Using bind in cooperation with LDAP

[mjn]

I am wondering if there is an API or hook of any kind (other method?)  
that one might employ to get DNS information from LDAP.

I've looked at packages like bind-DLZ and bind-sdb that allow one to  
store DNS in ldap but I don't think that's quite what I am after; I  
don't want to put large amounts of the DNS info into LDAP.

Our environment right now has a modified (modified by someone other  
than me) version of bind 8 that allows us to send queries to a  
special zone off to x500 and returns one value from the directory  
that is basically the A-record to the CNAME that was asked for. Each  
user on the directory has their own alias for their mailhost so that  
when it is necessary to move user from host1 to host2, they do no  
have to change their configuration. For example:

1. Our x500 zone is "special.umn.edu"
2. Because it is *.special.umn.edu, when a request comes through for  
smit1234.special.umn.edu Bind8 it is directed at x500 via a directive  
in named.conf
3. A search is performed for the username 'smit1234' which returns  
the value from the 'umnEmailHost' attribute for that username--which  
is something like 'mailhost1.tc.umn.edu' and the user is sent along  
to the proper host.

We are in the process of upgrading our system to Bind9 and the small  
number of systems that handle the above transactions are the only  
holdouts. Is there a simple way to produce the same behavior with bind9?

Does the list have advice on doing something similar with bind9 or  
comments on what might be the best replacement set up? Seems to me we  
could accomplish the same thing using bind-sdb or similar but it  
would involve some more information in the directory...

Thanks!
--
_______________________________________________
Mike Neuharth, BA, LPIC-1
Email/UNIX System Administrator
Internet Services, University of Minnesota
===============================================
"What is important, it seems to me, is not so much to defend a culture
whose existence has never kept a man from going hungry, as to extract,
from what is called culture, ideas whose compelling force is identical
with that of hunger."  -Antonin Artaud