This document is about PowerDNS 4.0. For other versions, please see the documentation index.

PowerDNS Authoritative Nameserver

The PowerDNS Authoritative Server is a versatile nameserver which supports a large number of backends. These backends can either be plain zone files or be more dynamic in nature.

Examples of backends include relational databases, other DNS data formats and coprocesses.

Backends

PowerDNS has the concepts of 'backends'. A backend is a datastore that the server will consult that contains DNS records (and some meta-data). The backends range from database backends (Mysql, PostgreSQL, Oracle) and Bind-zonefiles to co-processes and JSON API's.

Multiple backends can be enabled in the configuration by using the launch option. Each backend can be configured separately.

Backend Capabilities

The following table describes the capabilities of the backends.

Name Status Native Master Slave Superslave Autoserial DNSSEC Disabled Data Comments Launch Name
BIND Supported Yes Yes Yes Experimental No Yes No No* bind
Generic MySQL Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes gmysql
Generic ODBC Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes godbc
Generic Oracle Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes goracle
Generic PostgreSQL Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes gpgsql
Generic SQLite 3 3 Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes gsqlite3
GeoIP Supported Yes No No No No Yes No No geoip
LDAP Supported Yes No No No No No No No ldap
MyDNS Supported Yes No No No No No No No mydns
OpenDBX Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No opendbx
Oracle Supported Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No oracle
Pipe Supported Yes No No No No Partial (no delegation, no key storage) No No pipe
Random Supported Yes No No No No Yes (no key storage) No No random
Remote Supported Yes Yes* Yes* Yes* Yes* Yes* No No remote
TinyDNS Experimental Yes Yes No No No No No No tinydns

*: Please read the backend-specific documentation.

Native, Master, Slave, Superslave

Which Mode of Operation (DNS data replication) is supported.

Autoserial

Can the backend automatically generate a SOA serial

DNSSEC

Is serving DNSSEC signed data supported?

Disabled Data

Can a record be marked 'disabled' and not be served but still be in the datastore?

Comments

Are comments on records supported?