System administration

DNS – recursive and authoritative DNS server

rDNS is a security-focused DNS server. Unlike software intended solely as a recursive resolver, rDNS can operate as a recursive resolver, a forwarding server, an authoritative DNS server, or combine recursive and authoritative duties.

The software uses an asynchronous multi-threaded architecture built on Tokio. Its DNS cache is sharded for concurrent access, while zone information can be held in memory and populated either from conventional zone files or a PostgreSQL backend.

This flexibility makes rDNS potentially useful for installations ranging from self-hosted recursive DNS through to organisations that need authoritative serving and DNS filtering from the same service.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

  • Performs iterative recursive resolution using root hints.
  • Can forward requests to configurable upstream DNS resolvers.
  • Serves authoritative zones from standard zone files.
  • Offers an optional PostgreSQL backend for authoritative DNS data.
  • Supports DNS-over-TLS using rustls.
  • Performs DNSSEC chain-of-trust validation.
  • Provides Response Policy Zone filtering for blocking or redirecting domains.
  • Uses a concurrent sharded cache with TTL expiry and negative caching.
  • Provides a Unix socket control interface together with the rdns-control command-line utility.
  • Exports Prometheus-compatible monitoring metrics.
  • Supports privilege dropping and additional platform-specific security mechanisms.
  • Can reload PostgreSQL-backed zone information using LISTEN/NOTIFY.
  • Supports simultaneous UDP, TCP and encrypted DNS listeners.

Website: github.com/ZerosAndOnesLLC/rDNS
Support:
Developer: ZerosAndOnes LLC
License: MIT License

rDNS is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.


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