NS1 Connect Integrations with Terraform, Ansible, OctoDNS and OpenStack Designate
NS1 Connect, the intelligent DNS and traffic management solution from IBM, is built for automation. By integrating with leading Infrastructure as Code (IaC) toolkits, NS1 Connect transforms DNS management from a manual chore into a fully automated, version-controlled process, aligning your network series perfectly with your DevOps pipelines.
This feature spotlight highlights the key IaC integrations that allow you to manage your DNS records, zones and traffic steering policies from your codebase – Terraform, Ansible, OctoDNS and OpenStack Designate.
What are Infrastructure-as-Code Integrations?
Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) is the practice of managing and provisioning infrastructure through machine-readable definition files rather than manual processes. When applied to DNS, IaC enables teams to:
NS1 Connect supports a wide range of integrations, including four powerful IaC integrations:
Terraform, created by HashiCorp and now owned by IBM, allows teams to define DNS configurations declaratively, consistently and at scale. Using the NS1 Connect Terraform provider, DNS zones and records can be created, updated and version controlled alongside other infrastructure components in your IaC ecosystem. It is ideal for declarative infrastructure provisioning across cloud environments.
Ansible, a Red Hat product, is widely used for configuration management and application deployment. The NS1 Connect Ansible integration enables automated management of your zones and records, and advanced traffic steering policies, including Filter Chains. Ideal for teams integrating DNS tasks into existing automation and orchestration workflows.
OctoDNS is an open-source tool designed for managing DNS resources across multiple DNS providers. It stores DNS configurations YAML files and uses Git-based workflows for version control and change management. Ideal for multi-provider DNS management and GitOps-style workflows.
OpenStack is a cloud platform that provides APIs to orchestrate bare metal, virtual machine (VM) and container resources on a single network. The NS1 Connect integration serves as a backend for Designate OpenStack’s DNS-as-a-service (DNSaaS) component. This allows users to programmatically provision and manage DNS records in NS1 Connect via the native Designate API. Ideal for OpenStack private clouds requiring scalable, API-driven DNS.
Why are these integrations important?
IaC transforms manual, error-prone DNS processes into reliable, repeatable, automated processes. With these integrations, NS1 Connect customers gain:
DevOps and SRE teams – anyone responsible for provisioning infrastructure, managing CI/CD pipelines and maintaining system reliability.
Cloud Architects – designing multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud environments that require synchronization and centralized control of DNS across different vendors.
Platform Engineers –building internal platforms where DNS services must be automatically consumed and configured by application teams.
Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and ISPs – deploying standardized DNS configurations for multiple tenants at scale.
Security and Compliance teams – enforcing audit trails, change management and policy consistency.
How to Implement IaC Integrations
Getting started with NS1 Connect and IaC is straightforward and centers on using your NS1 Connect API Key for authentication.
General Implementation Workflow:
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Generate an API Key – ensure you have an NS1 Connect API key with the necessary permissions.
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Install the relevant Toolkit/Provider.
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Define your configuration – write the desired DNS configuration in the tool’s native language (e.g. HCL for Terraform, YAML for Ansible/OctoDNS).
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Execute the code – run the tool’s execution command.