[Pdns-users] advice needed for update from 3.1 to 3.2

[Klaus Darilion]

Hi all!

We have the following setup:

                   -------\
zone provisioning --AXFR---> hidden master        public name servers
(bind/pdns/...)   -------/    (pdns)                   (pdns)
                                 |                        |
                                 |                        |
                             Postgresql ------------> Postgresql
                              Master                   Slaves

The PDNS hidden master receives the zones per AXFR, and stores them into 
the DB. The DB is replicated to public name servers.

I wanted to upgrade the name servers step by step. The documentation 
mentions: "If your frontend does not add empty non-terminal names to 
records, you will get DNSSEC replies of 3.1-quality, which has served 
many people well, but we suggest you update your code as soon as 
possible!". So I started upgrading with the public name servers in the 
hope that 3.2 with 3.1 style DB works at least as good as 3.1. 
Unfortunately this was not the case - 3.2 gives wrong answers with a 3.1 
database [1].

I want to avoid updating the hidden master and the public name server at 
the same time. Is it save to update first the hidden master? Or asked in 
other way: Does 3.1 answers correctly if the database already contains 
3.2-style empty non-terminal names?

Further, to update the DB from 3.1 style to 3.2 style I have to trigger 
AXFR for every zone. This may take some time (~800000 zones). I could 
shorten this time by transferring only zones which are really affected 
by the new schema. As far as I see these are zone with DNSSEC, wildcards 
and zones with multi-layer subdomains - do I miss something here?

Or even better, is there a tool which converts 3.1 style DB to 3.2 style DB?

thanks
Klaus

[1] e.g. Zone example.com
www	IN	A 1.1.1.1
*	IN	A 1.1.1.1

When queried for a.b.example.com, 3.1 returns "1.1.1.1" whereas 3.2 
returns NXDOMAIN if the empty non-terminal names are missing.