DNS-collector is a command-line DNS telemetry collector designed to sit between DNS infrastructure and monitoring, analytics or security systems. It captures DNS queries and responses, processes the resulting events through configurable pipelines, and forwards structured data to downstream systems without requiring every DNS server to implement its own integration.
The program is aimed at operators who need visibility into DNS activity across anything from small installations to large infrastructures. Its pipeline model separates collection, processing, routing and output, allowing a single collector to bridge DNS servers with several destinations while keeping the data path centrally configured.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Collects DNS traffic from servers such as BIND, PowerDNS and Unbound through DNStap streams or live packet capture.
- Filters and normalizes records before forwarding them, helping reduce noise from health checks, probes or other unwanted traffic.
- Can anonymize client addresses and enrich events with GeoIP, autonomous system information, threat intelligence, metadata and custom tags.
- Routes events to destinations including ClickHouse, Kafka, Loki, Elasticsearch, syslog and Prometheus.
- Supports output formats including text, JSON and PCAP, together with templated output for customized records.
- Provides batching and configurable routing policies for building multi-stage processing pipelines.
- Offers operational telemetry through a REST interface and Prometheus-compatible metrics.
- Extends DNStap deployments with facilities such as encrypted transport, compression and additional metadata.
- Understands DNS-specific fields such as EDNS data and query types, and can track request latency before export.
Website: github.com/dmachard/DNS-collector
Support:
Developer: Denis Machard
License: MIT License
DNS-collector is written in Go. Learn Go with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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