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All-new DNS Service Coming on October 8, 2009

By: James Koole on October 2nd, 2009
Posted in: Announcements, OpenSRS Services
Tags: ,
Comments: 4

We just wrapped up development on a complete rewrite our Managed DNS service and it will be going live on October 8th, 2009.

Our developer team undertook the task of rewriting the DNS ordering and management process inside the Reseller Web Interface (RWI) and away from the RWI2. While they were at it, they also added DNS to the OpenSRS XML API as opposed to the Tucows Provisioning Protocol API (TPP) where it current lives. The result of that rewrite was released to the Horizon Test Environment on October 1st, 2009 and includes a number of other changes that we think you’re going to like.

The current Managed DNS Service is Still Fully Available

One thing to note right away is that the current Managed DNS system isn’t going anywhere for now. If you are using Managed DNS, you’ll have lots of time to more over to the new DNS service and we’ll keep you well informed about any important dates and exactly how to move over to the new service. Right now, we’re looking at about a 6 month time frame where we’ll be running both systems in parallel.

What’s new, and what’s improved

The new DNS system addresses a couple of issues surrounding the current Managed DNS service that we’ve long sought to eliminate.

First off, DNS is moving from the RWI2 and the TPP API and into the RWI and OpenSRS API. That accomplishes a couple of other things at the same time:

  1. It transitions DNS into the OpenSRS API and out of the TPP API.
  2. It eliminates the whole ordering process in the RWI2 that tended to confuse and confound some Resellers.

The net result is that DNS services are much easier to order, configure and manage. Provisioning DNS along with a new domain order is as easy as adding a command to the API call to add DNS to the domain, configured with a default template. Adding DNS to a new domain order via the RWI is as simple as ticking a check box during the domain order process which adds DNS to the domain, again, fully configured with a template or your choice.

Additionally, there is now support for IPv6 AAAA records in the new Managed DNS Service.

For the end-user facing Manage Web Interface (MWI) there are some changes as well. We’ve added the ability for end-users to manage their own zone records and set domain forwarding (including domain masking, if desired).

Still Free!

As with the current Managed DNS Service, DNS is included free with your OpenSRS Reseller account.

  • bportlock

    Whey-hey! Fantastic.

    This is a really good move. I have been working on some code recently and this allows me to simplify it massively by removing the redundant order previously required.

    I note that the documentation has already been updated and this looks a lot simpler.

    As far as I’m concerned, you could not have timed it better.

  • http://www.opensrs.com Adam Eisner

    Thanks! We try. :) Kidding aside, though, the goal was to make it as easy as possible, and I think we’ve done a good job there. We’re very excited for tomorrow’s release.

    Adam

  • http://www.zconn.net Eric Longman

    Although I very much like the fact that the provisioning has been streamlined and integrated with the RWI, overall the service seems to be a step backward from the old service.

    The interface has been dumbed down too far!

    For example, the new system simply won’t allow you to set up multiple ‘A’ records for a given subdomain pointing to different addresses. Try, for example, setting up a domain to use Google AdSense for Domains. It’s not possible to do it correctly, since the Google approach requires setting up four ‘A’ records for the domain, each pointing to a different IP.

    The old system handles this with no problem.

    I’ve submitted a ticket to support about this specific problem, but overall I have to say that I’m disappointed with the new management interface compared to the old one.

    Regards,
    Eric Longman
    zConnect

  • Andy

    I’ve taken a look at this and whilst I welcome the move to incorporate DNS into the main OpenSRS control panel, I’m surprised that you haven’t used standard, i.e. BIND, formatting for the entries.

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