Erlang for Authoritative DNS
summary
Reimplemented an authoritative DNS backend for DNSimple in Erlang, leveraging the binary bit syntax, pattern matching and OTP processes to build an in-memory zone store, packet cache (60s TTL) and a worker queue handoff. Replaced PowerDNS backend and offloaded zone loading to Go for faster text parsing. Measured 99th‑percentile handoff latency of 35–60 microseconds, one node serving 17–25k requests per second, and a 40‑node anycast capacity of roughly 650k–1M qps; startup time and GC remain operational challenges.
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chapters (20)
- 0:00Erlang for Authoritative DNS Anthony Eden Founder of DNSimple
- 4:00Benefits of Erlang
- 4:33Binary Bit Syntax
- 6:12Pattern Matching
- 8:26Processes and OTP
- 8:47Spawn- Init - Receive - Exit
- 9:32Packet Cache
- 15:38Thinking in Erlang
- 16:32Operations
- 17:33Working around what Erlang isn't good at
- 18:43Identify Bottlenecks
- 20:19Optimize sequential paths
- 21:15Reduce garbage collection
- 21:38Packet read loop
- 25:53Process pool
- 26:21In-memory cache of zone data
- 27:03Remote zone loading from a special purpose server
- 28:05Current Performance Metrics
- 28:33SO_REUSEPORT
- 29:43Command & Control
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