I tested my server with DNSreport and the only warning I got is "Nameservers on separate class C" which means my nameservers are both on the same physical location. If one is down, the second one will also be down. Is there a way I can use a third-party service to overcome this? If yes, how? Thanks.

Theres a few ways to do this.

1. Get another server somewhere else.

For example, I lease a server out of chicago that I have another name server on...it also mirrors my server here...if one goes down, I can switch to the other one.

2. This is probably the easiest option..use a DNS service.

http://www.easydns.com/
or
http://www.zoneedit.com/

come to mind.

If you want a free option you can also use theplanet's nameservers, there is an option in orbit for adding domains

One more thing - just keep in mind if you are not hosting DNS on the server you will have to manually update the DNS. This means that when you create an account or change IPs you have to login to the DNS host and change it unlike if you hosted it locally this would all be done automatically. Most DNS hosts also have a lag time of minutes to a few hours before changes take effect.

If you're running cpanel, a low-end VPS makes an easy, cheap, fully automatic slave nameserver via the free cpanel dns-only version.

Yes, exactly. But TP wouldn't install cPanel's DNS Only version, would they..? Doesn't it need to be installed on a fresh OS?

As far as I know, we don't.


DNS version probably doesn't take over as much as the full version. There's a slight possibility you could get away with installing it on a production system without reinstalling.

It's been a couple years since I installed cpanel's dns-only version so possibly something has changed (though I suspect not too much as its functionality is intentionally very specific and limited; but you never know, maybe it's not as lean and mean as it was...) At that time I actually got an EV1 plesk vps (because they were all plesk when released), removed the plesk rpms, and installed the dns-only version of cpanel. It required only a single installer script be executed to install and was a piece of cake. Ran for over a year with no issues until I upgraded to the full version of cpanel on the same machine which also installed without a hitch using the installer script. (I don't think I'd do it on a production machine where other non-cpanel services were being used for fear that it would break something, but at least a while back, it was as easy as it could get to install on a plain or other vps.)

Wow, great info Jeff. Thanks!