DNS Contingency Switcher™ Data Sheet
With the tuscany networks DNS Contingency Switcher, switching between live and backup services has never been easier.
Using a simple web-based GUI, operators can define individual services and specify the various host names and IP addresses used for the live and backup/contingent/standby systems.
Typically, for most organisations, tracking the host name & IP address relationships in the Domain Name System (DNS) between live and backup services is performed manually, using spreadsheets or products such as Cisco GSS and F5 GTM. Performing these DNS changes manually is a time consuming and error prone process, whilst using Cisco GSS and F5 GTM requires delegating part of the DNS infrastructure to a separate device, therefore introducing an additional layer of complexity and cost that may not be acceptable or appropriate.
With the tuscany networks DNS Contingency Switcher, services can be grouped together and when a switch is required, either a group or individual services can be switched from live to contingent servers and vice versa. Switching can occur immediately or they can be scheduled for some time in the future.
The system is totally flexible and allows the user to identify the type of addresses that are defined by tagging them with a customisable name e.g. 'live', 'standby', 'backup'.
Benefits
- Automate the switching of DNS records for disaster recovery
- Reduce the time required to switch services to your backup data centre
- Revert changes instantly
- Reduce technical complexity
- Eliminate human introduced errors
- Improve efficiency and reduce costs
In order to maintain application and service availability and comply with internal service level agreements, many organisations will implement backup or contingent servers that can be used in the event of a failure of the primary system running a particular application. These contingent servers may also be used if the primary server needs to be taken out of service in order to perform maintenance tasks (e.g. installing Windows updates).
Some environments may take advantage of the healthcheck and load balancing capabilities offered by Cisco GSS or F5 GTM to automate switching between live and contingent servers, but there are occasions where the cost to deploy such solutions cannot be justified, and all that the customer requires is the capability to perform a manual "switch" from live to contingent servers.
If a disaster recovery situation occurs or planned maintenance is required, an administrator makes DNS changes using the DNS Contingency Switcher to switch as few or as many services as required (which could involve many DNS changes). Clients then locate the backup services via DNS.
If the DNS environment utilises DNSSEC, it is important that the DNS data is "re-signed" else the associated digital signatures will be invalid and cause operational problems. This is a complex task to perform manually, but because DNS Contingency Switcher utilises an underlying DDI solution that is DNSSEC aware, this process of re-signing the DNS data is automated. Therefore the whole process of signing and utilising DNSSEC is completely transparent to the operator (in fact they may not even be aware that DNSSEC is being used).
tuscany networks DNS Contingency Switcher is already in use at some of the largest global corporations and has saved many man-hours of work.
