DNSFailover within the same network?

[avenuex]

I'm posting here cause I'm torn, and hoping someone else has some input.

I have a client that requests DNS Failover for their account. In the past I had this set up between dathorn and another host. I am getting extremely unhappy with this other host and want to move accounts on that server over to dathorn.

This particular client (and a few others) that are on the DNSFailover however, require that I find another host. I would rather host it here at dathorn on another server, but does that make any sense? If both servers are at the Planet then there's no point in doing failover right?

The other thought to this, is that since on these Reseller servers, DNS/HTTP/FTP/EMAIL are all on the same server, having failover between 2 servers should suffice... (or am i deluding myself?)

Any thoughts on this? I'm just glad I found dathorn already, not looking forward to looking for yet another reliable host.

[KyleC]

are you talking about Secondary Name Service(backup NS), or failover/load balancing?

i doubt you are taling about failover/load balancing, that would be for a very busy site, or one where the server goes down allot.


why not use zonedit.com, pass the cost on to them.

[avenuex]

Hi KyleC,

I am actually talking about failover. My experience with shared/reseller hosting is that all services reside on the single machine. When these servers go down for any reason (reboot included) these services take time to restart. In that timeframe, downtime occurs. As these are small businesses whose lifeblood is email, they want failover to occur where email continues. That way I have it failing over to another server who's services is running.

Originally i wanted this on 2 completely different networks to cover Datacenter issues also, but honestly too tired to go through the hassle of finding yet another host. (Andrew mentioned he can't set me up on another dc )

So i'm thinking if it would make any real difference going between 2 different resell servers on the same network, if server downtime is the primary concern and not necessarily DC outages.

[KyleC]

ok, it would help with server downtime, but lately most of Dathorn's downtime has been Datacenter related.

What do u use to manage the failover dns?

[avenuex]

dnsmadeasy.net

pricing ain't bad, and I like the service. If only custom nameservers from them weren't so expensive.. But I'll make do without custom if it stays up

I finally found a host I'm comfortable going with, but guess what? THEY HOST AT THE PLANET ALSO... makes you want to pull ur hair out

[openbox]

So you keep all data mirrored on both servers? How do you handle email? I understand DNS, I'm curious how you handle everything else.

[avenuex]

Hi openbox,

Well, this client doesn't have much interms of requirements. Only that email stay up. So basically, I got dns failover from dnsmadeeasy.net (no custom nameservers though ) and set his domain to their dns servers. from there, I point the domain to 2 different servers.

Each one with an exact copy of the other's filesystem. Now, granted over time this will change, but thats not really a concern since I'm only concerned with email. I have their email client check both servers for email but sending out to the domain name. That way it doesn't matter which server is running.

I cron a rsync to run each night for static files. The only thing that CAN'T be done would be any database apps, but since they don't have any, this is not an issue.

hope that helps.

[openbox]

Thanks. You filled in the piece I was missing...the "man in the loop" portion of checking both accounts.

[diver]

If only custom nameservers from them weren't so expensive..

They let you have vanity nameservers for free. That should do what you want.

[avenuex]

sweet... thanks diver. When I read about their "custom nameservers" I assumed, that was that. Diving a bit deeper now, you're right, vanity is exactly the solution i want.

ah, the last piece of the puzzle.

danke sir.

[avenuex]

Question to ya'all,

This was the way things were setup in my old host, I don't know if its the same here. Are all the services (DNS, FTP, email, and httpd) setup on the same server? So that if cpanel32 were to go down, all related DNS would go down also right?

If thats the case I'll go with the low-cost approach and get another dathorn account on a diff. server. Won't stop a datacenter breakdown, but it will cover server restarts and downtime.

[avenuex]

OMG.. so I tried to open another 2nd account and the forms are offline.

what were the odds of that. *sigh*

[bhills]

I'm going to do the same thing you are doing with the failover. Only I'm using ZoneEdit. And the web site is more important than the email. Both dathorn and my other host are also at The Planet, which is a concern, as you have stated.

Question - I would like to be able to check both servers with Xenu, a good, free link checker. That way I can make sure the links are good on both servers. The files in a domain on each server are supposed to be identical, but that assumes I am perfect. Anyway, to check in Xenu, you put in the domain - http://mydomain.com/. Obviously that will only work for one of the servers. Is there any way I can put in for an IP type address so Xenu can check the server which the IP is NOT pointing to?

[avenuex]

well, i sucked it up and went outside for a 2nd host. I"m not too happy about that, but thats the unfortunate aspect of ironic timing.

anyway,
I see 2 things you can do here:

#1. You can always check the link via http://cpanelXX.gzo.com/~accountName/<site url>

or

#2. Setup a cron job that syncs the 2 websites every night. With failover, there's always a primary and backup. Backup is ONLY there when primary is down, so there are going to be only a few instances where backup will play a big role.

a daily rsync between the 2 accounts should be sufficient. This doesn't cover databases however, and thats a much more annoying solution.

hope that makes sense

[bhills]

Can't get it to work. Am probably doing this incorrectly. I tried:

http://cpanelXX.gzo.com/dis-XXXX/mydomain.com/

That doesn't work. Where am I going wrong?