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DNSControl: A Tool for Synchronizing DNS to Multiple Providers

Table of Contents

DNSControl is a tool for maintaining DNS zones. It has two components: a domain specific language (DSL) for describing DNS zones plus software that processes the DSL and pushes the resultant zones to DNS providers such as Route53, CloudFlare, and Gandi. It can talk to Microsoft ActiveDirectory and it produces the most efficient BIND zone files ever. It runs anywhere Go runs (Linux, macOS, Windows). The provider model is extensible, so more providers can be added.
Currently supported DNS providers:

  • Active Directory
  • BIND
  • CloudFlare
  • DNSimple
  • Gandi
  • Google
  • Namecheap
  • Name.com
  • Route 53

Benefits

  • Editing zone files is error-prone. Clicking buttons on a web page is irreproducible.
  • Switching DNS providers becomes a no-brainer. The DNSControl language is vendor-agnostic. If you use it to maintain your DNS zone records, you can switch between DNS providers easily. In fact, DNSControl will upload your DNS records to multiple providers, which means you can test one while switching to another.
  • Adopt CI/CD principles to DNS! StackOverflow maintain DNSControl configurations in Git and use CI system to roll changes. “Keeping DNS information in a VCS means we have full history. Using CI enables us to include unit-tests and system-tests. Remember when you forgot to include a “.” at the end of an MX record? We haven’t had that problem since we included a test to make sure Tom doesn’t make that mistake again.”
  • Variables save time! Assign an IP address to a constant and use the variable name throughout the file. Need to change the IP address globally? Just change the variable and “recompile.”
  • Macros! Define your SPF records, MX records, or other repeated data once and re-use them for all domains.
  • Control CloudFlare from a single location. Enable/disable Cloudflare proxying (the “orange cloud” button) directly from your DNSControl files.
  • Keep similar domains in sync with transforms and other features. If one domain is supposed to be the same
  • It is extendable! All the DNS providers are written as plugins. Writing new plugins is very easy.

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