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Quick Overview
PowerDNS is an open-source DNS server software suite, providing both authoritative DNS server and recursive DNS server solutions. It offers high performance, flexibility, and extensive plugin support, making it suitable for various DNS hosting and management scenarios.
Pros
- High performance and scalability, capable of handling millions of queries per second
- Extensive plugin system allowing for customization and integration with various backends
- Supports multiple database backends, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite
- Comprehensive documentation and active community support
Cons
- Configuration can be complex for beginners
- Some advanced features may require additional setup or plugins
- Performance may vary depending on the chosen backend and configuration
Code Examples
PowerDNS is not primarily a code library, but rather a DNS server software. However, here are a few examples of how to interact with PowerDNS using its API:
- Retrieving zone information:
curl -H 'X-API-Key: your_api_key' http://localhost:8081/api/v1/servers/localhost/zones/example.com
- Adding a new DNS record:
curl -X PATCH -H 'X-API-Key: your_api_key' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"rrsets": [{"name": "www.example.com.", "type": "A", "ttl": 3600, "changetype": "REPLACE", "records": [{"content": "192.0.2.1", "disabled": false}]}]}' \
http://localhost:8081/api/v1/servers/localhost/zones/example.com
- Flushing the cache for a specific domain:
curl -X PUT -H 'X-API-Key: your_api_key' \
http://localhost:8081/api/v1/servers/localhost/cache/flush?domain=example.com
Getting Started
To get started with PowerDNS, follow these steps:
-
Install PowerDNS on your system:
# For Ubuntu/Debian sudo apt-get install pdns-server pdns-backend-mysql -
Configure PowerDNS by editing
/etc/powerdns/pdns.conf:launch=gmysql gmysql-host=localhost gmysql-user=pdns gmysql-password=your_password gmysql-dbname=pdns -
Start the PowerDNS service:
sudo systemctl start pdns -
Verify the installation:
pdnsutil version
For more detailed setup instructions and configuration options, refer to the official PowerDNS documentation.
Competitor Comparisons
Unbound is a validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver.
Pros of Unbound
- Lightweight and optimized for recursive DNS resolution
- Strong focus on security features like DNSSEC validation
- Designed for high-performance caching and minimal memory footprint
Cons of Unbound
- Limited functionality compared to full-featured DNS servers
- Less suitable for authoritative DNS hosting
- Steeper learning curve for configuration and management
Code Comparison
Unbound configuration example:
server:
verbosity: 1
interface: 0.0.0.0
port: 53
do-ip4: yes
do-udp: yes
do-tcp: yes
forward-zone:
name: "."
forward-addr: 8.8.8.8
PDNS configuration example:
launch=gmysql
gmysql-host=localhost
gmysql-user=pdns
gmysql-dbname=pdns
gmysql-password=secret
allow-axfr-ips=127.0.0.1
allow-recursion=127.0.0.1
Unbound is primarily focused on recursive DNS resolution and caching, with a simpler configuration syntax. PDNS offers a more comprehensive DNS server solution with support for various backends and more complex configurations.
CoreDNS is a DNS server that chains plugins
Pros of CoreDNS
- Lightweight and highly performant, designed for cloud-native environments
- Extensive plugin system for easy customization and feature extension
- Native support for Kubernetes and service discovery
Cons of CoreDNS
- Less mature and battle-tested compared to PowerDNS
- Smaller feature set out-of-the-box, requiring plugins for advanced functionality
- Limited support for traditional DNS server use cases
Code Comparison
CoreDNS configuration (Corefile):
.:53 {
forward . 8.8.8.8
log
errors
}
PowerDNS configuration (pdns.conf):
launch=gmysql
gmysql-host=localhost
gmysql-user=pdns
gmysql-dbname=pdns
gmysql-password=secret
CoreDNS focuses on a simple, plugin-based configuration, while PowerDNS uses a more traditional configuration file approach. CoreDNS is designed for modern, cloud-native environments, whereas PowerDNS offers a broader range of features for traditional DNS server deployments. CoreDNS excels in containerized environments and Kubernetes integration, while PowerDNS provides more robust support for complex DNS setups and traditional hosting scenarios.
DNS library in Go
Pros of miekg/dns
- Lightweight and focused DNS library for Go
- Easier to integrate into custom applications
- More flexible for building specialized DNS tools
Cons of miekg/dns
- Lacks built-in server functionality
- Requires more manual configuration and implementation
- Less comprehensive documentation compared to PowerDNS
Code Comparison
miekg/dns:
m := new(dns.Msg)
m.SetQuestion("example.com.", dns.TypeA)
c := new(dns.Client)
r, _, err := c.Exchange(m, "8.8.8.8:53")
PowerDNS:
ComboAddress local("0.0.0.0", 53);
ServerSocket sock(local, false);
DNSServer ds(sock);
ds.doRun();
miekg/dns is a Go library for DNS operations, focusing on providing low-level DNS functionality. It's ideal for developers building custom DNS tools or integrating DNS capabilities into their applications. However, it requires more manual implementation for server functionality.
PowerDNS is a full-featured DNS server and recursor, offering a complete solution out of the box. It provides more comprehensive documentation and built-in server functionality but may be overkill for simple DNS operations or custom tools.
The code comparison shows miekg/dns's simplicity in performing a DNS query, while PowerDNS demonstrates setting up a basic DNS server. This highlights the different focus areas of each project.
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PowerDNS is copyright © by PowerDNS.COM BV and lots of contributors, using the GNU GPLv2 license (see NOTICE for the exact license and exception used).
All documentation can be found on https://doc.powerdns.com/
This file may lag behind at times. For most recent updates, always check https://doc.powerdns.com/authoritative/changelog/
Another good place to look for information is: https://doc.powerdns.com/authoritative/appendices/compiling.html
To file bugs, head towards: https://github.com/PowerDNS/pdns/issues
But please check if the issue is already reported there first.
DOCKER
This README is mirrored from GitHub to dockerhub. For information about our Docker images, please refer to https://github.com/PowerDNS/pdns/blob/master/Docker-README.md
SOURCE CODE / GIT
Source code is available on GitHub:
git clone https://github.com/PowerDNS/pdns.git
This repository contains the sources for the PowerDNS Recursor, the PowerDNS Authoritative Server, and dnsdist (a powerful DNS loadbalancer). All three can be built from this repository. However, all three released separately as .tar.bz2, .deb and .rpm.
The different releases can be built by the help of pdns-builder, which uses a docker-based build process. To get started with this, run these commands in the root of this repository:
git submodule init
git submodule update
./builder/build.sh
This will bring up a USAGE-page which will explain how to build the different releases.
COMPILING Authoritative Server
The PowerDNS Authoritative Server depends on Boost, OpenSSL and Lua, and requires a compiler with C++-2017 support.
On Debian, the following is useful:
apt install g++ libboost-all-dev libtool make pkg-config default-libmysqlclient-dev libssl-dev libluajit-5.1-dev python3-venv
When building from git, the following packages are also required:
apt install autoconf automake ragel bison flex
For Ubuntu, the following packages should be installed:
apt install libcurl4-openssl-dev luajit lua-yaml-dev libyaml-cpp-dev libtolua-dev lua5.3 autoconf automake ragel bison flex g++ libboost-all-dev libtool make pkg-config libssl-dev lua-yaml-dev libyaml-cpp-dev libluajit-5.1-dev libcurl4 gawk libsqlite3-dev python3-venv
# For DNSSEC ed25519 (algorithm 15) support with --with-libsodium
apt install libsodium-dev
# If using the gmysql (Generic MySQL) backend
apt install default-libmysqlclient-dev
# If using the gpgsql (Generic PostgreSQL) backend
apt install libpq-dev
# If using --enable-systemd (will create the service scripts so it can be managed with systemctl/service)
apt install libsystemd0 libsystemd-dev
# If using the geoip backend
apt install libmaxminddb-dev libmaxminddb0 libgeoip1 libgeoip-dev
Then generate the configure file:
autoreconf -vi
To compile a very clean version, use:
./configure --with-modules="" --disable-lua-records
make
# make install
This generates a PowerDNS Authoritative Server binary with no modules built in.
See https://doc.powerdns.com/authoritative/backends/index.html for a list of available modules.
When ./configure is run without --with-modules, the bind and gmysql module are
built-in by default and the pipe-backend is compiled for runtime loading.
To add multiple modules, try:
./configure --with-modules="bind gmysql gpgsql"
Note that you will need the development headers for PostgreSQL as well in this case.
See https://doc.powerdns.com/authoritative/appendices/compiling.html for more details.
If you run into C++11-related symbol trouble, please try passing CPPFLAGS=-D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=0 (or 1) to ./configure to make sure you are compatible with the installed dependencies.
Compiling the Recursor
See README.md in pdns/recursordist/.
Compiling dnsdist
See README-dnsdist.md in pdns/.
Building the HTML documentation
The HTML documentation (as seen on the PowerDNS docs site) is built from ReStructured Text (rst) files located in docs. They are compiled into HTML files using Sphinx, a documentation generator tool which is built in Python.
Install the dependencies under "COMPILING", and run autoreconf if you haven't already:
autoreconf -vi
Enter the docs folder, and use make to build the HTML docs.
cd docs
make html-docs
The HTML documentation will now be available in html-docs.
FreeBSD Notes
You need to compile using gmake - regular make only appears to work, but doesn't in fact. Use gmake, not make.
The clang compiler installed through FreeBSD's package manager does not expose all of the C++17 features needed under the default std=gnuc++14. Force the compiler to use std=c++17 mode instead.
export CXXFLAGS=-std=c++17
macOS Notes
PowerDNS Authoritative Server is available through Homebrew:
brew install pdns
If you want to compile yourself, the dependencies can be installed using Homebrew. You need to tell configure where to find OpenSSL, too.
brew install boost lua pkg-config ragel openssl
./configure --with-modules="" PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/opt/openssl/lib/pkgconfig
make -j4
Additionally, for PostgreSQL support, run brew install postgresql and add --with-modules="gpgsql" to ./configure.
For MySQL support, run brew install mariadb and add --with-modules="gmysql" to ./configure.
Linux notes
None really.
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