Tricky issue when using Multi-Server setup [bug?]

[Richard G]

Just a warning to all (new) users using multi server setup. It's a great thing, but imho it's not working as it should. The "slave" server should only be a secondary DNS so in fact a resolver. Multi-Server from DA does not work this way.

But if you delete DNS records from that server, it will also delete both the /etc/named.conf entries and the /var/named/domain.com.db records on the original master server. So you loose all DNS records.
Restoring an account backup won't work as you get errors about existing things, so to restoring would require deleting the account and then restoring the backup.

This should in fact not happen, DNS records should only be deleted everywhere once deleted on the master, not when deleted on the slave/resolver.

I know this already for several years, but once a while when setting up a new server, I manage to loose some records for that reason.

Also, which is pity, there is not a single option to rebuild just default DNS records for domains (like you get when you add a domain), only for -all- records, which is often not required and would overwrite existing correct records, so is not an option.

Would be very nice if there would be a way to just re-create default records for single domains.

 

[Ohm J]

from panel Admin -> Server Management -> DNS Managememt -> { Select Domain } -> "Reset Default" button.

 

[Zhenyapan]

But multiserver has described options, like:

Domain Check:​

DA will first check the specified server before creating a domain to ensure the domain does not exist.

 

[Richard G]

from panel Admin -> Server Management -> DNS Managememt -> { Select Domain } -> "Reset Default" button.

Thank you, but that won't work. This only works if a domain is still present.
If there is nothing in named.conf and no domain.com.db present, then the domain is also not visible in DNS Administration and so no "reset default" present either.

Like I said, in such case we need some option just like if the domain is created newly, but then just add default values and this is not present.

But multiserver has described options, like:

Yes when copying from master to slave. But you can delete domains from slave dns. They have both Local Data and Local Mail set to NO.
The problem here is that if you delete these from the slave server (for whatever reason you might need this, or even by accident), then the original files on the master server are deleted to and your DNS data is gone. That is the tricky thing.
A delete on a slave server should never interfear with original files on the master server. One should only be able to delete both from the master server.

 

[Remco00]

I don’t see the problem. Just make sure that only the master server has access to the slave server. No need to enter login credentials into the multi server setup for the slave server if you don’t have any domains configured on the slave sever. This way it only acts as a secondary dns (slave) server.

 

[Richard G]

This way it only acts as a secondary dns (slave) server.

Correct, but this does not make it a non-issue.
You can also just disable the multi-server setup for the time being on the slave server, same effect.

Problem is also that not everybody has multiple servers and they work work with 2 or 3 servers being each others slave servers.
And in fact, even if you use multi server setup on only 2 servers, still one slave should leave the master records of the other server untouched anyway. So it's still a bug imho.

I know about this issue for many years, but it never came up on the forum and I thought to mention it now once, because this is also important to take this into consideration for new users and users starting multi-server setup.

That's why I wrote I wanted to post this as just a warning to (new) users.