Automating BlueCat DNS Configuration with Ansible
Context
DNS records across the university infrastructure were maintained manually in the BlueCat DNS management platform, making changes slow, inconsistent, and hard to audit across the Informatics and AI & Human Interfaces departments.
Decision
Automate BlueCat DNS configuration using Ansible, driven by version-controlled inventory rather than direct changes in the management UI.
Alternatives Considered
Continue manual changes via the BlueCat UI
Pros
- No tooling investment required
- Familiar to existing staff
Cons
- Error-prone and slow for repetitive changes
- No audit trail or rollback
Build a custom automation script
Pros
- Full control over the workflow
Cons
- Higher maintenance burden
- Reinvents functionality Ansible already provides
Reasoning
Ansible's existing BlueCat modules and idempotent execution model matched the need for repeatable, auditable DNS changes without building custom tooling from scratch. Version-controlling the DNS inventory also made changes reviewable before they hit production.