README.md
July 8, 2026 · View on GitHub
What is DNS-collector?
DNS-collector is a lightweight tool that captures DNS queries and responses from your DNS servers, processes them intelligently, and sends clean data to your monitoring or analytics systems.
What it does:
- Captures DNS data from your DNS servers (BIND, PowerDNS, Unbound, etc.) via DNStap protocol or live network capture
- Filters out noise like health checks, internal queries, or spam before storage
- Enriches data with GeoIP, threat intelligence, or custom metadata
- Outputs clean data to files, databases, SIEM tools, or monitoring dashboards
Why DNS-collector?
The missing piece between DNS servers and your data stack.
- DNS-native processing: Understands DNS protocol, EDNS, query types natively
- Process at the edge: Clean, filter and enrich DNS data before storage - not after
- Multiple input sources: DNStap streams, live network capture, log files
- DNS-aware transformations: Filtering noise upstream, user privacy
- Flexible outputs: Files, syslog, databases, monitoring tools and more...
- Production ready: Used in real networks, tested with major DNS servers
- Enhanced DNStap: TLS encryption, compression, and more metadata capabilities
🚀 Quick Start
Download the latest release and run with default config:
Default setup listens on tcp/6000 for DNStap streams and outputs to stdout.
To get started quickly, you can use this default config.yml.
./dnscollector -config config.yml
📚 Documentation
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| 📝 Formats | Supported output formats (text, JSON, PCAP, Jinja2, etc.) |
| 🔧 Configuration | Complete config reference |
| 📥 Collectors | Input sources (network packet sniffer, DNStap server, etc.) |
| 📤 Loggers | Output destinations (Kafka, Prometheus, syslog, Loki, etc.) |
| 🔄 Transformers | Data enrichment options |
| 🐳 Docker | Container deployment |
| 🔍 Examples | Ready-to-use configs |
| 🔗 Sources & Sinks | Integration with popular tools and DNS servers |
| ⭐ Enhanced DNStap | Enhanced DNSTap features |
| 📊 Telemetry | REST API and Prometheus metrics |
| ⚡ Performance Tuning | Performance tuning guide |
👥 Contributions
Contributions are welcome! Check out:
🧰 Related Projects:
- DNS-tester - DNS testing toolkit
- CoreDNS-GSLB - Global Server Load Balancing functionality in CoreDNS