WinBIND User Guide

Contents

Overview

The WinBIND toolset allows you to automatically import your BIND logs into a Microsoft SQL Server database.

It consists of a Windows Service, written in .NET, which is installed on the Windows Server running BIND. It analyses the BIND querylog file and automatically sends new rows to the configured SQL server.

It runs every ten minutes by default (configurable from once per minute to once per day) and uses a checkpoint value to keep track of entries already sent to the configured SQL server.

It also archives (and optionally compresses) the querylog files on a daily basis so that your logfiles don’t grow to be unwieldy and unmanageable. It can also optionally archive and compress other BIND log files to prevent disk space sprawl for unnecessary data.

It includes two advanced features which at some point will be moved into a “Pro” version but which are presently available in the Standard & freely available version.

Logfile formats

It’s important to note that this requires BIND logging to be configured as described in one of the BIND for Windows guides here. If not then WinBIND won’t understand the logfile format and this will produce unexpected results – the most likely of which will be that the logfiles will simply fail to be uploaded to your SQL Server.

System Requirements

To run WinBIND you need:

  • A Microsoft SQL Server (of course!)
  • The .NET Framework, v4.7.2 or higher
  • BIND logging configured as explained in this guide

Nothing is installed on the SQL Server, the WinBIND service runs exclusively on the Windows BIND servers.

Microsoft SQL Server Express is fine, but bear in mind the 10GB database file size limit of the Express edition.

Installation & Configuration

Installation, Configuration, Advanced Features, Email Notifications and Reports are all covered in their respective links.

Support & Feedback

If you have any problems, if you get any error messages, or if you have any other feedback then please get in touch – I really do want to hear from you!