AKIBIA'S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Friday, February 13, 2009
DNS Audits: A Practical Guide
DNS is gaining more attention as companies add VOIP and wireless networking to their enterprise. These advancements have put greater strain on DNS and in turn require more sophisticated solutions. As a result, we've been doing a lot more DNS audits for customers. Here are a few things that are critical to a good DNS strategy that most companies do not think about.
- Disaster recovery - is it backed up? Will you be able to restore it? Most organizations lack a process for moving the existing DNS infrastructure into Disaster Recovery mode, which can prove costly should a failure occur. Are there mechanisms in place to provide services seamlessly during hardware and software failures? Can you still manage your environment during a disaster?
- Security – Is your system secure and patched? As discussed in this Network World story, DNS security should be a priority. The security of the DNS architecture depends on the strength of the operating system and server it runs on. It’s important to leverage a dedicated server, and ensure the server and OS receive timely patches and updates. Management of your DNS systems and its data should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure it meets company security requirements. Security controls like those for firewalls and access control lists should be applied to your DNS systems and periodically reviewed.
- Compliance & Reporting (who has which IP address is a subset of this)) – Do you know who’s making changes to your system? Reporting via log management is required for most audits to ensure regulatory and industry compliance. When leveraging excel spreadsheets or “free” DNS companies rely on manually updated information and as a result they are unable to easily determine which users were assigned which IP address, and when, calling into question the accuracy of data when audited. Beyond compliance and auditing, without a strong DNS solution, companies lose out on significant benefits related to monitoring capacity and performance statistics.
- Mis-configuration –Who is making changes to your DNS and have they been properly trained? The amount of people making changes opens up possibilities for mistakes in configuration. Legacy settings, lack of error checking, stale data, and typos can cause slow applications, including email response.
Rick Grimaldi and Steve Wood, Akibia
