An Introduction to DNS Traffic Management - Shopify

What this post added

This post introduces the fundamental concepts of DNS and traffic management, explaining their combination into DNS traffic management. It provides a historical overview of DNS, its architecture (root servers, TLDs, nameservers, zones, records), and the role of TTL and caching. It also defines traffic management and its application to DNS, highlighting the trade-offs between low TTL for rapid updates and the impact on DNS resolution time. The post then details four use cases for DNS traffic management: easy failover (active-passive), sharing traffic between endpoints (active-active), progressive deployment of changes, and geographical distribution of traffic. This post sets the stage for a deeper dive into Shopify's specific implementation in a subsequent article.