dns updating of virtual host

is the dns entry auto-updated

[pdunk]

I recently opted for virtual server to have better control of the web sites I manage. One IP address with Apache virtualHost directives to define each domain.
I've got a lot to learn but haven't found anything to tell me how the dns records get updated.

All of the sites were hosted xyz and the virtual server is at abc. The virtual server name corresponds to the domain name of 1 of the sites (primary).
I updated the nameserver of all the domains to abc, so will the host file on my server be picked up by the provider and thereby propogated or do I have need to specifically address the dns issue for the non-primary sites.

Thanks in advance for all help

[Romeo]

Hi Pdunk,

welcome here to WebMasterWorld.

It is not quite clear what you exactly mean, but perhaps some of the following may help:

There is no "dns updating of virtual host" -- DNS updating is just about updating name server zone file definitions, and is independent of "virtual host" issues. The virtual hosting depends on the DNS, but the DNS has no dependencies to virtual hosting.

For a virtual web hosting stuff to work properly, it needs a correctly resolving domain-name, which means, the matching of your domain name 'www.example.org' and its corresponding IP address must be defined in the DNS first, before your web hosting may work.

This name-to-IP resolving is done inside a DNS-server.
On registering your domain name, you had to specify 2 DNS servers with your domain name registrar.

If you have entered the DNS servers of your web server provider company, you should check with your provider for DNS definitions or changes -- perhaps they offer some web forms to let their customers do basic DNS things.

If you run your own DNS primary server, don't forget to increment/update the serial number within the domain's zone file (you mention a host file instead?) and reload/restart the primary DNS server for the changes to take effect in the primary DNS server and to trigger propagation to the secondaries.

It may take some hours for these changes to get propagated in the worldwide DNS system.

A "host file" is a local IP-to-name definition file on a computer system. Your server may have one. Your client may have one. You can change them as you like, but the changes are just local and private and of no relevance to the outside.

I hope, this answers your question -- if not, pls provide some more details (but no name or address specifics) about your setup and what you want to achieve.

Regards,
R.

[pdunk]

Maybe what I should have asked is if I need to run a DNS server. My hosting company provided me a "virtual server", a black-box with FreeBSD and apache and an IP address to it. I have several web sites that I now want to locate on to this space, which means changing the nameserver at the registrar to?
The host name xyz.com corresponds to one web site and is listed in the providers DNS nameserver. For any other domains I add to my server (xyz.com), do I have to provide a DNS server so that the domains I add get pointed to the IP of xyz.com?
eg. I want to add mypage.com, it will be one of several that reside at 12.34.56.78 which is the IP for 'my' server

[Romeo]

Pdunk,

yes, in this case -- if you have no other (provider's) DNS facilities -- you would have to set up and start an own DNS server daemon on your FreeBSD server. Just check if you have the bind (preferred version 9) software on your FreeBSD, configure the /etc/named.conf file (or the like) and set up zone files for each of your other domains your DNS server should be authoritative for.
You will have to get a second DNS server though for each of your domain names, as required by most domain name registrars. You may search in MSN/Yahoo/Google for "secondary DNS server" or similar. There are free services, too, if money matters, you may search for "free secondary DNS" again ...

Good luck and regards,
R.