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BlueCat’s DNS Glossary
Welcome to the A-Z of DNS.
A record
A DNS record that maps domain names to IPv4 addresses.
AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting)
Refers to a family of protocols that mediate network access.
AAAA record
A DNS record that maps domain names to IPv6 addresses.
ACI (Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure)
Cisco’s software-defined networking (SDN) solution for data center and cloud networks.
ACL (Access Control List)
Limits which entities are allowed to perform certain functions against a DNS server, such as sending queries or performing dynamic updates.
Active Directory
A Microsoft directory service for Windows domain networks that is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services.
Anycast
A traffic routing algorithm used for the speedy delivery of website content that advertises individual IP addresses on multiple nodes.
Authoritative DNS server / Authoritative name server
Provides original and definitive answers to DNS queries.
BAM (BlueCat Address Manager)
BlueCat’s IPAM solution that brings all IP address, DNS, and DHCP information into a single pane of glass.
BDDS (BlueCat DNS, DHCP Server)
The DNS and DHCP servers that get their data from BAM and serve it to clients.
BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)
A standardized exterior gateway protocol to exchange routing and reachability information among autonomous systems on the internet.
BIND
Widely-used software that allows you to publish your DNS information on the internet, and to resolve DNS queries for your users. Learn More
Bridgehead server
A domain controller that functions as the primary route of Active Directory replication data moving into and out of sites.
Broadcast routing
Packets are sent to all nodes even if they do not want it.
Caching DNS server
A server that handles recursive requests from clients.
In the world of core network infrastructure there’s more jargon than you can shake a dictionary at.
It’s easy to get confused by all those buzzwords and acronyms. (Even we struggle sometimes—and we do this for a living.)
That’s why we’ve written this glossary: to provide simple definitions of every DDI-related term we can think of. (Including ‘DDI’.)
We’ve also included links where appropriate to content on our website which will help you learn more if you want to.