pdns Cookbook

Installs and configures PowerDNS (pdns). Sets up an authoritative by default and can set up an Authoritative Server with multiple backends.

Requirements

Platforms:

• Ubuntu (12.04, 14.04)

Required Cookbooks:

• build-essential (for source build)
• resolvconf (used in the server recipe for setting resolv.conf)

Suggested Cookbooks:

• mysql (for the MySQL backend)
• sqlite (for the SQLite backend)
• postgres (for the PostgreSQL backend)

Attributes

Depending on the type of server you are installing there are specific options you may want to set via attributes. Several attribute files handle settings of the different 'flavors' of a PowerDNS install, that is an authoritative server, a slave server or a recursor. Also there is two attribute files that handle the way PowerDNS should be installed: via a package or compiled by source.

The different combinations of install method and functionality are handled by the attributes 'build_method' and 'flavor' located in the default attributes file. You can set these attributes according to your needs.

default

source

package

authoritative

slave

recursor

Further configurations

Every flavor has it's own attribute namespace for customizing it. More precisely

The ['pdns'][flavor]['config'] array directly maps to each
configuration directive in the configuration file. Of special note is
any configuration option that needs a hyphen (-) should be defined
as an underscore (_) and it will be converted at compilation time.

For example, if you want the version-string setting to be changed for your
authoritative server, you'll want to define it like so:

default['pdns']['authoritative']['config']['version_string'] = 'awesomedns'

Another thing to note is boolean values are mapped to 'yes' and 'no'
respectively. If you want to remove a value, simply set it to 'nil' or do not
define the attribute entirely.

Usage

Add the default recipe and set the right attributes ('flavor' and 'install_method') to install and configure PowerDNS as your needs. The default behavior is installing a recursor by package.

To set up a recursor, simply put recipe[pdns::default] in the run list. Modify the attributes via a role or on the node directly as required for the local configuration.

To set up an authoritative server, put recipe[pdns::default] in the node's run list and set the attribute node['pdns']['flavor'] to 'authoritative'. Modify node['pdns']['authoritative']['backend'] attribute in order to install one or more backends, the default backend is bind. Choose between 'package' and 'source' installs in the node['pdns']['install_method'] attribute. Further tune your server configuration with node['pdns']['authoritative']['config'].

To set up an slave server, add recipe[pdns::default] to you run list and set the attribute node['pdns']['flavor'] to 'slave'. Choose between 'package', 'source' with the node['pdns']['install_method'] attribute. Tune your server specific configuration with node['pdns']['slave']['config'].

Notes

• Currently this cookbook just provides minimal bind backend configuration and leaves to the user how to provision and manage the bind zone file required by the backend (see https://doc.powerdns.com/md/authoritative/backend-bind/). Also, take a look at test/fixtures where a example bind zone file is located for testing.
• For PostgreSQL backend a recipe for creating the database schema and user is provided, it is also used for testing.
• Ubuntu has an specific database configuration when using their packges for backends, it's located here: /etc/powerdns/pdns.d/
• It is not possible to install both an authoritative server and a recursor on the same machine using the flavor attribute.

Backends and flavors

There are several combinations of backends and flavors available, currently a few of them have been tested, more or less the ones that represented in .kitchen.yml file, specifically:

• Authoritative / bind backend (package and source)
• Authoritative / PostgreSQL backend (package and source)
• Authoritative / pipe backend (package and source)
• Resolver (package and source)
• Slave (package and source)

 TODO

• Add MySQL backend
• Add SQLite backend
• Use ubuntu /etc/powerdns/pdns.d/ for configuring PowerDNS.

License & Authors

• Author:: Joshua Timberman (joshua@chef.io)
• Author:: Aaron Kalin (aaron.kalin@dnsimple.com)
• Author:: Jacobo García (jacobo.garcia@dnsimple.com)
• Author:: Anthony Eden (anthony.eden@dnsimple.com)

Copyright:: 2010-2014, Chef Software, Inc & 2014-2016 Aetrion, LLC.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.