CoreDNS

CoreDNS

CoreDNS is an open source DNS server that chains plugins and provides DNS services. It is lightweight, flexible, and designed for high performance and security.
CoreDNS image
dns server networking

CoreDNS: Open Source DNS Server with Chains Plugins

Open source DNS server chaining plugins for high performance and security, lightweight and flexible design.

What is CoreDNS?

CoreDNS is an open source, pluggable DNS server that provides DNS services by chaining plugins. It is developed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

Some key features and benefits of CoreDNS include:

  • Lightweight and fast - Built with performance in mind using Go, it provides low memory usage and high throughput.
  • Flexibility - Its plugin architecture allows for flexible configuration to handle diverse DNS use cases.
  • Scale & Resilience - Designed for modern infrastructure, it scales horizontally with ease and provides resilience.
  • Security - Secure by default with support for DNSSEC validation and forwarding queries over TLS.
  • Kubernetes Integration - Native Kubernetes integration allows serving cluster DNS records easily.
  • Community - Developed openly by a community, contributions and extensions available from plugins.

Overall, CoreDNS aims to provide a simple yet powerful DNS server that excels in modern infrastructure environments like containers, microservices and cloud-native applications.

CoreDNS Features

Features

  1. DNS server that chains plugins
  2. Supports common record types like A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, PTR, SOA, SRV, TXT
  3. Built-in health check endpoint
  4. Supports metrics for monitoring
  5. Supports multiple data formats like JSON, YAML, TOML
  6. Can integrate with Kubernetes

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Lightweight and fast

Flexible and modular architecture

Highly customizable via plugins

Easy to deploy

Open source

Cons

Less out-of-box functionality than some alternatives

Steeper learning curve than more opinionated options

Need to write custom plugins for advanced use cases

Limited built-in web UI/dashboard


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