svn commit: r218753 - head/etc/namedb

[Doug Barton]

On 2/20/2011 8:49 AM, Philip M. Gollucci wrote:
> On 2/19/2011 8:35 PM, Doug Barton wrote:
>> On 02/19/2011 16:52, Philip M. Gollucci wrote:
>>> On 2/16/2011 4:23 PM, Doug Barton wrote:
>>>> Author: dougb
>>>> Date: Wed Feb 16 21:23:09 2011
>>>> New Revision: 218753
>>>> URL: http://svn.freebsd.org/changeset/base/218753
>>>>
>>>> Log:
>>>>     Remove in-addr.arpa from the list of zones it is possible to slave
>>>> locally
>>> This is b/c of the recent change to fix the list of root servers that
>>> serve this right ?
>>
>> Not precisely. in-addr.arpa has moved to its own set of servers operated
>> jointly by the RIRs and ICANN. At some point in the near future this
>> zone will no longer be available directly from the root servers at all.
>
> We said the same thing, just I said it badly.

Sorry to be pedantic, but it's for a (hopefully) good reason. People 
often refer to any servers high up in the tree as "the root servers for 
..." There is actually only one set of root servers, the ones that serve 
the actual root zone. For hysterical raisins these servers also served 
ARPA, and IN-ADDR.ARPA. A little bit better job was done with IP6.ARPA 
to start with so it was the first to move from one set of servers 
managed by the RIRs and ICANN to a different set that are similarly 
named in order to take advantage of name compression in the DNS packet. 
IN-ADDR.ARPA is the next to move both for compression purposes, and to 
get the zone off the roots.

So, not to pick on you here, my purpose is simply to clarify that they 
did not change "the list of root servers," they actually changed the 
delegation of IN-ADDR.ARPA to its own set of name servers.

I should probably add that while it's technically possible, it's highly 
unlikely that ARPA itself will move off the roots. The zone is very 
small, and very static; and that is incredibly unlikely to change any 
time in the near future. The IN-ADDR and IP6.ARPA zones on the other 
hand are both larger, and more dynamic (although IN-ADDR is going to be 
changing less and less as time goes on).


hth,

Doug

-- 

	Nothin' ever doesn't change, but nothin' changes much.
			-- OK Go

	Breadth of IT experience, and depth of knowledge in the DNS.
	Yours for the right price.  :)  http://SupersetSolutions.com/