Multi Server Setup

R

rtaylor

Verified User
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Aug 9, 2007
Messages
153
I've received an unusual request from a customer and I'm not certain how to fulfill it. Currently he rents a dedicated server from us and he hosts over 300 accounts on it including his own domain which is providing the nameservers for all accounts. Now he wants to move only his main account to a separate server with minimal disruption of service for all the customers who will be left on the existing server using his nameservers.

I'd appreciate it if someone could help explain how this can be done using the Multi Server Setup. The customer understands that both servers require a DA license and that there will be some service disruption during this process.

To make this easier to follow I'll use the fictitious domain name of "hostexample.com" for the customer's own main account. On the existing server he and all customers are using ns1.hostexample.com and ns2.hostexample.com.

Some questions:

  1. How do we handle hostnames on the two servers (e.g. server1.hostexample.com and server2.hostexample.com)?
  2. Do we tell him to register one new nameserver for the new box, like ns3.hostexample.com?
  3. We are planning to use a TTL value of 600 on both servers, copy a backup of his main account to the new server, restore the account there, then delete the old account and activate Multi Server Setup on one or both servers; is this the correct procedure?
  4. When we activate the Multi Server Setup should it be on just one server or both?
  5. Which Multi Server Setup options should we use?

I just want to make sure that we have a working procedure before we start so as to minimize downtime, so any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Rick
 
1. Configure the new DA server
2. Activate Multi Server om both servers (http://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=97)
3. Change the IP for ns2.hostexample.com to an IP on the new DA server (no need for a third nameserver)
4. Make a backuip of the main account
5. Restore the main account on server 2
 
Remco00 said:
3. Change the IP for ns2.hostexample.com to an IP on the new DA server (no need for a third nameserver)
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply. I should have mentioned that many of my client's hosting accounts use custom nameservers so it's easier to create a third nameserver than have a bunch of users update their nameserver IPs at their domain registrar. I realize the accounts would still resolve but we like clean DNS reports.

Also, after having scanned dozens of threads about the Multi Server Setup I wonder if it's better to activate it before or after deleting the original admin user account.
 
Maybe I'm missing something but from my point of view it appears that you for some reason think you can't leave nameservers on the original server once you've moved the domain. You can.

Continue to point ns1, ns2, ns3, etc., to whatever server(s) you want. This is totally independent of the hostnames and where the domain name itself is hosted.

Then set up Multi-server option to copy DNS to whichever servers you need it copied to.

Jeff
 
nobaloney said:
Then set up Multi-server option to copy DNS to whichever servers you need it copied to.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jeff. Do you also feel that the Multi-server option should be activated before transferring the admin's user account? If so, will I have to de-activate it in order to delete the original account?

Rick
 
Leave both Multiserver configs enabled but with the Domain Check option disabled. Backup main account on server 1 and restore account on server 2. The zone transfer on server 2 will overwrite the old DNS records on server 1 with the new IP-address of the main account (check afterwards). This way you'll have no downtime for the main account.
 
I'm going with the previous reply just above this one; I have virtually no experience with Multi-Server option as I continue to use Master2Slave DNS Replicator. It looks right, though.

Jeff
 
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