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I would like to *manually* set up separate primary and secondary nameservers. I have two servers in two different locations (actually, two different countries), both running Plesk on Linux. I don't want to use any master/slave configuration between the two.
Never mind the cost of having two servers, just assume the business goes thru so much money that the server cost is not on the radar, but any server downtime could cause serious loss of business income as well as lots of idle staff on the payroll and overhead costs.
I believe that this is a question that many people should have, yet when I search the web, I find only complicated techie answers and jargon when in fact I believe that I have a simple solution.
Like many guys here, I don't know enough about scripts to do master/slave. I can barely get by on SSH. I would rather do *everything* in the Plesk control panel, but see the results, not leave it to faith that some "Service Mode" or cron job will work later, or maybe make a problem into a bigger problem automatically. (I also know how control panels can trash configurations edited at the SSH level.)
I have only a few domains running on the servers (just a few businesses!), so manual editing is not much work.
So here is my setup, with fictitious domain names as examples:
Box 1 set up with nameservers ns1.obama.com and ns2.obama.com and IPs 111.111.111.101 and 111.111.111.102
Box 2 set up with nameservers ns1.mccain.com and ns2.mccain.com and IPs 222.222.222.201 and 222.222.222.202
My business has a website www.president.com which has this domain set up at the registrar with two nameservers split between the two boxes, ns1.obama.com and ns1.mccain.com
The shared IP of the website on the obama.com server is 31.31.31.31
I upload my website to both servers but it is active only on the obama.com server, and it serves my mail there. No website traffic goes to the secondary server, but everything is loaded in case the primary server goes down and we must make a manual switch.
So I also have the website on the shared IP of the mccain.com server at 32.32.32.32 but expect no traffic.
On the obama.com server, I have this
president.com. A 31.31.31.31
president.com. NS ns1.obama.com.
president.com. NS ns2.obama.com.
president.com. NS ns1.mccain.com.
president.com. NS ns2.mccain.com.
president.com. MX (5) mail.president.com.
mail.president.com. A 31.31.31.31
webmail.president.com. A 31.31.31.31
www.president.com. CNAME president.com.
ftp.president.com. CNAME president.com.
backup.president.com. A 32.32.32.32
On the mccain.com server, I have the identical information:
president.com. A 31.31.31.31
president.com. NS ns1.obama.com.
president.com. NS ns2.obama.com.
president.com. NS ns1.mccain.com.
president.com. NS ns2.mccain.com.
president.com. MX (5) mail.president.com.
mail.president.com. A 31.31.31.31
webmail.president.com. A 31.31.31.31
www.president.com. CNAME president.com.
ftp.president.com. CNAME president.com.
backup.president.com. A 32.32.32.32
(The backup.president.com is to test to make sure the backup website works fully.)
If one server or nameserver goes down, I can just log into the second Plesk server and change all the 31* addresses to 32* addresses and I'm still in business.
Am I right or wrong?
Is this going to break anything, in principle? Is the secondary nameserver *required* to become a slave? Or can I just do it all manually, being careful to keep everything identical between the two servers?
Also, is there any risk to my current Google ranking by switching to this method, all else the same?
The above is theory.
In reality, right now, my situation is that everything is on one server, obama.com , but I already have a second server used for other business, and I am thinking of using this second server as a backup nameserver (and server!) in case the first server ever goes down.
Actually, the full story is that I already have serious problems:
My president.com domain and about a dozen other domains (which I run for myself and my friends' & associates' businesses) are on my friend's (not my) obama.com server, but the nameserver is on still another box run by the same guy, so my nameservers are actually ns1.bush.com and ns2.bush.com . I have no access to the nameserver ns*.bush.com. Unfortunately, it apparently has some problems. Because I'm overseas but need a server on the US backbone, I've outsourced to a nice guy who runs a small server farm (bush.com) to take care of everything, so I have restricted access for good reason. But limited access means limited control.
The problem is that many people are having problems reaching my website or sending email due to domain name resolution problems, "unknown host" and DNS timeouts.
It's reachable by about 80% of the world but unreachable to another 20%, including myself at the moment. I can get thru by IP but not by domain name. Running nslookup, I can successfully and instantly get info on every esoteric domain name and parked domain in the world, except for only the domains on that particular box. So there's something wrong with the DNS on that nameserver (ns*.bush.com). And this has been happening intermittently a lot lately. My friend doesn't see any anomalies himself, but I do.
I have another box on the backbone of another country here, just a hop skip and a jump away, where I can walk in and get my hands on it 24/7 (bought it at the store myself, brought it into the IDC), and I have complete access to this one (the hypothetical ns*.mccain.com which already hosts domains), SSH to root and all. I was thinking hey, why don't I just set up the president.com domain on this box, too, add my ns2.mccain.com nameserver to the domain on the registrar as secondary nameserver after ns1.bush.com, and then set up the DNS to point towards the old obama.com box run by my friend for everything except a backup website locally?
Or do I know just enough to be dangerous?
Do you think this is a useful guide for others?
Any technical comments would be greatly appreciated. (No votes, please, just technical comments.)
Never mind the cost of having two servers, just assume the business goes thru so much money that the server cost is not on the radar, but any server downtime could cause serious loss of business income as well as lots of idle staff on the payroll and overhead costs.
I believe that this is a question that many people should have, yet when I search the web, I find only complicated techie answers and jargon when in fact I believe that I have a simple solution.
Like many guys here, I don't know enough about scripts to do master/slave. I can barely get by on SSH. I would rather do *everything* in the Plesk control panel, but see the results, not leave it to faith that some "Service Mode" or cron job will work later, or maybe make a problem into a bigger problem automatically. (I also know how control panels can trash configurations edited at the SSH level.)
I have only a few domains running on the servers (just a few businesses!), so manual editing is not much work.
So here is my setup, with fictitious domain names as examples:
Box 1 set up with nameservers ns1.obama.com and ns2.obama.com and IPs 111.111.111.101 and 111.111.111.102
Box 2 set up with nameservers ns1.mccain.com and ns2.mccain.com and IPs 222.222.222.201 and 222.222.222.202
My business has a website www.president.com which has this domain set up at the registrar with two nameservers split between the two boxes, ns1.obama.com and ns1.mccain.com
The shared IP of the website on the obama.com server is 31.31.31.31
I upload my website to both servers but it is active only on the obama.com server, and it serves my mail there. No website traffic goes to the secondary server, but everything is loaded in case the primary server goes down and we must make a manual switch.
So I also have the website on the shared IP of the mccain.com server at 32.32.32.32 but expect no traffic.
On the obama.com server, I have this
president.com. A 31.31.31.31
president.com. NS ns1.obama.com.
president.com. NS ns2.obama.com.
president.com. NS ns1.mccain.com.
president.com. NS ns2.mccain.com.
president.com. MX (5) mail.president.com.
mail.president.com. A 31.31.31.31
webmail.president.com. A 31.31.31.31
www.president.com. CNAME president.com.
ftp.president.com. CNAME president.com.
backup.president.com. A 32.32.32.32
On the mccain.com server, I have the identical information:
president.com. A 31.31.31.31
president.com. NS ns1.obama.com.
president.com. NS ns2.obama.com.
president.com. NS ns1.mccain.com.
president.com. NS ns2.mccain.com.
president.com. MX (5) mail.president.com.
mail.president.com. A 31.31.31.31
webmail.president.com. A 31.31.31.31
www.president.com. CNAME president.com.
ftp.president.com. CNAME president.com.
backup.president.com. A 32.32.32.32
(The backup.president.com is to test to make sure the backup website works fully.)
If one server or nameserver goes down, I can just log into the second Plesk server and change all the 31* addresses to 32* addresses and I'm still in business.
Am I right or wrong?
Is this going to break anything, in principle? Is the secondary nameserver *required* to become a slave? Or can I just do it all manually, being careful to keep everything identical between the two servers?
Also, is there any risk to my current Google ranking by switching to this method, all else the same?
The above is theory.
In reality, right now, my situation is that everything is on one server, obama.com , but I already have a second server used for other business, and I am thinking of using this second server as a backup nameserver (and server!) in case the first server ever goes down.
Actually, the full story is that I already have serious problems:
My president.com domain and about a dozen other domains (which I run for myself and my friends' & associates' businesses) are on my friend's (not my) obama.com server, but the nameserver is on still another box run by the same guy, so my nameservers are actually ns1.bush.com and ns2.bush.com . I have no access to the nameserver ns*.bush.com. Unfortunately, it apparently has some problems. Because I'm overseas but need a server on the US backbone, I've outsourced to a nice guy who runs a small server farm (bush.com) to take care of everything, so I have restricted access for good reason. But limited access means limited control.
The problem is that many people are having problems reaching my website or sending email due to domain name resolution problems, "unknown host" and DNS timeouts.
It's reachable by about 80% of the world but unreachable to another 20%, including myself at the moment. I can get thru by IP but not by domain name. Running nslookup, I can successfully and instantly get info on every esoteric domain name and parked domain in the world, except for only the domains on that particular box. So there's something wrong with the DNS on that nameserver (ns*.bush.com). And this has been happening intermittently a lot lately. My friend doesn't see any anomalies himself, but I do.
I have another box on the backbone of another country here, just a hop skip and a jump away, where I can walk in and get my hands on it 24/7 (bought it at the store myself, brought it into the IDC), and I have complete access to this one (the hypothetical ns*.mccain.com which already hosts domains), SSH to root and all. I was thinking hey, why don't I just set up the president.com domain on this box, too, add my ns2.mccain.com nameserver to the domain on the registrar as secondary nameserver after ns1.bush.com, and then set up the DNS to point towards the old obama.com box run by my friend for everything except a backup website locally?
Or do I know just enough to be dangerous?
Do you think this is a useful guide for others?
Any technical comments would be greatly appreciated. (No votes, please, just technical comments.)
