DNS_Blog

This is the supporting repo for the corresponding blog that can be found here

Today we are talking about DNS. The one and only, up there with, turning it off and on again. It's always DNS. The thing is, your DNS records can be wiped out without a second thought. By a team member, on a late-night development session, or even worse, your provider.

Due to the recent news about Cloudflare, I decided to make my own DNS more secure and understand my options. You see, there are about 4 types of DNS providers. There are name server level providers. You can often get your DNS needs met in the same place you purchase your domain name, like Namecheap.

This is just fine, and you should scale your needs due to ease of use. Not just what is popular at the time. You can use your VPS, like DigitalOcean. Often, you can use your VPS itself to serve up your DNS. This is also fine. It can be an easy way to go. These two options often leave you a little less protected. You may need to use your own proxies and any other external protection from DDOS, or just the use of firewalls in general.

The next level would be something like Cloudflare. They do offer a lot of free services as of the time of writing this blog. Making them great for new users. Just make sure you keep an eye on the terms of service. Below, I have included an image of a way to download your Cloudflare DNS. If you are expanding rapidly or have a reason to safeguard your records, as a good system administrator, you should always be prepared.

This can help you migrate to DigitalOcean or you can upgrade to something on AWS where the terms are very clear. To be very clear. Cloudflare has not done me wrong so far. But There are some stories going around that might alarm a buisness owner that depends on the DNS working, ALWAYS! Otherwise, what are we getting paid for.

Here is a Link to help you understand why having backups of your records will make redeployment that much faster. One way or another. You need control. Next time we will talk about the importance of backing up your SSL records. Till then, shore it up and cable down.