How can I use external resolvers with DA?

[IT_Architect]

I have a client that wants to use external resolvers from Sprint, Savvis, etc. How do I go about setting that up with DirectAdmin?

Thanks!

 

[nobaloney]

He can do that if he wants, by making the change with his registrar. All you have to do is change the DNS zone DirectAdmin keeps to match whatever settings he's using, if his aren't the same as yours.

Jeff

 

[IT_Architect]

He can do that if he wants, by making the change with his registrar. All you have to do is change the DNS zone DirectAdmin keeps to match whatever settings he's using, if his aren't the same as yours.Jeff

Got it. I didn't know if there was a way to slave off another zone or have it slave off from DA.

Thanks!

 

[Eremiya]

Edit /etc/resolv.conf (nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)

 

[IT_Architect]

Edit /etc/resolv.conf (nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)

I can from within DA add the ns records and a records of the external servers. I'm missing how /etc/resolv.conf helps with zone transfers to other public name servers or helping external traffic lookup the domain.

Thanks!

 

[nobaloney]

I may have misunderstand your first post to this thread.

You wrote:

I have a client that wants to use external resolvers from Sprint, Savvis, etc. How do I go about setting that up with DirectAdmin?

What exactly do your clients want?

First question: What do you mean by resolver? To me a resolver is what looks up IP#s for a given URL.

For example, if you try to visit my domain, nobaloney.net, your resolver will tell you that it's at this IP#: 4.79.140.157.

Each system has it's own resolver. So I don't know what this has to do with DirectAdmin.

Or are you referring to something else?

Jeff

 

[IT_Architect]

I may have misunderstand your first post to this thread.

No wonder the way I phrased it. How about this. The DA name server is the master for the zone, and other servers around the web are the slaves. How do I setup DA to be the master? If I can't, then how can I make DA the slave?

 

[nobaloney]

Where is the domain registered? That's where you set the nameservers for the domain. The Internet doesn't care about any differences between master and slave. You do, because you have to figure out how to populate them both, but if you do multiple nslookups you'll often see they come up in different order, because the Internet doesn't care.

Jeff

 

[IT_Architect]

Where is the domain registered? That's where you set the nameservers for the domain.

Maybe I need to say primary and secondary DNS which is how some people refer to master and slave DNS. A zone transfer occurs when a slave server asks the primary server for the zone information, and it is notified when the serial number/version number changes in the primary/master. You can set masters to only listen to requests from their slaves and tell slaves where their master(s) is.

Thanks!

 

[nobaloney]

Maybe I need to say primary and secondary DNS which is how some people refer to master and slave DNS.

I hope not; that terminology was deprecated over ten years ago, if memory serves .

I don't see that you're asking any more questions. If you are, please revisit and let us know.

Jeff

 

[IT_Architect]

I hope not; that terminology was deprecated over ten years ago, if memory serves .I don't see that you're asking any more questions.

I'll shoot this one to support. I simply wanted to know if there was a way to set up DA to be a master without the changes getting written over any time someone makes a change to the DNS in DA.

Thanks all

 

[nobaloney]

Isn't that the entire purpose of a master/slave relationship? You change one and the other changes?

Jeff

 

[IT_Architect]

Isn't that the entire purpose of a master/slave relationship? You change one and the other changes?

How do you make a zone in DA a master for 3rd party slaves? If from the CLI, then does DA overwrite your changes any time someone changes a DNS record for the domain?

 

[nobaloney]

What do you mean by third-party slave?

What do you mean by your changes?

We don't do manual slaving on servers running DirectAdmin. But it can be done; DirectAdmin will not overwrite zone references in the named.conf file; we put the manual ones in at the top to keep them separate.

If you don't want DirectAdmin to touch the zone files just put them in another directory. For example your named installation may include a directory /var/named/slaves, and if it doesn't you can create it. Then set your zone references in /etc/named.conf to put them there instead of in /var/named. Then DirectAdmin won't touch them.

Jeff

 

[IT_Architect]

What do you mean by third-party slave?

You pay Savvis or pnap to host your zones. You setup yours as master and they setup theirs as slaves. When you make changes to your ns master(s), the serial number changes, the slaves accept notification from an authorized master, and request a zone transfer from one of the authorized masters.

How do you set that up in DirectAdmin?

Jack

 

[nobaloney]

You don't have to do anything; DirectAdmin doesn't have to do anything. They do it all on their end.

The key is how do they know when new domains are added to your server. The wonderful folk who wrote BIND (The Berkeley Internet Name Daemon) never built a notification system into their software.

I did, and it's open source, but I doubt that Savvis or pnam uses it; I would have noticed if they registered to get it .

You install one piece on your server, and they install one piece on their server, and after that it's all completely automatic.

Or they may have their own system already in place. Or they may require you log into an account to add new domains.

We offer slave service using our software; please contact me by email at the address below if you're interested.

The software itself can be found here.

Note that only the BETA software is available at this time; it seems to work fine but there are some errors in the documentation.

Jeff