Comments about O'Reilly Media DNS and BIND on IPv6:

"DNS & BIND on IPv6" is an appendix to Cricket Liu's work DNS & BIND which exhaustively describes all of the IPv6-related issues when using IPv6 with BIND (as well as briefly touching on other issues like DHCP). This book is not standalone, but an additional chapter for "DNS & BIND".

This book is very limited in scope: It doesn't teach one how to use BIND (that's what "DNS & BIND" is for). It doesn't look at any DNS server besides BIND--for example, it doesn't discuss MaraDNS' reject_aaaa parameter, which is equivalent to BIND's filter-aaaa and filter-aaaa-on-v4. It doesn't do anything but tell you what you need to do to make a BIND DNS server work with IPv6.

Everything to do with IPv6 is here: Configuring an authoritative DNS server to have IPv6 records, IPv6 recursion, work-arounds for the issues IPv6 can cause, DNS64, and it even discusses how to configure DHCP with IPv6 (even though this isn't something directly involving BIND).

All of this is in a tiny little book that is about 40 pages long and can be easily read by an experienced DNS administrator cover to cover in under an hour.

The only issues I can see with this book is that the title is a little deceiving; it really ought to have the word "appendix" or "add-on" to its title. Also, when reading the .mobi version of the ebook on my Kindle for PC client, I had issues reading the charts in the "Built-In Empty Reverse Mapping Zones" section; I had to convert my screen layout from two columns to one column to read this section.

If you use BIND as your DNS server, and want to learn how to upgrade it to use IPv6, this is the mini-ebook to have. Even for people who do not use BIND, sections like the one on DNS64 are insightful for understanding some of technologies proposed to help with the inevitable IPv6 transition process.

DISCLOSURE: A digital copy of this book was given to me because I am a member of the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program.

Comments about O'Reilly Media DNS and BIND on IPv6:

DNS & BIND on IPv6 is a short (37 pages e-book, 52 pages print) text that could be considered an IPv6 appendix to the author's book on DNS. It provides a brief introduction to IPv6 addressing, then moves directly into some of the new record types and configurations necessary to allow BIND to support IPv6.

I would consider this a useful booklet for active BIND administrators. The information is available elsewhere, particularly in the RFC's dealing with DNS and IPv6, but this is a much more convenient and succinct format. Background knowledge of DNS and the operation of BIND is assumed by the author, and the material would be far less useful without that foundation.

Those with an interest in network security or design may also find this material of interest, although it does not directly address those areas.

Overall a good resource from an authoritative source, you will have to decide whether the purchase price is justified for such a brief volume.