Multiple servers single DNS

[jimtsop]

We have many directadmin servers and each one has its own nameservers.
Is there a way to create a single dns for all of our servers, so that if a server goes down to have that site up & running immediatly on another server of our network changing a single dns entry?

For example we would like to have a main dns server with ns1.maindns.com & ns2.maindns.com that would have a single entry for every domain like:

client1.com --> (forward to) ns1.ourserver1.com
client152.com --> (forward to) ns1.ourserver5.com
client239.com --> (forward to) ns1.ourserver2.com
etc

Do you have any ideas?

 

[erostew]

I've done this before and it's pretty easy to do. Just leave the domains/dns, etc the way it is on server1, server2, server3, etc.
On dnsserver1 you need to manually add an entry for each domain on server1, 2, 3, etc.
Go to the registrar and change the dns for the various domains to ns1.dnsserver1.com, etc.
Bind still runs on server 1,2,3 but gets no traffic so doesn't really use any resources. There is probably a way to disable it altogether but I never bothered. All you have to do if a server goes down is get it running on the new server and change dns on dnsserver1.

The disadvantage is that the only domains that get autoupdated if you change something in DA are the ones on dnsserver1. All other domains need to be updated manually. Another BIG disadvantage is that you now have only 1 point of failure. If dnsserver1 goes down ALL your domains are unreachable.

I only did this for a while because we used to have a few win2k servers and it's a real pain to install bind on them. The only really good way to do it if you need your own dns servers is to have 2 dedicated dns servers (master/slave).
You can probably do something like that with the DA multi-server setup but I've never managed to figure that out.

 

[nobaloney]

We use something called hiden masters; we use the servers running DirectAdmin as hidden masters, and we have two separate nameserver.

We set up our DA servers with Master2Slave DNS Replicator as masters, and our two separate nameservers we set up with Master2Slave DNS Replicator as slaves.

Italics above mean they make excellent search terms on these forums .

Jeff

 

[jimtsop]

I want something really simple. Like setting up a server with only bind running. There, we would create domains with only one dns entry like this one:

client1.com. NS ns1.ourserver1.com.
...
client152.com. NS ns1.ourserver5.com.

(Please correct me if I'm wrong...)

So that it points to the real server running DA and dns service of course.

After that if it works it would be great to have a second dns for backup.

Do you think that it would work?

 

[jimtsop]

I've done this before and it's pretty easy to do. Just leave the domains/dns, etc the way it is on server1, server2, server3, etc.
On dnsserver1 you need to manually add an entry for each domain on server1, 2, 3, etc.
Go to the registrar and change the dns for the various domains to ns1.dnsserver1.com, etc.
Bind still runs on server 1,2,3 but gets no traffic so doesn't really use any resources. There is probably a way to disable it altogether but I never bothered. All you have to do if a server goes down is get it running on the new server and change dns on dnsserver1.

The disadvantage is that the only domains that get autoupdated if you change something in DA are the ones on dnsserver1. All other domains need to be updated manually. Another BIG disadvantage is that you now have only 1 point of failure. If dnsserver1 goes down ALL your domains are unreachable.

I only did this for a while because we used to have a few win2k servers and it's a real pain to install bind on them. The only really good way to do it if you need your own dns servers is to have 2 dedicated dns servers (master/slave).
You can probably do something like that with the DA multi-server setup but I've never managed to figure that out.

Do you remember what DNS entries did you have?

e.x. client1.com. NS ns1.ourserver1.com.

is this engough?

 

[nobaloney]

I want something really simple. Like setting up a server with only bind running. There, we would create domains with only one dns entry like this one:

client1.com. NS ns1.ourserver1.com.
...
client152.com. NS ns1.ourserver5.com.

(Please correct me if I'm wrong...)

So that it points to the real server running DA and dns service of course.

That would certainly point DNS to the other server. It might work but you'd probably want a heartbeat system to automate it, and your TTL would have to be extremely low on your NS records.

That machine would always be a point of failure, but of course only running DNS it might be less apt to ever break.

Now that I understand what you want to do... it makes some sense. I'd probably want to ask some DNS experts before spending a lot on implementing it.

Jeff

 

[erostew]

Do you remember what DNS entries did you have?

e.x. client1.com. NS ns1.ourserver1.com.

is this engough?

Since I was using another DA server for the DNS server I just used the normal method to add a new dns entry. It required nothing special for entries on the client server or the dns server. With the normal DA setup you can add any domain you want into the dns. You aren't limited to the domains hosted on that server. If you want to use a dns server with just bind then, sorry, it's been years since I manually configured bind. I did it the way I did because I happened to have a server with very low traffic and DA available. Sounds like the Master2Slave thing is a better way to do it.