External MX *and* external NS

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dingham

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Joined
Jun 6, 2008
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London, England
Hi Guys,
Is there a checkbox to untick, to tell DA it is not the authoritative nameserver?
I want to get DA/Exim to query external nameservers for the correct MX, without having to mirror the DNS MX records locally?
This is a nuisance and is bound to cause confusion.

Cheers,
 
Hi Guys,
Is there a checkbox to untick, to tell DA it is not the authoritative nameserver?
I want to get DA/Exim to query external nameservers for the correct MX, without having to mirror the DNS MX records locally?
This is a nuisance and is bound to cause confusion.

Cheers,

I have been asking for this feature for quite some time
http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19907

and the same issue had been raised again recently at http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26254

Feel free to cast your vote in either thread... or both ;)
 
If you don't want the DirectAdmin to think it's the authoritative nameserver for your domains, then just use other nameservers.

By default no service on the server will even know BIND is running on your server, unless you tell it to use the local copy by putting it's address (usually 127.0.0.1) in your /etc/resolv.conf file:
Code:
nameserver 127.0.0.1
nameserver 192.168.254.217
The above in your /etc/resolv.conf file means that your local machine will first check your local nameserver, then if it can't get the information there it will check the nameserver responding at 192.168.254.217. Note that this is NOT a recommended configuration.

Generally your upstream provider should offer you two resolving nameservers to use; and you should list them both in your /etc/resolv.conf file.

For example:
Code:
nameserver 192.168.198.217
nameserver 192.168.254.217
Just be certain that both IP#s are those of existing resolving (cacheing) nameservers.

Once you've done that presuming you're NOT using the local nameservers as authoritative nameservers for your domain all you have to do is use the MX Records link from your site user login to uncheck the box and click on Save.

If you are using your system nameserver as an authoritative nameserver, then you also must change the mx records to point to the ones you want to use.

Jeff
 
Jeff,

You are absolutely right as far as technical issues are concerned. From the domain management point of view, however, I would like to know what domains use external authoritative nameservers by checking ALL_USER_SHOW page or using some dashboard-like report.

I am sure you realize that moving a domain between servers transparently to visitors might be quite a challenging task when you have to change NS records because it usually involves much longer DNS changes propagation time. Having "this domain uses external nameservers" field would allow us to quickly assess the situation which might not be obvious otherwise.

Of course, if you never use hosting servers for DNS hostings, it doesn't matter to you, but I believe most DA users do use hosting servers as nameservers for one reason or another (for example, to reduce the operation cost by eliminating 2 dedicated nameservers in geographically dispersed locations or to reduce support costs by allowing the customers to manage their DNS records).
 
It's probably time for you to post a feature request if you haven't already done so.

Then we can close this thread :).

Jeff
 
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