BIND 9.11.0a3 introduces catalog zones

[Michael McNally]

BIND 9.11.0a3, the third alpha development pre-release of BIND 9.11,
is now available for download from ISC's website:
http://www.isc.org/downloads

This release includes the debut of an experimental new 9.11 feature,
catalog zones.  Catalog zones are designed to allow easier dynamic
configuration of zones on secondary servers than previous methods,
as described in this snippet from the release announcement:

  A special zone of a new type, a catalog zone (CZ), is set up on the
  master and secondary servers in the normal way.  Once a catalog zone
  is configured, when an operator wishes to add a new zone to the nameserver
  constellation s/he can provision the zone on the master server and add
  an entry describing the zone to the catalog zone.  As the secondary
  servers receive the updated copy of the catalog zone data they will
  note the new entry and automatically create a zone for it, pull the
  zone data from the master server in the normal way, and begin serving
  the zone.

  Deletion of a zone listed in a CZ is done by deleting the entry in the
  catalog zone data.  The update of the CZ data on the secondary
  servers will cause them to stop serving the zone in question and to
  delete it from the secondaries, after which the operator can manually
  remove the zone from the master server.

We'd like your feedback on catalog zones and the other new features in
the development release.  Please see the release notes at:
ftp://ftp.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.11.0a3/RELEASE-NOTES-bind-9.11.0a3.html
and give the new release a try if you have a chance.