DNS nameservers

DNS nameservers - 2 NS1s

[goofyhumor]

Is it possible to have more than one NS1 nameserver so you have a back up if one place goes down completely?

e.g. For your nameservers, you have:

NS1.FIRSTDNSHOST.COM
NS2.FIRSTDNSHOST.COM
NS3.FIRSTDNSHOST.COM
NS1.SECONDDNSHOST.COM
NS2.SECONDDNSHOST.COM
NS3.SECONDDNSHOST.COM

Are they just looked at in order?

[davezan]

Yes, but it depends on how accomodating your registrar's systems are.

[webdude]

Not only is this possible, but it is highly recommended and required in registering a domain name. I have 1 primary DNS server and 2 secondary servers. The primary is always looked at first, but I don't think there is an order for secondaries.

The primary DNS server is the one in which you add all the records. The secondaries are set up to receive new record info and keeps up to date with the primary. In other words, when you change a record on the primary server, the new data gets pushed to the secondaries. One thing to note though, when adding a new domain name, you must also add the domain name to the secondary and "set it up" to get the data from the primary. It is also recommended that you except data from ONLY the primary server. There have been security issues involved with secondaries receiving info from any primary.

Hope this helps.

[webdude]

I'm sorry. Maybe I misunderstood you. Are you saying you want to set up 2 primary servers?

[goofyhumor]

I'll explain.

Last year I had a problem with a DNS host, and I'd forgot to add the 3rd server to my domain's nameservers - their first 2 servers came under a DOS attack and basically my sites were down for a day or so. Because of this I switched to another DNS host and I have had no problems with it until yesterday. They actually give you 4 servers to put down as nameservers, but their whole site was inaccessible for about 5 hours.

So what I was asking was is it possible to have more than one set of nameservers down from different hosts so if one DNS host did have a DOS attack or complete site failure there would be a back up system in place?

Hope that makes sense.

If not, anyone know any really reliable DNS hosts that have no downtime?

[webdude]

I think, and I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, that the way to make sure that records are always available would be to have a separate location host secondary DNS for your stuff.

I host my own dns, but I have an arrangement with my provider where he hosts a secondary server for me. In this case, if my connection goes down, the secondary is in place still for the records. Of course, if my connection goes down, it is a moot point for the seconadary in place because none of my sites are accessable. To rectify this, you would need to have another server set up off-site to kick in when the main server is down. This is something I have not done as of yet.

I am not sure in your case, but if you have your DNS served from a different place then where you host your site, setting up a secondary DNS server at a second location would be of a benefit.

Is this making sense?

[goofyhumor]

Yes, that is making sense.

So say I used this set up, would this work? (just miss out the primary DNS server of the 2nd DNS host:

NS1.FIRSTDNSHOST.COM
NS2.FIRSTDNSHOST.COM
NS3.FIRSTDNSHOST.COM
NS2.SECONDDNSHOST.COM
NS3.SECONDDNSHOST.COM
NS4.SECONDDNSHOST.COM

Or would I just use?

NS1.FIRSTDNSHOST.COM
NS2.FIRSTDNSHOST.COM
NS3.FIRSTDNSHOST.COM
NS2.SECONDDNSHOST.COM

[webdude]

I think that both would work, but I am not sure of how many secondaries you can have. It might be limited according to the registering company. My set up is so...

NS1.FirstDNS.com
NS2.FirstDNS.com
NS2.SecondDNS.com

[goofyhumor]

Thanks, I am going to check with my registrar.

[goofyhumor]

Checked in my account and it says:

"A domain name may be associated with as many as twelve secondary name servers."

Should be ok then I guess.

[webdude]

Glad to help :-)