Slashdot Mirror
Mirror Listings Though TXT DNS Records?
mackman asks: "I was wondering if anyone has ever though about using their DNS servers to provide mirror information? A specially formated TXT-record could easily provide a DNS-cache-friendly mirror listing. A TXT-record would just need a list of servers and paths, or perhaps a more complicated mapping for servers which only mirror a subset of the original site. This would allow for much more flexibility than a basic round-robin A-record scheme. For example, instead of pounding the Red Hat web server to get a mirror listing (or relying on Slashdot posts for that matter), why not do a 'dig -t txt mirrors.redhat.com'? Of course we could build this into download managers like wget."
This is a very nice idea.
But for more usability the record should include the location (country and continent) of each mirror, so your favourite download manager can try the nearest mirrors first.
Another question is how quick such lists would be replicated/cached by your ISP's DNS server...
-- I love the smell of Blue Screens in the morning.
Instead of shoehorning in functionality into a free-form field (or so I assume, by its name), why not use something more appropriate? Why not write an I-D about how DNS should include "MIRROR" records? I'll leave it to the mailing lists to debate whether DNS should know so much about a name, and the specifics of what exactly is meant by "mirror" (what content, what protocols, etc.).
The IETF has some great things cooking. RSerPool, e.g. -- though it's not designed primarily for load-distribution (rather uptime, AFAIK). Perhaps I'm suggesting you use a hammer to crack a nut, but this might abate the need for posting mirrors, like you said.
Open Source is such a beautiful thing. It's unfortunate that so much of its energy is spent writing competing implementations of various similar protocols. But I digress.