Setting up the initial domain

S2S-Robert

Verified User
Joined
Jun 24, 2003
Messages
415
Location
The Netherlands
Hi

I have the domain s2swebhosting.com and it's correctly installed on the DA control panel. It used to have ns1.server.s2swebhosting.com and ns2.server.s2swebhosting.com as found in the DNS manager, but since I already created "ns1.s2swebhosting.com" and "ns2.s2swebhosting.com" using the steps provided in the e-mail I removed the first two (the ns1.server things).

Now when I want to change my NS with my registrar (godaddy) I get the following error :

NS1.S2SWEBHOSTING.COM is not a registered name server.
NS2.S2SWEBHOSTING.COM is not a registered name server.


http://www.safe2surf.nl/godaddy.jpg

Does anybody have a clue as how to change this?
 
You have to first create nameservers based on your domain, before you can set your domain's nameservers to to them.

I'm not familiar with GoDaddy, but generally, the feature is found in your registrar's control panel under "Create Nameservers Based on this Domain."

You'll need to create ns1/ns2.yourdomain.com and point them to IPs you've assigned them in DirectAdmin.

Hope this helps!
 
Ah yes, that sure is helpfull!

I found the option in the control panel @ godaddy's, you can view a screenshot below.

Now I've created NS1 to point to my ip address, and I have NS1 created at that same address within DA. So this should work out fine now right?

[edit]
Oh I should mention that my server address is 120, but that my ns1 = 121 and ns2 = 122. Should I change ns1 to 120?

http://www.safe2surf.nl/godaddy2.jpg
 
Last edited:
If ns1 is configured in DirectAdmin as 121, then do NOT use 120. Your settings in DirectAdmin need to exactly match your settings in the nameservers your create with godaddy.
 
Matt's right.

I should have put that in my answer. If the base/main IP is set as your NS1 then that's what you use. But if it's not, don't use it. Use what's set in DA.

Sorry, still groggy from a bad summer cold :)

Thanks for correcting me, Matt.
 
Thanks a lot for the answers!

I've changed NS1 to *.120 and NS2 to *.121 in Directadmin.

Futhermore I changed the NS1 & NS2 from within godaddy's control panel to match the NS1 & NS2 from DA. So now all NS1's & NS2's will go to the same ip address.

Now let's just wait until the DNS is changed all over the world to see if it's workind :D

[EDIT]

Since it used to be on 121 & 122, I've changed the NS1 & NS2 to 120 & 121. Now normally adding and removing a nameserver goes very fast (within 5 minutes), but this changing seems to take a lot of time (it's been quite a while already).

Is this normal for a change to take such a long time?
 
Last edited:
Right now it looks like the nameserver registration hasn't propagated yet. On my end:

Unable to resolve ns1.S2SWEBHOSTING.COM
Unable to resolve ns2.S2SWEBHOSTING.COM

Things should start working when they resolve.

Also, it doesn't really matter what IP the nameservers are on. You can use the server's main IP for NS1, or other IP's if you have them. It's an admin decision.

Mark
 
This thread just got me thinking about why two name servers?
I mean if both name server IPs are on the same machine and the server goes down and lets say you have more than 1 machine pointing to NS1 and NS2 then wouldn't all of your servers be unavailable?

Or is it that you have 2 nameservers for speed? Would adding even more name servers speed up the access when you have multiple hits at the same time?

-Jason :)
 
The server and the IP are two different things, if the server goes nothing will be processed and sites wont work no matter how many nameservers they have, if the network that the IP address is on goes down, so will anything linking to the server, if the ns1 IP has a different subnet to NS2 and NS1 IP is having maintenance and is out for a while the NS2 on a different subnet should handle the DNS until ns1 is back to normal.

Chris
 
jdlitson said:
This thread just got me thinking about why two name servers?
I mean if both name server IPs are on the same machine and the server goes down and lets say you have more than 1 machine pointing to NS1 and NS2 then wouldn't all of your servers be unavailable?

Or is it that you have 2 nameservers for speed? Would adding even more name servers speed up the access when you have multiple hits at the same time?

-Jason :)

Two nameservers are mandatory (required by registrars), so, unfortunately, if you only have one server, you're forced to use two IPs for nameservers, even though they're useless when the machine goes down.
 
A bit about name-servers and DNS...

Here are a few thoughts from someone who's been in the DNS hosting business for several years now and who's been doing DNS since early 1995...

(me :) ).

You should always set up your NS1 at the first IP#... because by default "bind" (that's the name of the dns server) will always send out answers on the main physical interface for your system (usually eth0). And the first physical interface will be the first IP# set up for the box.

Because the latest versions of bind are secured against hacking, if you don't, unless you include the "allow transfer" clause" in your configuration file, your slave servers will not be able to get transfers from your master server.

Officially the terminology has been changed from "primary/secondary" to "master/slave"; we use master/slave to describe the relationship between servers on which you control the DNS and servers which get transfers of DNS files so they can be automatically authoritative for your domain.

Primary/secondary implies that there's an order in which domain servers are queried and that's just not true. When your client queries DNS her/his coputer queries all the domain servers returned by the one of the GTLD nameservers and accepts and uses the first answer it gets.

Though a few people (including Daniel Bernstein, who wrote both djbdns and tiny dns) say slave servers are unnecessary, the fact remains that if your host fails for any reason and you DO have a slave nameserver, that nameserver will continue to serve DNS for your domain... so mailservers will queue email waiting to be sent to you and not immediately return it as undeliverable, and web-browsers who attempt to visit your domain will get a temporary failure, letting them know they should try back later, instead of a permanent failure telling them you don't exist. If you DON'T have a slave nameserver browsers will get an immediate "domain doesn't exist" error and email will imeediately be returned with a "domain doesn't exist" error.

Until recently all nameservers were required to be on discrete IP#s; if you hosted vanity nameservers on your system (for example, PLESK by default sets up ns1 and ns2 on the same server for each domain), you had to have a separate IP# for each vanity server. That prohibition has been removed, at least for .com/.net/.org domains (will those of you in the .uk and other namespace find out for us if the restriction has been removed for .uk domains as well, please ? :) ).

Slave nameservers can be used for other purposes as well, including a crude form of load balancing (for relatively static sites only), and for geographic diversity.

Traditionally there are three ways you can get slave DNS...

You can run your own slave nameserver, preferably on a separate network.

You can arrange with another hosting company to slave your domains while you agree to slave domains for them.

You can use a commercial solution.

(Since we're in the DNS hosting business, you know which we'd suggest :) .)

And now here's the hard part...

Slave nameservers need more than a copy of the zone file (which they'll get automatically if everything is setup properly); they need an entry in the /etc/named.conf file as well, to tell them to get copies of the zone file.

So what you need is a script (or set of scripts) to regularly check master servers and see if domains have been added/removed, automatically rebuild the /etc/named.conf file on the slave server, and restart DNS, if necessary.

It's also important that your slave nameserver(s) don't automatically remove domain references if they can't find the master during the /etc/named.conf rebuild process, or else they'll stop being slaves just when you need them the most. (We found at least one solution that does it wrong and so is totally unusable; the slaves stop serving DNS just when you need them the most.

So far we've managed to do this for many hosting solutions; it's what's called a "competitive advantage" :) .

Perhaps if/when I have some time I can create some specific DNS how-to documents and some scenarios for writing those all-important scripts.

If you disagree with anything I've written here, please let me know; it's still early in the morning, and I can and do make mistakes, which I'll be happy to correct as necessary.

If you have any questions please feel free asking them here.

Jeff
 
jlasman, great write up on nameservers.


Mark or John, or anyone else who has tried this, could you please help out on a setup question regarding dns. I’m trying to set up my dns zone files at my registrar due to the fact they have five geographically distributed nameservers. I’ve taken my best guess on what I should delete in my DirectAdmin DNS Record and what I should put in my Registrar’s DNS settings.

I of course want to keep all the DirectAdmin features working, I found this caution in the Site-Helper files “Please note that changing MX records will prevent your current POP3 accounts, forwarders, autoresponders, and mailing lists from functioning”. So I want to make sure whatever changes I make all DirectAdmin features still work.

ORIGINAL DIRECTADMIN DNS RECORD
Name Type Value
mydomain.com. A xx.xx.xx.xx
ftp A xx.xx.xx.xx
localhost.mydomain.com. A 127.0.0.1
mail A xx.xx.xx.xx
www A xx.xx.xx.xx
mydomain.com. NS ns1.mydomain.com.
mydomain.com. NS ns2.mydomain.com.
mydomain.com. MX 0
subdomain1 A xx.xx.xx.xx
subdomain2 A xx.xx.xx.xx
subdomain3 A xx.xx.xx.xx

MODIFY -- LEAVE THESE SETTINGS IN DIRECT ADMIN ?
localhost.mydomain.com. A 127.0.0.1
mydomain.com. MX 0

PUT THESE SETTINGS IN MY REGISTRAR SETTINGS ?
mydomain.com. A xx.xx.xx.xx
@ A xx.xx.xx.xx
ftp A xx.xx.xx.xx
mail A xx.xx.xx.xx
www A xx.xx.xx.xx
subdomain1 A xx.xx.xx.xx
subdomain2 A xx.xx.xx.xx
subdomain3 A xx.xx.xx.xx

Not Sure if the above is correct, and Not sure about what to do with MX record, leave it in the DirectAdmin settings or put some equivalent in my registrar account ?

Your help would really be appreciated to confirm and correct these settings. Thanks in advance for all your help.
 
Last edited:
abweb, you should either use your registrar's DNS services or your own; not both.

For most of us, we can set up our own nameservers once (many but not all registrars call them 'hosts'), and use them for all our domains.

Then we can let the Directadmin set up dns for us.

Are you making it sound a bit more compex than it is?

To me you are, but of course I've been doing DNS for quite some time.

If you'd like, call me and help me understand exactly what you want to do and I'll walk you through some scenarios; then we can post results here.

Jeff
 
Jeff, thanks for the help on the phone. Here's what I have now, I deleted ALL DNS Records out of my DirectAdmin settings, and this is what I put in my Registrar settings:

@ A xx.xx.xx.xx
www A xx.xx.xx.xx
ftp A xx.xx.xx.xx
mail A xx.xx.xx.xx
example.com 0 -- MX example.com
subdomain1 A xx.xx.xx.xx
subdomain2 A xx.xx.xx.xx
subdomain3 A xx.xx.xx.xx


Mark and John, with these settings will all of my POP3 accounts, webmail, forwarders, autoresponders, and mailing lists still work ?
 
Presuming these are properly named services and subdomains on your direct admin account, they should.

Of course the best way to find out is to try it <smile>.

Or give out the domain name so one of us can check it for you :) .

I'm glad you called; I hope I helped a bit.

Jeff
 
Back
Top