[time] we need more servers

[Brad Knowles]

At 3:44 PM -0800 2005-02-21, Ask Bj?rn Hansen wrote:

>  You can also just leave the well-connected servers in the replies for longer.

	You still have to reload the zones every time you want to make a change.

>  And besides, it's 2005.  Very Frequent updates isn't a problem anymore.

	Yes, it is.  We're talking about relatively small zones, but you 
do have to reload the server much more frequently, and you have to do 
zone transfers more frequently.  At the kinds of levels we're talking 
about, just handling zone transfers alone can be significant.

>  Distributing traffic with DNS really does work; it's how pool.ntp.org
>  works now!

	I understand how the system works today.  I'm telling you that 
it's a crude system which doesn't scale very well, in a variety of 
ways.

>  Is it a perfect load balancer?  No.  Can it distribute the traffic
>  reasonably controlled?  Yes.

	Is it scalable?  No.  And as use of pool.ntp.org grows, 
scalability is the one thing we need above all else.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.