[tor-bugs] #31290 [Core Tor/Tor]: provide DNS health metrics for tor exit relay operators

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki blackhole at torproject.org
Tue Jul 30 15:09:29 UTC 2019


#31290: provide DNS health metrics for tor exit relay operators
-------------------------+------------------------------
 Reporter:  nusenu       |          Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement  |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium       |      Component:  Core Tor/Tor
  Version:               |       Severity:  Normal
 Keywords:               |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:               |         Points:
 Reviewer:               |        Sponsor:
-------------------------+------------------------------
 https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2019-February/013655.html


 every now and then I'm in contact with relay operators
 about the "health" of their relays.
 Following these 1:1 discussions and the discussion on tor-relays@
 I'd like to rise this issue with you (the developers) with the goal
 to help improve relay operations and end user experience in the long term:

 Current situation:
 Arthur Edelstein provides public measurements to tor exit relay operators
 via
 his page at: https://arthuredelstein.net/exits/
 This page is updated once daily.

 the process to use that data looks like this:
 - first they watch Arthur's measurement results
 - if their failure rate is non-zero they try to tweak/improve/change their
 setup
 - wait for another 24 hours (next measurement)

 This is a somewhat suboptimal and slow feedback loop and is probably also
 less accurate and less valuable data when compared to the data the tor
 process can provide.

 Suggestion for improvement:

 Exposes the following DNS status information
 via tor's controlport to help debug and detect DNS issues on exit relays:

 (total numbers since startup)
 - amount of DNS queries send to the resolver
 - amount of DNS queries send to the resolver due to a RESOLVE request
 - DNS queries send to resolver due to a reverse RESOLVE request
 - amount of queries that did not result in any answer from the resolver
 - breakdown of number of responses by response code (RCODE)
 https://www.iana.org/assignments/dns-parameters/dns-parameters.xhtml#dns-
 parameters-6
 - max amount of DNS queries send per curcuit

 If this causes a significant performance impact this feature should be
 disabled
 by default.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/31290>
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