dnsabic is a Bourne shell script for turning an OpenBrick computer into a dedicated Domain Name System (DNS) server. The script does all the legwork: It fetches the needed software from the net, configures all components, even compiles and links the kernel, and finally writes the resultant boot image into a Compact Flash memory card. Once started, there are no questions to answer. It is, of course, possible to run the individual steps separately (see the command line options).
OpenBrick was chosen as a platform because it has no moving parts (no disk, no fan), is small, is based on standard PC-architecture, is self-contained, comes with a Compact Flash card slot, does not consume much power, and costs less than €300.
The installed system is based on Debian GNU/Linux and djbdns. These components were chosen because they are known to be reliable, are available in source form, and can be obtained over the Internet free of charge.
With dnsabic as a catalyst, the above combination of hardware and software results in a DNS appliance that is secure, fault tolerant, easily customisable, silent, small, fast, and inexpensive.
What's the catch? The appliance running the boot image created by dnsabic can very reliably and effectively serve DNS queries, but it is incapable of performing any other functions. It is, by design, "thick as a brick". For example, for security reasons, there is no way to connect to the box over the network (other than making DNS queries to port 53). This means that whenever the DNS data to be published changes, one needs to rerun dnsabic to create a new boot image. This solution, therefore, is best suited for environments where the published DNS data remains relatively static over long periods of time.
The dnsabic manual page: HTML, PDF.
Log output of an example run of dnsabic.
The OpenBrick Foundation.
The latest published dnsabic package is dnsabic-010.tar.gz.
This information is offered in good faith and in the hope that it may be of use, but is not guaranteed to be correct, up to date, or suitable for any particular purpose whatsoever. I accept no liability in respect of this information or its use.
I am in no way involved with the design, manufacturing or marketing of the OpenBrick computer, and have no financial interest in it whatsoever. I chose OpenBrick for this project solely for the reasons mentioned above.