DNS config ?

[emsol]

I come from a Linux background and I've just installed plesk on my first Windows server.

I have done a fresh installation of windows 2003 on the box and installed plesk 6.5. Plesk did not ask me any information regarding nameservers or hostnames during setup and I have looked at the documentation but cant see anything regarding DNS or nameserver setup.

Currently, im getting 404's when trying to go to https://myserver:8443

I think I need to do the following...

1. Set my servers hostname to server3.mydomain.com at IP1 on the box

2. Add a primary nameserver ns4.mydomain.com at IP2 on the box

3. Allow this to pass ns records to another windows server on the network setup as ns5.mydomain.com

Can anyone point me in the right direction ? I've emailed plesk support but not had a reply.

 

[softpac2000]

Hello!

Plesk uses templates for creating the DNS entries of the domains you create on Plesk.

Click on the Server link located on the left pane of the Plesk Control panel.

Then click on the DNS icon located on the right panel.

Here is where you create the template to be used when you create your domains under a Plesk client. Add or remove entries as needed. If you mess it up you can always click on default and it will restore the default entries.

Then after you create a client and click on the create domain icon it will use the default template to create the dns entries for that domain.

You can always go to the client domain and click on the DNS icon to add or remove entries as needed.

If you change the default template on the server it doesn't affect the already created domains, only the new ones. You can always click on default in the domain dns to use the current template.

Also make sure to point your domain to the dns server you will be using. Do this where you registered your domain.

Also the default name server in plesk is "ns.yourdomain.com" so if you want to use something different like "ns1.yourdomain.com" make sure to change this in your default template and where you registered your domain. Remember that if you change your name server where you registered your domain it takes up to 72 hours to propagate.

Also if you make changes to your dns entries, this is cached on the PC accessing the dns server.

Say for example, you changed an IP address on the domain but you still see the old IP when you do an nslookup then you would use this command to flush the resolver cache: ipconfig /flushdns

Just get used to getting things done through the Plesk Control Panel, if you start doing things outside of Plesk you will have lots of problems!

Also look at this post for additional examples and info:
http://forum.sw-soft.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13528

Hope this helps!
Ricardo...

 

[emsol]

Great advice, thank you !!

 

[emsol]

I've changed my DNS template accordingly but I've worked out that my main problem is with windows DNS.

The company I'm renting rackspace with had set DNS up on this windows box for me.

It was set so that my server was the primary nameserver for its domains (ns4.mydomain.com) ns 1 2 and 3 are taken up by linux boxes..

Because I only have one windows server they set up an IP for me on another server on the network as a secondary - so my server could pass DNS to this. as ns5.mydomain.com - this allowed for automatic zone "replication" so I dont have to manually update zone files on one of my linux boxes

All domains on my windows box are then registered at the registrar with these two nameservers. (ns4 and ns5)

My problem is that because plesk originally screwed up my windows installation I had to rebuild - and now ive lost the relationship between my server and the secondary one.

This means that no domains will display because this server cant send zone files to the secondary - therefore dns lookup is failing.

Windows DNS looks very complicated !

How easy is it to set this up - before I have to pay the datacentre to do it for me ?

 

[softpac2000]

Hello Emsol,

First let me start by advising you not to use the Windows DNS server with Plesk. If you do then everytime you create a new domain you will have to manually create the DNS entries on the Windows DNS server. This defeats the purpose of using Plesk to simplify your life. Also your clients will not have the ability to update their own dns entries unless they call you for you to do it in your Windows DNS or unless they point their domains to another dns server for which they have access to.

Not a good idea!

Disable the Windows DNS server and use the Plesk DNS. Plesk uses BIND as the dns server, it doesn't use the Windows DNS server. For more info and manual on this go here: http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/sw/bind/

Hope this helps!
Ricardo...

 

[emsol]

Thanks,

What I need is a secondary server using bind that can synchronise with this server.

I dont want to use 2 ips on the same box for my nameservers as this is very bad practice.

I use Bind on linux but they are cpanel boxes and I dont think they will syncronise with plesk so unless my ISP can help out, it looks like I only have two options...

1. Update the zone records on nameserver2 manually - id just use one of my existing linux servers but this is not something I want to do.

2. Rent a second windows server - install plesk and use this for nameserver2 - expensive

or option 3
3. scrap plesk and go back to helm.

What i dont understand is how other people do this with just one server....

Did I miss something maybe ?

 

[ggggarret]

i'm not very slick with my server terminology so i hope this makes sense...

i think i'm trying to do the same thing but want to make sure i'm clear on this

i'd like our actual working website to be at mycompany.com
have all our plesk and moderbill functions operating through mycompany.com
have our ssl set as mycompany.com

and

have our custom nameservers to read ns1.mycompany.com and ns2.mycompany.com (the ns1 and 2 part can be whatever)

is this the same thing you're trying to do with the nameservers?

if not, is this possible from what you've experienced?

thanks.

 

[softpac2000]

ggggaret,

Go to this post:
http://forum.sw-soft.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13528

Hope this helps!
Ricardo...

 

[emsol]

Similar situations.

We have several linux servers already but this is our first windows box.

I can set up as many nameservers as I want on linux because they can be chained together so that they all synchronise their zone files.

When I create a domain account on one server - it updates the other servers with the zone info.

With plesk and windows - I'm stuck because I only have one server. When a domain is created in plesk I will have to manually add the zone file to one of my linux servers every time and use that as nameserver2 for plesk - unless someone else can advise otherwise.

edit... this wouldnt be any good - I would have to change the zone file every time a customer created a subdomain. I wonder what plesks advice would be ?

How risky is it to use a second IP on the same box as a secndary nameserver on a plesk server ?

 

[ggggarret]

i'll go ahead and move the rest of my comments to the thread you linked to...

 

[emsol]

I'm getting annoyed with plesk !

Scenario. Server has 3 IP's - the main IP will be used for shared hosting.

I want to set the other 2 IP's on this plesk server to ns4.mydomain.com and ns6.mydomain.com

The domain "mydomain.com" does not reside on this server but has forwarding A records from another. Also, PT records are set at the ISP for reverse DNS.

I want domains on the server to use these nameservers. I have set NS records on the default template for these.

Do I need to do anything else on the plesk server to ensure that bind is reporting these domains at the nameservers?

For example, do I need to create "domains" for them so they have their own zone files ?