Plesk 8.1 and DNS template with CNAME

[cri006]

Hi there,

when I setup DNS templates under Server>DNS as follows:
<domain>. NS ns1.cri.co.yu.
<domain>. NS ns2.cri.co.yu.
<domain>. MX (10) mx1.cri.co.yu.
<domain>. MX (20) mx2.cri.co.yu.
ftp.<domain>. CNAME host1.cri.co.yu.
mail.<domain>. CNAME host1.cri.co.yu.
webmail.<domain>. CNAME host1.cri.co.yu.
www.<domain>. CNAME host1.cri.co.yu.



this is what I'm getting (example domain taken for demo is
omglolwtf.com.)


omglolwtf.com. NS ns1.cri.co.yu.
omglolwtf.com. NS ns2.cri.co.yu.
webmail.omglolwtf.com. A 87.237.200.6
ftp.omglolwtf.com. CNAME host1.cri.co.yu.
mail.omglolwtf.com. CNAME host1.cri.co.yu.
www.omglolwtf.com. CNAME omglolwtf.com.
omglolwtf.com. MX (10) mx1.cri.co.yu.
omglolwtf.com. MX (20) mx2.cri.co.yu.

Obvious problems are at lines:
www.omglolwtf.com. CNAME omglolwtf.com.
webmail.omglolwtf.com. A 87.237.200.6

they should be both CNAME records pointing to host1.cri.co.yu, but
they don't. What am I doing wrong?
Is that some kind of bug inside plesk DNS template system or some mistake of mine.

I have access to two more plesk panels ( version 7.5.4 and 8.0.1) and both of them also failed to successfuly create proper DNS zone using same template mentioned above.


Anyone?

 

[DCoats]

<domain> and mail.<domain> needs an A record or <ip>
other wise plesk will make sure that your dns actually works by resolving host1.cri.co.yu to ip for you 87.237.200.6..

<domain>. NS ns3.yourdomain.com.
<domain>. NS ns1.yourdomain.com.
<domain>. NS ns2.yourdomain.com.
<domain>. A <ip>
<domain>. MX (10) mail.<domain>.
<domain>. TXT v=spf1 ip4:<ip> a mx mx:mail.<domain>. -all
ftp.<domain>. CNAME <domain>.
mail.<domain>. A <ip>
mail.<domain>. TXT v=spf1 a mx -all
webmail.<domain>. A <ip>
www.<domain>. A <ip>

 

[cri006]

That's just plain dull policy. I should be able to create whatever DNS policy I want and handle all DNS woes if I want.
Template I have posted is tuned so it fits to unlimitted number of domains, thus making eventual migrations from host to host matter of minutes by changing one single DNS record that all CNAMEs pointing at instead of boring checking, replacing and who-knows-what-else.

By forcing me to have A records in DNS template I'm not able to do that.
I would really like to see some SWSoft word on this subject, simply because template that you are free to create as you like (I haven't seen any limitations while creating template) does NOT produces correct output. With that fact it can be clearly flagged as bug in Plesk.


TYVM

 

[DCoats]

Im not sure that you understand completely. Usage of the A record does not limit anything at all. the <IP> directive simply sets the host to the ip address the client is assigned in plesk. I really do not understand where you think your limitation is. You simply have to specify something for
<domain>. and in your attempt shown above you never did. cnames are not the optimal way because they require an extra lookup .
stating
<domain>. A <ip>
assigns that domain to the ip assigned in plesk and then the rest of the cnames will work.
Why can't you have an A record in the template? This isnt swsoft this is DNS 101. www. mail. webmail. all of those can be cnames without problem as long as you specify what <domain>. is

 

[cri006]

Hi DCoats,

looks like there's misunderstanding indeed. The main reason I want to eliminate A records from domain DNS template is fast and zero-molesting domain moving. When you think in big numbers, that's simply what you *have* to watch for.

Imagine this scenario:
you have aprox. 4000 (four thousand) domains spread over 6 plesk servers named:
host1
host2
host3
host4
host5
host6

All is working fine, but at some point your housing company announces to you that they're changing their IP numbers because of insert_your_fav_reason_for_IP_change and sending you your new IP pool.
Now, you are facing situation where you assigned to *all* of your 4000 domains DNS zone with nothing but A records for each domain, each containing 4-8 more A records. I don't even want to calculate how much records that is.
HOW would you perform DNS update so it does not implies contacting client, nor changing any of four thousand client settings.

In case of using *only* CNAMEs in DNS you would just simply fill your new IPs into plesk configuration and change six A records for host1-host6. Simple as that!


Hope this cleared on what I'm aiming at, and how serious/messy this bug can be.

 

[cri006]

Oh, and one more thing... Using of CNAMEs indeed does produces additional DNS lookup, but in world of broadband, those few more bytes is just what I'm willed to sacrifice for sake of having solid DNS configuration.

 

[DCoats]

hmm, point taken, but in that case, I would make a backup of the psa database, use a text editor and the find and replace function on the database to replace ip1 with ip3,and ip2 with ip4. replace the edited database and restart plesk and let it change the zone files for you.

 

[cri006]

Are you sure named.conf include files are being overwritten with data from mysql? If yes, that's indeed worthy, but again *very* dirty hack/workaround.

Bottomline is that SWSoft has failed to provide scalable and hack-free DNS interface in Plesk, but I guess that's most likely in favor of their more advanced products in big-number biz where you probably don't have such issues.


my $0.02