How big is the DNS database being stored at the 13 root servers?

[Charles Cala]

--- JW <j5w_ng at att.net> wrote:
> How big is entire DNS database?   I'm looking for the answer in terms
> of bytes not necessarily # ip addresses.  10 terabytes?  More?

more, it is HUGE, and highly variable, but the question was, 

> How big is the DNS database being stored at the 13 root servers?
what is going on in the " . " zone, is small..

http://www.isoc.org/briefings/019/
[google search string { root name servers file contents tld }
first entry ]

"Essentially the DNS root name servers reliably publish the 
contents of one small file to the Internet. The file is called 
the root zone file. On 12-Dec-2004 there were 5335 lines of text 
in the file which had a size of 119KB; you can find this 
particular version here: http://www.isoc.org/briefings/020/zonefile.shtml

This file is smaller than the ISOC home page http://www.isoc.org/. 
The root zone file also does not change very frequently; it changed 
only 7 times between 11-Nov-2004 and 12-Dec-2004 and only 90 times 
in the year preceeeding 12-Dec-2004. The individual changes are all 
localized and relatively small. "


> I searched Google and was amazed that I couldn't find the answer to
> this question.

the 13 you asked about are the master indexes of the other indexes,
look at the file and it tells you where to go.

it MUST be small because it is hit so often.


There is no one “dns database” its like the internet, it’s a 
“database of networked databases” plus, there are some that are not 
reachable by the public.

Will you also account the 1918 space, the private zones? 
All the stuff going on under .mil that we don’t see?

The google querry I used was 
verisign dns +com size +net
and this was #3 on the list.
http://www.verisign.com/Resources/Naming_Services_Resources/Domain_Name_Industry_Brief/page_002689.html

“Com Net Dynamics
Reaching a total of 27 million domains by year end 2003, 
Com has more total registrations than any other TLD “

“VeriSign processes over 10 billion Com/Net queries per day”

“New Registrations 
The market has been adding an average of 908K new Com/Net 
registrations monthly through 2003. October's addition of 
991K domains marks a new milestone. 

Renewals 
Strong renewal rates are key to the continued success of the industry. 
With rates ranging from 50% in January 2003 to 70% in November 2003”

They even have an email address for questions domainbrief at verisign.com.

So just based on numbers pulled out of an unreliable source 
(the above quoted paper) 27 million *2 = 54 million lines in that .com db, 
minimum (probably) if each domain has 2 ns lines (some have more).
space on disk depends on compression/file system.

So now all you have to do is go down each rabbit hole and 
follow all the branches til it ends. Ie asylum.sf.ba.ca.us
us	all of usa (not just states)
ca	just one state in usa
ba	just one region (San Francisco bay area)
sf	one city in that region
asylum	the domain 
and now how many machine names does that domain have?

asylum.sf.ba.ca.us aint at that name nomore, 
they have moved..  (hi dave,et al:)

That’s the great thing about DNS, because you could care less about 
asylum.sf.ba.ca.us it never has to be in the " . " servers, but 
pointers from the " . " servers that allow you to find the asylum in under
a few seconds, THAT’S the magic of how dns works.

get this book http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/dns4/ read it, 
set up a dns server, look at the traffic, then come back and 
ask more questions, AFTER you are SURE you can not find the answers.

-charles

Trebek: And the answer is... The word for this garden implement 
also means a person of uncertain moral character. 
Ken Jennings: What is a ho? 
Trebek: (spluttering with involuntary laughter) Rake. Rake