DNS ROOT understanding

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Nicolas" == Nicolas Liénard <nlienard at fr.colt.net> writes:

    Nicolas> Is there a good way to monitore the life about Root
    Nicolas> Server ? (ping ? dig ?  other ?)  in order to be warn
    Nicolas> when there is a problem.

There is no point in doing this. So don't. Even if you did, what are
you going to do if you found a problem? [Which is highly unlikely.]
Who are you going to call? And would they pay any attention to you?

Sure, someone could monitor a root server with ping or dig. But
there's no need. The root server operators already monitor their name
servers 24x7. Nothing would be gained if you monitored the servers as
well. Additional probes from you or anyone else on this list would
just increase the grossly excessive amount of unwanted and unnecessary
traffic these servers get already. That's harmful to everyone.

Besides, if your name server is well-behaved, it will only communicate
with a root server 4 or 5 times a week: every time it queries for a
domain name in a TLD that hasn't been cached already. Why worry about
monitoring that? I doubt you're monitoring the status of the name
servers and domains that your server queries many times each day.
These will be the things most likely to create operational problems
for you, not the root servers. Or most TLD servers for that matter.

Leave the root servers alone and concentrate on making sure *your*
name servers are properly configured and operated. If everyone did
that, we'd all win and the DNS would be in a far, far better state
than it is at present.