I currently have a server with SM. I've never owned more than one dedicated server, but I'm picking up #2 this week. I do have one question for anyone who can help.

My current server hosts my main web site from which I offer web hosting, obviously. Let's say my main site is called "domain1.com". The nameservers are currently ns1.domain1.com and ns2.domain1.com, which all of my clients use as their DNS.

What I want to do is move domain1.com to a new server and retain all of my clients sites on the current server, still using ns1.domain1.com and ns2.domain1.com. I will be changing the DNS for domain1.com at my registrar to use new nameservers on this second server - ns1.domain2.com and ns2.domain2.com.

I believe there will be no problems with this setup. I do not want there to be any DNS inter-dependency between the two servers. Am I correct in my thinking or am I missing something? Am I making sense?

Server 1: server1.server-name.com (current server)
ns1.domain1.com
ns2.domain1.com

Server 2: home.domain1.com (new server)
ns1.domain2.com
ns2.domain2.com

No, there shouldn't be any problems with this. As long as on the second server, you have the site records with the web and mail server.

If you are using Linux, make sure that the domain1.com entry is found in the httpd.conf and the DNS pointing to that IP address.

On Windows, you do likewise in the IIS Manager of the new machine. Also do the same thing with the DNS as above.

In fact what you can do is set up the following

Server 1
-----------

ns1.domain.com
ns2.domain.com

Server 2
------------

ns3.domain.com
ns4.domain.com

Using the same main domain name. You do not need to register a new domain even if you are setting the dnses on separate machines.

Thanks, that all makes sense. I think I just need to get it straight in my head, that even though the domain name is used in the nameserver (ns1.domain1.com), it isn't related to the domain.



Only on the server that hosts that actual domain, correct?

Yup, only one server is hosting that domain (the actual site).

When I had two servers in the past here. I had one server (Windows) using thePlanet DNS and the other Linux hosting its own DNS server.

On the Linux machine I create the DNS servers based on one of the site (my corporate site) which was hosted on the Windows server and hosting that DNS on the Linux machine. It works great.

Well, think of it this way. The DNS for the DNS Servers get resolved outside of your machine and at your domain name registrar. They are the one which maintain that list.