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#SkyDNS2

This is an heads up that this version of SkyDNS is going to be replaced by SkyDNS2 which is backed by etcd.

This version will then be available under http://github.com/skynetservices/skydns1.

Things are different in version 2, so please try it and report back any problems, success stories or whatever. You can report issues here or in the skydns2 repository.

We expect this change to take place somewhere mid May 2014, unless issues pop up.

#SkyDNS Version 0.2.0

SkyDNS is a distributed service for announcement and discovery of services. It leverages Raft for high-availability and consensus, and utilizes DNS queries to discover available services. This is done by leveraging SRV records in DNS, with special meaning given to subdomains, priorities and weights.

SkyDNS will also act as a forwarding DNS proxy, so that you can set your SkyDNS instance as the primary DNS service in /etc/resolv.conf and SkyDNS will forward and proxy requests for which it is not authoritative.

Besides serving SRV records, which include all the information you need to connect to your service, SkyDNS will also return A records. This is useful if you already know what port a particular service is using, and you just want a list of IP addresses with known running instances.

Announcement Blog Post

##Setup / Install

Compile SkyDNS, and execute it

go get -d -v ./... && go build -v ./...

./skydns

Which takes the following flags

-domain - This is the domain requests are anchored to and should be appended to all requests (Defaults to: skydns.local)
-http - This is the HTTP ip:port to listen on for API request (Defaults to: 127.0.0.1:8080)
-dns - This is the ip:port to listen on for DNS requests (Defaults to: 127.0.0.1:53)
-data - Directory that Raft logs will be stored in (Defaults to: ./data)
-join - When running a cluster of SkyDNS servers as recommended, you'll need to supply followers with where the other members can be found, this can be any member or a comma separated list of members. It does not have to be the leader. Any non-leader you join will redirect you to the leader automatically.
-discover - This flag can be used in place of explicitly supplying cluster members via the -join flag. It performs a DNS lookup using the hosts DNS server for NS records associated with the -domain flag to find the SkyDNS instances.
-metricsToStdErr - When this flag is set to true, metrics will be periodically written to standard error
-graphiteServer - When this flag is set to a Graphite Server URL:PORT, metrics will be posted to a graphite server
-stathatUser - When this flag is set to a valid StatHat user, metrics will be posted to that user's StatHat account periodically
-secret - When this variable is set, the HTTP api will require an authorization header that matches the secret passed to skydns when it starts
-nameserver - Nameserver address to forward (non-local) queries to e.g. "8.8.8.8:53,8.8.4.4:53", in other words an IP:PORT, where multiple nameservers maybe listed separated by a comma ",". If this list is empty (""), SkyDNS will parse /etc/resolv.conf and will use the nameservers listed there.
-tlskey - The path to the secret key to unlock your ssl cert.
-tlspem - The path to the X509 certificate that will secure skydns.

##API

Service Announcements

You announce your service by submitting JSON over HTTP to SkyDNS with information about your service. This information will then be available for queries either via DNS or HTTP.

When providing information you will need to fill out the following values. Note you are free to use whatever you like, so take the following list as a guide only.

Name - The name of your service, e.g., "rails", "web" or anything else you like
Version - A version string, note the dots in this string are translated to hyphens when querying via the DNS
Environment - Can be something as "production" or "testing"
Region - Where do these hosts live, e.g. "east", "west" or even "test"
Host, Port and TTL - Denote the actuals hosts and how long (TTL) this information is valid.

When queried SkyDNS will return records containing these elements in the following order:

<uuid>.<host>.<region>.<version>.<service>.<environment>.skydns.local

Where <uuid> is the identifier used when registering this host and service. And also note the <service> corresponds with the Name given above.

Note some of these elements may contain a wildcard or be left out completely, see the section named "Wildcards" below for more information.

Without Shared Secret

curl -X PUT -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1001 -d '{"Name":"TestService","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"Test","Host":"web1.site.com","Port":9000,"TTL":10}'

With Shared Secret

You have the ability to use a shared secret with SkyDns. To take advantage of the shared secret you would start skydns with the -secret=<secretString> flag. curl -X PUT -H "Authorization mysupersecretsharedsecret" -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1001 -d '{"Name":"TestService","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"Test","Host":"web1.site.com","Port":9000,"TTL":10}'

If unsuccessful you should receive an HTTP status code of: 401 Unauthorized

Starting with TLS

If you supply the flags --tls-key and --tls-pem Skydns will assume your http interface should be tls. To start with tls it should look something like this.

go run main.go --tls-key=/path/to/secret.key --tls-pem=/path/to/cert.pem

Result

If successful you should receive an HTTP status code of: 201 Created

If a service with this UUID already exists you will receive back an HTTP status code of: 409 Conflict

SkyDNS will now have an entry for your service that will live for the number of seconds supplied in your TTL (10 seconds in our example), unless you send a heartbeat to update the TTL.

Note that instead of a hostname you can also use an IP address (IPv4 or IPV6), in that case SkyDNS will make up an hostname that is used in the SRV record (defaults to UUID.skydns.local) and adds the IP adress as an A or AAAAA record in the additional section for this hostname.

Heartbeat / Keep alive

SkyDNS requires that services submit an HTTP request to update their TTL within the TTL they last supplied. If the service fails to do so within this timeframe SkyDNS will expire the service automatically. This will allow for nodes to fail and DNS to reflect this quickly.

You can update your TTL by sending an HTTP request to SkyDNS with an updated TTL, it can be the same as before to allow it to live for another 10s, or it can be adjusted to a shorter or longer duration.

curl -X PATCH -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1001 -d '{"TTL":10}'

Service Removal

If you wish to remove your service from SkyDNS for any reason without waiting for the TTL to expire, you simply send an HTTP DELETE.

curl -X DELETE -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1001

Retrieve Service Info via API

Currently you may only retrieve a service's info by UUID of the service, in the future we may implement querying of the services similar to the DNS interface.

curl -X GET -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1001

Call backs

Registering a call back is similar to registering a service. A service that registers a call back will receive an HTTP request. Every time something changes in the service: the callback is executed, currently they are called when the service is deleted.

curl -X PUT -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/callbacks/1001 -d '{"Name":"TestService","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"Test","Host":"web1.site.com",Reply:"web2.example.nl","Port":5441}'

This will result in the call back being sent to web2.example.nl on port 5441. The callback itself will be a HTTP DELETE:

curl -X DELETE -L http://web2.example.nl:5441/skydns/callbacks/1001 -d '{"Name":"TestService","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"Test","Host":"web1.site.com"}'

##Discovery (DNS) You can find services by querying SkyDNS via any DNS client or utility. It uses a known domain syntax with wildcards to find matching services.

Priorities and Weights are based on the requested Region, as well as how many nodes are available matching the current request in the given region.

###Domain Format The domain syntax when querying follows a pattern where the right most positions are more generic, than the subdomains to their left: <uuid>.<host>.<region>.<version>.<service>.<environment>.skydns.local. This allows for you to supply only the positions you care about:

authservice.production.skydns.local - For instance would return all services with the name AuthService in the production environment, regardless of the Version, Region, or Host
1-0-0.authservice.production.skydns.local - Is the same as above but restricting it to only version 1.0.0
east.1-0-0.authservice.production.skydns.local - Would add the restriction that the services must be running in the East region

Wildcards

In addition to only needing to specify as much of the domain as required for the granularity level you're looking for, you may also supply the wildcard * in any of the positions.

east...production.skydns.local - Would return all services in the East region, that are a part of the production environment.

###Examples

Let's take a look at some results. First we need to add a few services so we have services to query against.

// Service 1001 (East Region)
curl -X PUT -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1001 -d '{"Name":"TestService","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"East","Host":"web1.site.com","Port":80,"TTL":4000}'

// Service 1002 (East Region)
curl -X PUT -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1002 -d '{"Name":"TestService","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"East","Host":"web2.site.com","Port":8080,"TTL":4000}'

// Service 1003 (West Region)
curl -X PUT -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1003 -d '{"Name":"TestService","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"West","Host":"web3.site.com","Port":80,"TTL":4000}'

// Service 1004 (West Region)
curl -X PUT -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1004 -d '{"Name":"TestService","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"West","Host":"web4.site.com","Port":80,"TTL":4000}'

Now we can try some of our example DNS lookups: #####All services in the Production Environment dig @localhost production.skydns.local SRV

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;production.skydns.local.			IN	SRV

;; ANSWER SECTION:
production.skydns.local.		629		IN	SRV	10 20 80   web1.site.com.
production.skydns.local.		3979	IN	SRV	10 20 8080 web2.site.com.
production.skydns.local.		3629	IN	SRV	10 20 9000 server24.
production.skydns.local.		3985	IN	SRV	10 20 80   web3.site.com.
production.skydns.local.		3990	IN	SRV	10 20 80   web4.site.com.

#####All TestService instances in Production Environment dig @localhost testservice.production.skydns.local SRV

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;testservice.production.skydns.local.		IN	SRV

;; ANSWER SECTION:
testservice.production.skydns.local.	615		IN	SRV	10 20 80   web1.site.com.
testservice.production.skydns.local.	3966	IN	SRV	10 20 8080 web2.site.com.
testservice.production.skydns.local.	3615	IN	SRV	10 20 9000 server24.
testservice.production.skydns.local.	3972	IN	SRV	10 20 80   web3.site.com.
testservice.production.skydns.local.	3976	IN	SRV	10 20 80   web4.site.com.

#####All TestService v1.0.0 Instances in Production Environment dig @localhost 1-0-0.testservice.production.skydns.local SRV

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;1-0-0.testservice.production.skydns.local.	IN	SRV

;; ANSWER SECTION:
1-0-0.testservice.production.skydns.local. 600  IN	SRV	10 20 80   web1.site.com.
1-0-0.testservice.production.skydns.local. 3950 IN	SRV	10 20 8080 web2.site.com.
1-0-0.testservice.production.skydns.local. 3600 IN	SRV	10 20 9000 server24.
1-0-0.testservice.production.skydns.local. 3956 IN	SRV	10 20 80   web3.site.com.
1-0-0.testservice.production.skydns.local. 3961 IN	SRV	10 20 80   web4.site.com.

#####All TestService Instances at any version, within the East region dig @localhost east.*.testservice.production.skydns.local SRV

This is where we've changed things up a bit, notice we used the "*" wildcard for version so we get any version, and because we've supplied an explicit region that we're looking for we get that as the highest DNS priority, with the weight being distributed evenly, then all of our West instances still show up for fail-over, but with a higher Priority.

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;east.*.testservice.production.skydns.local. IN	SRV

;; ANSWER SECTION:
east.*.testservice.production.skydns.local. 531  IN SRV	10 50 80   web1.site.com.
east.*.testservice.production.skydns.local. 3881 IN SRV	10 50 8080 web2.site.com.
east.*.testservice.production.skydns.local. 3531 IN SRV	20 33 9000 server24.
east.*.testservice.production.skydns.local. 3887 IN SRV	20 33 80   web3.site.com.
east.*.testservice.production.skydns.local. 3892 IN SRV	20 33 80   web4.site.com.

####A Records To return A records, simply run a normal DNS query for a service matching the above patterns.

Let's add some web servers to SkyDNS:

curl -X PUT -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1011 -d '{"Name":"rails","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"East","Host":"127.0.0.10","Port":80,"TTL":400000}'
curl -X PUT -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1012 -d '{"Name":"rails","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"East","Host":"127.0.0.11","Port":80,"TTL":400000}'
curl -X PUT -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1013 -d '{"Name":"rails","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"West","Host":"127.0.0.12","Port":80,"TTL":400000}'
curl -X PUT -L http://localhost:8080/skydns/services/1014 -d '{"Name":"rails","Version":"1.0.0","Environment":"Production","Region":"West","Host":"127.0.0.13","Port":80,"TTL":400000}'

Now do a normal DNS query: dig rails.production.skydns.local

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;rails.production.skydns.local.	IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
rails.production.skydns.local. 399918 IN A	127.0.0.10
rails.production.skydns.local. 399918 IN A	127.0.0.11
rails.production.skydns.local. 399918 IN A	127.0.0.12
rails.production.skydns.local. 399919 IN A	127.0.0.13

Now you have a list of all known IP Addresses registered running the rails service name. Because we're returning A records and not SRV records, there are no ports listed, so this is only useful when you're querying for services running on ports known to you in advance. Notice, we didn't specify version or region, but we could have.

####DNS Forwarding

By specifying -nameserver="8.8.8.8:53,8.8.4.4:53 on the skydns command line, you create a DNS forwarding proxy. In this case it round robins between the two nameserver IPs mentioned on the command line.

Requests for which SkyDNS isn't authoritative will be forwarded and proxied back to the client. This means that you can set SkyDNS as the primary DNS server in /etc/resolv.conf and use it for both service discovery and normal DNS operations.

Please test this before relying on it in production, as there may be edge cases that don't work as planned.

####DNSSEC

SkyDNS support signing DNS answers (also know as DNSSEC). To use it you need to create a DNSSEC keypair and use that in SkyDNS. For instance if the domain for SkyDNS is skydns.local:

dnssec-keygen skydns.local
Generating key pair............++++++ ...................................++++++
Kskydns.local.+005+49860

This creates two files both with the basename Kskydns.local.+005.49860, one of the extension .key (this holds the public key) and one with the extension .private which hold the private key. The basename of this file should be given to SkyDNS's -dnssec option: -dnssec=Kskydns.local.+005+49860

If you then query with dig +dnssec you will get signatures, keys and nsec records returned.

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.