Nameserver Questions

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  • james
    Senior Member
    • Mar 2004
    • 183

    Nameserver Questions

    Hi all,

    I've got a fairly basic question that I seem to be confusing myself over.

    My main web hosting site (let's say mycompany.com) is currently hosted using my dathorn account. two other domains that are also part of my company are hosted at dathorn too.

    I also host my clients on the same dathorn account.

    Currently, if dathorn is down, that means mycompany.com and my other two domains will be down, thus my clients are unable to contact me.

    I'm thinking about hosting my 3 sites in another datacentre, so that they will be available in case of dathorn down time.

    Currently all my clients use ns1 & ns2.mydomain.com for their nameservers. These are set up through godaddy (where i purchased the domain), to point to the two IP addresses that i was allocated in my welcome email.

    Can I now create ns3 & ns4.mydomain.com, and point them to two other ips (at a new host in another datacentre), then change my 3 domains' nameservers to ns3 & ns4, thus pointing them to the other datacentre?

    Would this then mean that if dathorn is down, my 3 sites would still be online?

    Also would it mean that if my 3 sites are down (because the other datacentre is down), then my clients' sites would be fine?

    Thanks for your help.

    James
  • james
    Senior Member
    • Mar 2004
    • 183

    #2
    Also,

    Is it necessary to create A records for ns1, ns2 at dathorn, and ns3 and ns3 at the other datacentre? (I'd obviously point these to the same IPs that i've used when setting them up at godaddy).

    Thanks

    Comment

    • Pedja
      Senior Member
      • Mar 2004
      • 329

      #3
      Originally posted by james

      Can I now create ns3 & ns4.mydomain.com, and point them to two other ips (at a new host in another datacentre), then change my 3 domains' nameservers to ns3 & ns4, thus pointing them to the other datacentre?
      Yes.

      Is it necessary to create A records for ns1, ns2 at dathorn, and ns3 and ns3 at the other datacentre? (I'd obviously point these to the same IPs that i've used when setting them up at godaddy).
      Actualy, when you move mydomain.com to other host then DNS zone for that domain will be set on other host. You should change DNS in registry for that domain to point to new DNS. All changes to DNS for mydomian.com should be done on new host.

      You do not have to set DNS to other host except one which hosts DNS zone for domain. Do not leave settings for the same domain on Dathorn and other host, it will just create confusion.

      Comment

      • james
        Senior Member
        • Mar 2004
        • 183

        #4
        Thanks for the info Pedja,

        One more thing that I thought of:

        If my clients use ns1 & ns2.mydomain.com to point their domains to dathorn's server, and mydomain.com is located on my other host, if my other host goes down will the sites on dathorn still be available? The settings at godaddy will have ns1 & ns2 pointing to dathorn's nameservers, but will it matter if the host that's hosting mydomain.com is down?

        Thanks

        Comment

        • openbox
          Senior Member
          • Mar 2004
          • 238

          #5
          If you DNS is hosted at a host and that host is down, then yes, your site, for all intensive purposes, is down. The idea behind DNS is that it's distributed across different nets and different servers providing survivability.

          Comment

          • james
            Senior Member
            • Mar 2004
            • 183

            #6
            Thanks openbox,

            Well then whats the best way to do it then?

            What about when the three letter domain starting with g and ending in o is down? How come all 40 or so of dathorns cpanel servers don't go down with it?

            James

            Comment

            • openbox
              Senior Member
              • Mar 2004
              • 238

              #7
              Originally posted by james
              Well then whats the best way to do it then?
              If you're really concerned with the minimal down time you might experience at Dathorn, then I'd recommend hosting your DNS elsewhere and hosting your sites at multiple locations. There are better and more elaborate solutions, but they get quite expensive, quite quickly.

              Originally posted by james
              What about when the three letter domain starting with g and ending in o is down? How come all 40 or so of dathorns cpanel servers don't go down with it?
              If the gz* domain ever does go completely down for an extended period of time, then everyone using the dns.gz*.com DNS servers will eventually stop working. However, if you have DNS info at your registrar pointing to the IP address instead of a hostname (i.e. custom DNS sservers), then it will take more than the gz* domain to be down.

              Comment

              • james
                Senior Member
                • Mar 2004
                • 183

                #8
                All I want to do is have my hosting company's site(mydomain.com) hosted not at dathorn, so my customers can contact me if dathorn is down.

                However this is hard to do because all my clients' domains are using ns1 & ns2.mydomain.com.

                What would be the best way to achieve this then?

                Thanks

                Comment

                • openbox
                  Senior Member
                  • Mar 2004
                  • 238

                  #9
                  Originally posted by james
                  All I want to do is have my hosting company's site(mydomain.com) hosted not at dathorn, so my customers can contact me if dathorn is down.

                  What would be the best way to achieve this then?
                  Purchasing a second hosting account at another location and pointing the DNS at your registrar to this new account would be the easiest method if you're really concerned about your Dathorn account being down.

                  Comment

                  • james
                    Senior Member
                    • Mar 2004
                    • 183

                    #10
                    But wouldn't this mean that all my clients' sites would be down if the other host is down?

                    James

                    Comment

                    • sdjl
                      Senior Member
                      • Mar 2004
                      • 502

                      #11
                      I think you're getting a little confused about how DNS works James.

                      Originally posted by james
                      All I want to do is have my hosting company's site(mydomain.com) hosted not at dathorn, so my customers can contact me if dathorn is down.

                      However this is hard to do because all my clients' domains are using ns1 & ns2.mydomain.com.

                      What would be the best way to achieve this then?
                      To achieve this, you simply need to make sure your primary domains DNS points to that other hosting location.
                      Lets say for instance you are using a DNS provider, someone like EasyDNS.com (i use them and they're reliable).
                      You setup your domain name to point to them. From there, you then point out where you domain is hosted. This means you can point different subdomains to different IP addresses and so on.

                      So, you've setup your domain with EasyDNS, you point the domain names hosting to your other hosting account. You then setup your nameservers, ns1 and ns2, to point to the IP addresses provided by Dathorn.
                      Your customers can then point their domain names to the nameservers that you have created and their domains will be pointed to dathorn, whilst your main site still goes to your other hosting account.

                      I hope that makes some sense :-D

                      David
                      -----
                      Do you fear the obsolescence of the metanarrative apparatus of legitimation?

                      Comment

                      • james
                        Senior Member
                        • Mar 2004
                        • 183

                        #12
                        I've set things up at zoneedit - I noticed thats what dathorn uses for g*z.com.

                        I've set up A records at mydomain.com using zoneedit for ns1 & ns2 to point to dathorns dns ips. Is it absolutely necessary to change ns1 & ns2 at my domain registrar (godaddy) to point to the same IPs defined by the A records at zoneedit?

                        In other words, do the IPs for my nameservers defined at godaddy have to equal the A records at zoneedit?

                        Thanks,

                        James

                        Comment

                        • Pedja
                          Senior Member
                          • Mar 2004
                          • 329

                          #13
                          Originally posted by james
                          But wouldn't this mean that all my clients' sites would be down if the other host is down?
                          Once DNS information is read by DNS server it is cached, usualy for four days, so, you will have some time to get DNS server up before anyone realize that it was out of order.

                          The best way is to have several DNS servers offering information for the same domain (seearch for primary and slave DNS servers) and set them all as DNS'es for wanted domains.

                          Honestly, I do not think there is need for such things.

                          Comment

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