Lab-Wide DNS Client Rollout

July 31, 2026

Rolled Abbey's internal Technitium DNS service out to every managed Linux host.

Tags: Abbey Root • Infrastructure • DNS • Ansible

Lab-Wide DNS Client Rollout

Summary

Abbey’s internal DNS service is no longer limited to one validation client.

All five managed Linux hosts now use the Technitium service on edge01 for the canonical home.arpa namespace.

Accomplishments

• Added a reusable Ansible DNS client role.
• Supported both NetworkManager and netplan hosts.
• Blocked competing DNS and search-domain data from IPv6 router advertisements without disabling IPv6.
• Configured home.arpa as the lab search domain.
• Removed dependence on the AT&T gateway for Abbey hostnames.
• Completed forward and reverse records for every managed host.
• Validated short names, fully qualified names, and external DNS from the full managed inventory.
• Confirmed repeated DNS-only Ansible runs are idempotent.
• Rotated the Wi-Fi credential exposed during troubleshooting.

Lessons Learned

A normal external resolver is not a useful fallback for an internal authoritative zone. DNS resilience will eventually require a second server that also knows about home.arpa.

Tailscale may still win for some single-label hostnames, so the fully qualified host.home.arpa form is the canonical choice when the LAN identity matters.

Next Steps

• Add friendly internal service records after the naming strategy is finalized.
• Evaluate a second authoritative resolver only when actual redundancy is needed.