Data sheet

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BlueCat EDGE Enabled Migrations

Edge for migrations

Migrate your DDI management system to Integrity with ease

Key Takeaways

BlueCat Edge enables staged DDI migrations by initially prioritizing legacy DNS in the namespace hierarchy while Integrity passively builds authoritative data.
Gateway automates the capture and population of DNS records into BlueCat Address Manager on a per-query basis, reducing manual data reconciliation during migration.
Intelligent forwarding across legacy and Integrity DNS ensures continuity of resolution and minimizes the risk of service disruption during cutover phases.
Namespace reordering allows network teams to reverse priority so that Integrity becomes the primary DNS, with legacy systems retained as a fallback until final decommissioning.
Granular IP, zone, and record exclusion controls in Edge’s migration UI prevent unwanted or out-of-scope DNS data from being imported into Integrity.
Separated Dynamic DNS update paths ensure legacy DHCP updates only legacy DNS and BlueCat DHCP updates only BlueCat DNS, avoiding conflicting records during coexistence.

DDI migrations without risk of service disruption

To meet demands for more resilient, scalable networks, network teams are migrating to management solutions for DNS, DHCP, and IP address management (together known as DDI). However, DDI migrations can be challenging to plan and execute. Legacy DNS data changes are continually missed and not reflected in the new solution. Without a way to build redundancy and migrate DNS in real time, network teams risk major service disruptions from incomplete or rushed cutover migrations.

The solution: BlueCat Edge

With BlueCat Edge, you can easily migrate from legacy systems to BlueCat Integrity’s DDI management solution. Edge’s intelligent forwarding and adaptive plugins simplify the migration process while mitigating downtime risk. Edge applies a hierarchy to namespaces, prioritizing the legacy system for DNS resolution. Meanwhile, BlueCat’s automation platform, Gateway, automatically captures and adds DNS data, query by query, to BlueCat Address Manager without disrupting normal operations.

Once the migration of DHCP data into the Integrity environment is complete, network admins can reverse the namespace hierarchy, making the legacy system a redundant check for any failed DNS queries before a final cutover.

BlueCat interface showing DNS query logs and detailed query information with inspect client activity button

Benefits

Reduce risk

Use intelligent forwarding with new and legacy systems to ensure there is an answer to every DNS query.

Configuration flexibility

Leverage Edge to reorder namespace hierarchy at any migration stage.

Real-time automation

Use Gateway to automatically capture and store DNS queries to facilitate seamless migrations.

Seamless integration

Enhance your network team’s migration strategy with BlueCat’s proven methodologies and tools.

Features

Namespace order

Initially order all sites in Edge to forward queries to the legacy DNS system, followed by Integrity.

Record migration

As the legacy DNS system provides them, add the queried records and authoritative responses to Address Manager.

Dynamic DNS updates

Ensure that the legacy DHCP server updates only the legacy DNS server, and that the BlueCat DHCP server updates only the BlueCat DNS server.

IP exclusion

Exclude DNS records associated with specific IP addresses and ranges from being added to Address Manager by manually entering them or uploading a CSV file to Edge’s migration UI. Integrity is the first namespace and top priority for DNS responses, followed by the legacy DNS system.

Zone and record exclusion

Exclude sets of DNS zones and records from Integrity by manually entering them or by uploading a CSV in Edge’s migration UI.

Reverse namespace order

As DHCP networks migrate from legacy devices to Integrity, configuration of the corresponding site in Edge ensures that Integrity is the first namespace. It has top priority for DNS responses, followed by the legacy DNS system.

BlueCat Edge DNS resolution flow from edge service point through DNS and BIND to gateway and address manager

Figure 1. Edge migration

Next steps

Learn how you can easily migrate your DDI management system to Integrity without service disruption.

Learn More

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