OT - Small DNS "appliances" for remote offices.

[david.reader at zeninternet.co.uk (David Reader)]

On Wed, 18 Feb 2015 06:28:16 -0800
Ray Van Dolson <rvandolson at esri.com> wrote:

> Hopefully not too far off topic for this list.
> 
> Am looking for options to deploy DNS caching resolvers at remote
> locations

> We're BIND-based and leaning to stick that way, but open to other
> options if they present themselves.

I've found that "unbound" is lighter on the machine, but it does depends what you require feature-wise and/or operationally, of course.
 
> Am considering the Soekris net6501-50.  I can dump a Linux image on
> there with our DNS config, indudstrial grade design, and OK
> performance.  If the thing fails, clients will hopefully not notice due
> to anycast which will just hit another DNS server somewhere else on the
> network albeit with additional latency.  We ship out a replacement
> device rather than mucking with trying to repair.

If you're looking at Soekris, you might also find the PCEngines products interesting.

The "APU" series appears similar at a glance - and they do offer a case (not rackmount, sadly - although 3rd parties might) to suit.

http://www.pcengines.ch/apu.htm

At the lower end, the "ALIX" boards are available in a standard 100mm x 160mm "eurocard" format which makes them very easy to rack up..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/81p75pyz1ngsvm6/DSCN0916.JPG?dl=0

Whichever way you do it, a small low-power box running entirely from flash or ssd is likely to be a good "fit and forget" (security updates aside!) solution.

If you want to run from a cheap flash card, and are a linux shop, http://linux.voyage.hk/ is a debian-derived system targetting the PCEngines boards which runs with a read-only filesystem.

d.