Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 02:11:46 -0000
From: EvangeList <evangelist@apple.com>
Subject: Tidbit - Mac Used as Backup University DNS Server

Keyword: Advocacy, Why Macs Are Better

This tidbit is from:

Greg Francis

Last September, two weeks into school, our Unix-based DNS server suffered 
a disk failure on Friday evening at 5:00pm. I offered to set up and 
configure a new DNS server to be used temporarily while the Unix server 
was repaired.

By 7:30pm, I had hauled a PowerMac 6500 from my lab down to central 
computing, downloaded and installed QuickDNS Pro (Demo), and pulled a 
backup copy of the DNS entries from a secondary DNS server and imported 
them into QuickDNS Pro. After doing that, we realized that the Unix 
server had also been used as a mail router for the Novell servers on 
campus. In another ten minutes, I had downloaded Eudora Internet Mail 
Server and had it routing mail.

All services were restored within three hours of the system failure. Most 
of the time was spent getting the DNS tables from backup tape and then 
ultimately a secondary server that we didn't have the password for. It 
also took some time to locate QuickDNS Pro and download it since we had 
lost DNS services.

Needless to say, our director was impressed. The Mac did well enough that 
the two days expected downtime of the Unix server ultimately stretched 
out to two months before it was placed back in service and the Mac was 
returned to my lab. During that time, it handled DNS for more than 1500 
computers in three domains.

While I can't recommend a Mac as a permanent DNS server for that large of 
installation, it's ease of configuration and setup make it an excellent 
backup DNS server and would do a great job as the primary DNS server in a 
smaller setting.

BTW, at my previous employer which is nearly 100% Mac, they permanently 
replaced the Unix DNS/Mail/News server with a Mac to simplify 
administration. It easily handles mail and DNS for the 60+ computers used 
there and I haven't heard of a single problem.