A BlueCat Edge service point is a DNS forwarding/caching resolver which contains the policies that have been applied to it as a BlueCat Edge site or as a member of a site group. Updates to the BlueCat Edge service point are seamless and require no downtime for users. The service point doesn't rely upon connectivity with the cloud instance in order to process DNS requests and enforce policy. The service point will continue to respond to and log DNS requests indefinitely should there be a loss of network connectivity. BlueCat Edge service points become the first hop DNS server for groups of DNS clients. Service points deploy as virtual machines.
Service point configuration
The service point requires an existing DNS infrastructure to be optimized as a caching and forwarding server. It acts as the gatekeeper of your DNS infrastructure as it enforces policy decisions about name resolution based on your policy definitions. Service points can be deployed in a flexible way to achieve the policy outcomes your organization needs.
The service point uses a modern and flexible deployment paradigm that allows the solution to grow and extend over time as new features and capabilities are released.
A service point belongs to a site. A site is a parent object that contains and orchestrates multiple service points. A site isn't necessarily a geographical location, though this is how the grouping construct is often used. You can launch multiple service points in one site. A site can belong to a site group.
BlueCat Edge service points default to DHCP for determining their own IP addressing, however it's advised that you statically configure the address as you would with any other DNS server.
BEST PRACTICE: BlueCat strongly recommends that you provide a static IP addressing for the BlueCat Edge service points. To do this, use static IP address configuration on the service point, or DHCP reservations.
Multiple sites or multiple service points
When you create a site in BlueCat Edge, a service point image is created. You download the image as an .ova file, which can be deployed in the virtual environment. This image can be used multiple times for an individual site. Then, you use the /site <site name> filter command to view the queries associated with the service points associated with a site.