CeBIT 2010: Preview of BIND 10 DNS Server

BIND 10 should replace the 10-year-old BIND 9, which BIND developers say constitutes 80 percent of all DNS servers. The anticipated BIND 10 new features should include better cluster capabilities. The server will not only run in a cluster, as many users are already running scripts to accomplish, but it should have a management interface for communication within the cluster.

The developers are also planning a generic interface for file storage whereby files, SQL databases, and other alternatives can connect. BIND 10 should thus be able to serve large registries with millions of entries or ISPs with many small zones, as program manager Shane Kerr explained to Linux Magazine Online. In the longer view, BIND 10 should include a complete rework of the DNSSEC security protocol.

BIND 10's development is under the non-profit Internet Systems Consortium's (ISC's) watchful eye; however, whereas BIND 9 was mainly the work of ISC developers, BIND 10 is more directed as a community project and, therefore, on a broader know-how basis. The ISC set up a project page with a wiki, repository access, and bugtracker expressly for the purpose. The first release should have a technology preview around March 19, 2010 that will show the results of BIND 10's first year of work. The first production version should be available in 2012.

Among the sponsors are country registries such as for Japan, Canada, and Germany; however, the project is also requesting support from other areas, to generate a product that will satisfy as many needs as possible. The server is written in C++ in certain performance-critical parts and in Python. Source code is under BSD licensing. Shane Kerr and his colleagues are ever present at CeBIT Open Source in Hall 2 of the Project Lounge.