Can one mirror a web server ?

[Jim Popovitch]

Kevin,

Very good summary of what is probably the case w/ the Bind developers.
In hind sight I would have to say that I too would prefer this type of
functionality to be at a higher level than the core of DNS.

-Jim P.

On Wed, 2005-02-02 at 13:52 -0800, Kevin S. Pickard wrote:
> Jim,
> 
> WRT your question:
> 
> > Question for Bind developers:  Wny couldn't a feature (defaulted to off)
> > be added that allows for a simple ICMP test before a request is
> > returned. Yes it would slow things down, but it could allow for
> > rudimentary failover.  Just a thought.
> 
> I am not one, (a BIND dev), but I imagine the answer would go something like: "Fail over is not a function of the DNS".  It has been my observation that, due to it's solid design, people love to "bolt on" some kind of new functionality to the DNS.  These types of ideas are commonly rebuffed with the argument that, although well designed, the DNS was never meant to perform function X, and generally should only be relied on for it's primary functionality.
> 
> It's my belief that things work as well as they do because very smart people kept things simple and straightforward, and didn't try to design something that does everything.  That doesn't mean ideas like this aren't neat, or cool, or even a praiseworthy hack, just probably not something that the devs need to be spending significant amounts of time on. :-)
> 
> Good question,
> 
> ksp
> 
> 
> Kevin S. Pickard
> AT&T (SBC?) Managed Hosting Operations - Tier III
> Infrastructure Engineering, Security and Support