Infoblox DNS One provides solid client-to-appliance communication via SSL, and ApplianSys DNSBox300 offers solid primary-to-secondary communication via TSIG (transfer signature). BlueCat Adonis does both. And thanks to blocked ports and hardened Linux setups, all three products offer much better security than BIND on a Unix or Windows Server right out of the box.
This sturdy contender comes in a 1U rackmount chassis that boasts a clear, front-mounted LCD for status and basic configuration input. The efficient admin interface is a Java-based client that will install on Windows, Linux and Solaris. Adonis uses BIND 9, and, like all products tested for this review, it's backward-compatible with BIND 4 and BIND 8.
Out of the box, Adonis gave us the second-best time of the three appliances to get up and running (with one zone and answering queries). We loaded the Java client on a Windows NT desktop, and ran through the slick setup wizards to create a configuration floppy disk. We booted the Adonis box with the configuration floppy, then synched the client and appliance. Total setup time was about five minutes after racking.
The client-based configuration carries an additional benefit: the flexibility to blast away our first config and convert the Adonis from a primary DNS server to a secondary or caching server in less than five minutes. And for less experienced administrators, the initial configuration wizard offers snazzy graphics to explain the different types of DNS topologies (slave, master or DDNS, for instance) that are possible with the BlueCat equipment.
After converting our existing environment's BIND config files to match Unix-style "ti" line endings (we run a primarily Macintosh OS X shop), we could pull in our file (including named.conf) with no problems. We did miss the GUI import tools offered by the other contenders, as we scratched our heads reviewing obscure text-file-formatting issues.
Although the Adonis requires you to install a client on your PC (the other devices use Web interfaces), its interface is both full-featured and simple to use. The client offers a Microsoft Explorer-like tree structure that we found easy to navigate. Adonis' update feature is easily configured from the client, allowing manual or automated pull-downs of BIND and OS security patches from BlueCat.
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