Back in 2012 there was a discussion about having Fedora default to using a local DNS caching name server [1]:
[1] http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.redhat.fedora.devel/166018
I think this needs to be revisited. While DNSSEC support has historically been a driving factor for implementing this, there is an even more fundamental need due to the poor performance of the system in case the first listed nameserver in /etc/resolv.conf fails for some reason. It is shameful that Linux systems and applications in general still, after 20+ years, can't perform adequately after a primary DNS server failure. The stub resolver in glibc which uses /etc/resolv.conf can decide that the first listed nameserver entry is down, but this decision has to be made over and over in every single process on the system that is doing DNS resolution, resulting in repeated long application hangs/delays. We need an independent, system-wide DNS cache, and always point resolv.conf to 127.0.0.1 to solve this fundamental design problem with how name resolution works on a Linux system. Windows has had a default system-wide DNS cache for over a decade. It is about time that Linux catches up.
Yesterday, a new version of dnsmasq was released [2] that adds full DNSSEC support and provides an alternative to unbound which dnssec-trigger requires. There has also been great work done to solve the NTP/DNSSEC bootstrap problem [3]. What options are currently available in e.g. NetworkManager for using a local DNS cache and what is the current status of this integration? Is it ready yet for turning on by default in all Fedora products?
[2] http://lists.thekelleys.org.uk/pipermail/dnsmasq-discuss/2014q2/008416.html [3] http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.embedded.cerowrt.devel/2244