DirectAdmin (possibly when updating the serial number in the SOA record).

I've never found a system for updating DNS in a control panel which I've liked, but I've learned to understand the DirectAdmin way and it's limitations.

What I do is include a separate file in the named.conf file, in which I list zones I need to manage manually, and then I manage them manually, in a different path.

Works, but cumbersome.

Jeff