Techniques for indicating a degraded state of an authoritative name server

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11743107-B2
Application number	US-201815881590-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 26, 2018
Priority date	Jun 26, 2017
Publication date	Aug 29, 2023
Grant date	Aug 29, 2023

Abstract

In one embodiment, a zone resiliency application indicates that an authoritative name server is in a degraded state. In operation, the zone resiliency application determines that the authoritative name server is in a degraded state. The zone resiliency application then generates a status record that indicates the degraded state. Subsequently, the zone resiliency application associates the status record with a domain name service (DNS) response to a DNS query. The zone resiliency application then transmits the DNS response and the associated status record to a requester.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for indicating a degraded state of an authoritative name server, the method comprising:
determining, at a first authoritative name server, that the first authoritative name server is in a first degraded state, wherein determining that the first authoritative name server is in the first degraded state comprises:
detecting an abnormal pattern of queries received by the first authoritative name server from a plurality of requesters, or
detecting an abnormal pattern of responses sent by the first authoritative name server to the plurality of requesters;

generating a status record specifying that the first authoritative name server is in the first degraded state, wherein the status record includes at least one of:
a degradation severity value specifying a severity level of the first degraded state, or a degradation cause value specifying a cause of the first degraded state;

associating the status record with a domain name service (DNS) response to a DNS query; and
transmitting the DNS response and the associated status record to a requester.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the status record comprises an Extension Mechanisms for DNS (EDNS) pseudo resource record.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the status record further specifies at least one characteristic of the first degraded state, and further comprising:
determining the at least one characteristic; and
adding the at least one characteristic to the status record.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating the DNS response based on a priority of the DNS query.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein generating the DNS response comprises:
determining that the priority is high; and
in response, performing one or more DNS resolution operations that produce an address record, a text record, a service record, or a name server record associated with the DNS query.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein determining that the priority is high comprises determining that the requester is included in a whitelist.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a zone resiliency application included with the first authoritative name server determines that the authoritative name server is in the first degraded state without first receiving a message from a second authoritative name server indicating that the first authoritative name server is in a degraded state.

8. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:
determining, at a first authoritative name server, that the first authoritative name server is in a first degraded state, wherein determining that the first authoritative name server is in the first degraded state comprises:
detecting an abnormal pattern of queries received by the first authoritative name server from a plurality of requesters, or
detecting an abnormal pattern of responses sent by the first authoritative name server to the plurality of requesters;

generating a status record specifying that the first authoritative name server is in the first degraded state, wherein the status record includes at least one of:
a degradation severity value specifying a severity level of the first degraded state, or
a degradation cause value specifying a cause of the first degraded state;

associating the status record with a domain name service (DNS) response to a DNS query; and
transmitting the DNS response and the associated status record to a requester.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 8 , wherein the status record comprises an Extension Mechanisms for DNS (EDNS) pseudo resource record.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 8 , wherein associating the status record with the DNS response comprises generating a DNS message that includes the status record and the DNS response.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 8 , wherein the status record further specifies at least one characteristic of the first degraded state, and further comprising:
determining the at least one characteristic; and
adding the at least one characteristic to the status record.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 8 , wherein:
potential causes of a plurality of potential causes of the first degraded state are each specified using a different degradation cause value, and
at least one potential cause of the first degraded state comprises:
a maintenance operation on the authoritative name server,
one or more network partitioning operations, or
a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 8 , further comprising generating the DNS response based on a priority of the DNS query.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 13 , wherein generating the DNS response comprises:
determining that the priority is not high; and
in response, specifying a DNS return code that indicates an error associated with the first authoritative name server.

15. A system comprising:
a memory storing a zone resiliency application; and
a processor that is coupled to the memory, and executes the zone resiliency application by:
determining, at a first authoritative name server, that the first authoritative name server is in a first degraded state, wherein determining that the first authoritative name server is in the first degraded state comprises:
detecting an abnormal pattern of queries received by the first authoritative name server from a plurality of requesters, or
detecting an abnormal pattern of responses sent by the first authoritative name server to the plurality of requesters;

generating a status record specifying that the first authoritative name server is in the first degraded state, wherein the status record includes at least one of:
a degradation severity value specifying a severity level of the first degraded state, or
a degradation cause value specifying a cause of the first degraded state;

associating the status record with a domain name service (DNS) response to a DNS query; and
transmitting the DNS response and the associated status record to a requester.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the status record comprises an Extension Mechanisms for DNS (EDNS) pseudo resource record.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the status record further specifies at least one characteristic of the first degraded state, and processor further executes the zone resiliency application by:
determining the at least one characteristic; and
adding the at least one characteristic to the status record.

Assignees

• Verisign Inc

Inventors

• Kaliski Jr Burton S
• Osterweil Eric
• Wessels Duane
• Scalzo Frank
• Wiley Glen
• Huque Shumon

Classifications

• H04L41/0654 Primary

  using network fault recovery (ring fault isolation or reconfiguration in loop networks without recovery actions by a network management system H04L12/437) · CPC title

• H04L61/4511 Primary

  using domain name system [DNS] · CPC title

• H04L61/5076

  Update or notification mechanisms, e.g. DynDNS · CPC title

• H04L61/58

  Caching of addresses or names · CPC title

• H04L69/40

  for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06) · CPC title