Hi,

I am a relative newbie to the hosting business and have questions regarding DNS for hosting clients on multiple servers.

Until recently I had just 1 box that isn't with EV1. I was using this for my own domains and a couple of clients, with both the primary and secondary DNS on this box. I recently purchased my 2nd server from EV1. I decided to use my new EV1 box as the primary DNS as well as for hosting clients (as it is a better box) and use the old box with my own sites on it as the secondary DNS.

Both boxes are running RedHat, both with Plesk 7.5.4 on it.

Lets call 1.1.1.1 the primary DNS (EV1 server) and 2.2.2.2 as the secondary DNS (other server). Both are registered with the registrar and can get a response from dig.

I have accounts with different working domains on both servers.

The accounts/domains on Box A (1.1.1.1) successfully see and use DNS from the same box, but the secondary DNS is lame. And the accounts/domains on Box B (2.2.2.2) successfully see and use DNS from the same box (ie the secondary), but the primary DNS is lame for domains on this box.

Is there supposed to be reverse/forward statements. Or perhaps a master/slave setup?

Whatever the setup it needs to be able to be used when I get third fourth and more servers after that. ie. Primary (1.1.1.1) and secondary (2.2.2.2) DNS can be used by clients on all of the servers.

Thanks in advance for your assitance,
Snorky...

Hey Snorky,

A couple of things. Since you mentioned the nameservers being Lame for the second box, have you gone into the EV1 members area yet to set up reverse pointers for that/those IP numbers? If not, that should fix the lame issue.

As to setting up and automating your DNS across two boxes, if you need it you can find some scripts and instructions to do this over on the Atomic Rocket Turtle site. I believe you'll find it in the Projects section under Automatic Secondary DNS.

Hi Squire,

Firstly Thank you for your response. I had run out of options and ideas of where to go next.



No, I haven't. Although when I go in the members section there are already values in there.

I have 3 ip addresses on this box. So when I goto the modify PTR record page I have the choice of modifying:

67.x.x.1 > ev1.mydomain.com
67.x.x.11 > my primary dns
67.x.x.12 > yet unused ip

The value in the 67.x.x.1 record currently is ev1s-67-x-x-1.ev1servers.net

and the value in the 67.x.x.11 record currently is ev1s-67-x-x-11.ev1servers.net

Should these be different or added to? Is this where I need to point to my secondary DNS ip address?



Thanks for this. Just to be clear this allows me to sync the /etc/named.conf files as well as the zone files from /var/named/run-root/var

If so, I very much appreciated you sending me in the right direction. I'll get into this once I fix my lame server issue.

Thansk again,
Eric...

Sorry Eric, I shouldn't be so presumptuous. Or I should learn to read better so early in the morning!

Are you running your own DNS servers? Or letting EV1 handle that? I assumed you were running your own and not having EV1 handle all of that. Meaning your WhoIs record for your domain points over to something like ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com. But that's just the way I set things up and you may have your config completely different.

Here's how I set up things in the EV1 members area > DNS Configuration > Edit Reverse Pointers. Realize that I keep the main IP number for the server tied to the hostname of that server's main domain, then assign an IP for each nameserver.

For the main IP (say 111.111.111.111) when I've set up the hostname of the server to be server.mydomain.com I would set up this main IP so that the reverse pointer says server.mydomain.com.

For a nameserver (tied to 111.111.111.112) that I'd set up with my Registrar as ns1.mydomain.com I would make the reverse pointer to be ns1.mydomain.com

Same sort of thing on the other server, which already seems to be working as it should since you don't get a lame notice on that one.

Give EV1 a little bit to update their PTR records and run another test through DNSReport.com or a similar service to see what it says. DNSReport doesn't cache data, so as soon as EV1 changes things you should be seeing the real deal.

As far as ATR's site and the stuff he puts out, Scott was one of the original developers of Plesk. So he pretty much knows it inside and out. He's careful about releasing stuff to the main section without testing it too. So you're in good hands there.

Thanks again Squire. You have been very helpful, where I couldn't find help anywhere else.

My setup is the same as the one you are using. I am handling my own DNS like yourself.

PTR records on ServerCommand has some issues for the past day or so, so took a little while to try what you suggested.

When trying to change the PTR record that is tied to the ip 111.111.111.112 and is registered @ my register as ns1.mydomain.com then I get the following:

An Error Has Occured
The following errors were encountered:

The reverse target specified was invalid. Reverse targets must end with a period (.) and be in a valid hostname format (ex: servercommand.net.)


To be more clear when I type 'ns1.mydomain.com' as the Reverse value for 111.111.111.112, I get the above error. The ip address and name server does exisit and can be contacted with dig.

Do I just type ns1.mydomain.com or something else as the reverse value?

Thanks,
Eric...

That's right, they changed that so you have to enter it exactly as it should be when they changed over to ServerCommand.

Just put a period after your ns address.

IP address = 111.111.111.112
Reverse = ns1.mydomain.com.

(Note the period after the com)

when I ping www.xxx.com [MyWeb] they post this...

Ping : cannot resolve www.xxx.com : Host name lookup failure :confused:

WHAT ?????? HOW ?????

Lots of things could cause this to happen NewBSD. Initially I would make sure the hostname is actually set up correctly on the server. There are some threads around here somewhere and Nighthawk even created a little script that will set the hostname for you on Plesk machines. I'm not sure you would get that exact error message, but it could also be something as simple as having pinging disabled in your server firewall settings, which is something I do as a general course.

I would recommend running it through something like DNSReport as it'll give you a better idea of any problems that exist.

Hi Squire,

I've updated the ptr record for the DNS ip address, but still the same lame dns problem. When I do a reverse lookup on the ip address the name server address comes up so the entry has been updated.

I haven't updated the ptr record for the main ip address to the box name. Does this need to be done? My box name as with EV1 is ev1.mydomain.com. But this isn't a real contactable name or address. mydomain.com is hosted on an account on the secondary dns box.

Have you got any other thoughts of what could be causing the lame server issue?

Thanks again Squire.

Eric...

How are you testing it Eric? This could have a bearing too.

Long story short, if the other server has Authority for the domain, then it's going to need to have a DNS entry for ev1.mydomain.com. Otherwise it's going to show up as a lame server because of the sub-domain.

Feel free to PM over the details if you want me to take a look to see what I see from the outside looking in. But from what you've said, you'll want to set up a reverse record for the hostname (ev1.mydoman.com.) through EV1's members area and also set up an A record on the other server that points the ev1.mydomain.com over to the main IP number of your server.

Hi Squire,

I am using tools from http://dnstuff.com and especially the DNS report from http://www.dnsreport.com/



How do you make names for a server? As I said, ev1.mydomain.com is just a name that I gave the server when signing up with EV1. What file or files do you need to modify to give it a definative name?

And which files do you modify on each server to give an authorative DNS entry?

I will PM you mroe details.

Thanks again,
Snorky...

I just sent ya a PM Snorky. Actually two of 'em since PMs are limited to 1500 characters here.

Authority first has to come from EV1 since they own the IP numbers. Hence going into the EV1 members area to assign reverse pointers.

I think I covered all the rest of it in the PM. Oh, if you want a quick reference to Nighthawk's hostname script, it's here.