Third party DNS... Is it really this easy with DA?

[Orbserver]

I have a new VPS running DA and thought I'd use the opportunity to try new things. I decided to try using third party DNS so I started with eNom's zone editor. Less than 8 hours later my hostname and mail host resolves. So far so good but I'm unsure about it.

For starters, aside from the redundancy of five nameservers, what other benefits will I have using external DNS? It makes a lot of sense for using external mail services.

My setup:

- eNom A records for domain, hostname, www, ftp, etc.
- eNom MX records for mail.host.name
- DA A record for localhost
- DA NS records for my nameservers
- DA A records for nameserver IPs
- It appears TXT records can go in either zone

I haven't tried mail transport but MX records look good in a DNSreport, the SMTP greeting is correct, I can ping, trace and telnet any hostname... I see no red errors at DNSreport that aren't easily fixed.

What might go wrong here if I haven't done it already?

 

[rszkutak]

If you are fluent with DNS and understand the differance between an A record, an MX record, and a Cname are you should be fine.

However the DA system is quite nice, it puts all that stuff in for you automatically without asking for your "help and guidance".

One thing commonly missed by some peope is the text record for the SPF, which by default is created by DA as well.

Personally I use both DNS systems. I use Nettica for core DNS and we also use our DA server.

I do notice that the records update VERY VERY fast on Nettica's 5 servers, its generally in less than a minute before i can bang away with the change, where as it seems a bit slower on the DA server.

All in all, when it comes down to it, using an external source offers you off site DNS control, and it not dependant on your server at all, plus let's say you decide to move from one server in Seattle to another server in San Antonio, by haivng an external provider it will be a much faster cutover than using the DA system... so i feel.

We'll that's my $0.02 worth... Comments anyone ?


R

 

[Orbserver]

I'm cursed with many interests so that means I will always be a DNS novice. I know enough about A records and CNAMEs to setup a DNS, I don't always know what works best. For instance, what I'm really looking for is secondary DNS and I'm very interested in having a redundant mail exchange. Turns out eNom's DNS won't work for either. So I switched back to my own DNS and I'm looking for a free service like ZoneEdit for a secondary nameserver.

As for DA's setup screens and multiple server feature, I think I answered my own question. DA's DNS setup is magnificent compared to other panels. A novice's opinion.

Thanks for your comments. I'll look into Nettica.

 

[nobaloney]

The easiest way to do slave DNS is with either the built-in DA support or the Master2Slave scripts we give away (search these forums).

They both work automatically; you don't need to make any changes on the slave end, as they figure it all out by reading information on your DA server.

However, to use them you need to know a friendly admin who will let you use their server for slave DNS or you need to have a second server yourself.

You can get a VPS fairly inexpensively or use a commercial service supporting Master2Slave.

Jeff

 

[Orbserver]

It turns out eNom can't be used for secondary DNS or backup MX. I'm looking into services like Rollernet.us and ZoneEdit.com. I have a couple VPSs running my own DNS, one is DA. I've considered using them as slaves to each other but I think I'd rather use a third party.

One factor is that I'm not sure how BIND and tinydns work together for master/slave setups. Is this even an issue? and will master2slave work with tinydns?

Thanks.

 

[nobaloney]

master2slave will not work with tinydns.

Here's a simple explanation of how master2slave works:

BIND has a built in facility to host slave zones as well as master zones. But the authors of BIND didn't include a method for the master server to tell the slave server which domains to slave.

master2slave takes a copy of the master zone file and converts it to a slave zone file, and then includes it into the named.con file on the slave where you'll be slaving your DNS.

Contact me privately if you're looking for a commercial source of Slave DNS service compatible with master2slave; after all, we wrote it for us . And we host DNS for many thousands of domains, with dedicated name servers in Europe and in the U.S.

Jeff