Proper NS setup accross 2 plesk servers

[catch22media]

Hey everyone,

My business is growing steadily and I am ready to add another server, but at the same time I think it would be smart to have one in another geographical location setup as the second name server (instead of ns1. and ns2. being on the same box).

However I don't understand how to set this up - The domain level is simple, just change the name server to point to the other IP, but how does the domain look on the current machine? Right now its basic - ns1. and ns2. both tied to the proper IPs and everything is fine. Also - I can't picture how it would be setup on the other machine. Would I add the same domain in Plesk and just setup ns2. in the DNS?

Any advice, guidance or suggestions would be great here. Thanks!

Luke

[faris]

Keep in mind that if ns1 is on box 1 and ns2 is on box 2, if ns1 goes down it means that box1 has gone down and it won't matter that ns2 is still up and answering dns queries

Ignoring this, are you therefore intending to have two servers, wach with Plesk, each with its own set of different domains on it?

In that case, essentially, you would have a script running on box1 which dumps all the domains into a file. A script running on box2 would load this file and use it to create secondary dns records on its copy of bind. Similarly box2 would dump its records to a file and box 12 would load them as secondary records.

So box1 would have records for all the domains hosted on it, plus secondary records for all the domains on box2, and vice versa.

Scott has a script to do this somewhere. Alternatively if you want commercial you can use 4PSA DNS Manager, but be aware that you'd need to purchase two copies, one for each server, so if you can get Scott's script to work for you you will save yourself a bit of money.

I do not know the status of Scott's script though. I know it exists but I don't know if it has been updated recently, whether it is OS and Plesk version dependant etc.

I'm sure he'll let us know though!

Faris.

[breun]

Keep in mind that if ns1 is on box 1 and ns2 is on box 2, if ns1 goes down it means that box1 has gone down and it won't matter that ns2 is still up and answering dns queries

It's true that people won't be able to reach the site, but it's not entirely true that it doesn't matter. MTA's could drop mail to your domain when they can't find your MX record for instance. If they can (because your ns2 is still up), but the mailserver that the MX record points to they will try later. (Of course adding a fallback mailserver to the mix is even better.)

[catch22media]

Thanks for the replies.

I am aware that if box 1 is down those domains are down anyway, but as far as I understand this is a good step in creating a little more reliable DNS service, correct? Are their other ways to setup multiple servers under the same brand? (other than ns3, ns4, ns5, etc)

Your info helps a lot faris - would you mind to take a moment and talk about the finer details for me? IE - What the primary domain looks like in Plesk on both servers?

For example my domain is catch22media.com - so current on my server I have the domain setup with 2 name servers in it and it works fine. But when I add this second server, do I add the same domain to it, except just with 1 name server?

Also - is there a way to create a bit of redundancy here? IE Host the same domain on both boxes, if one goes down the other picks it up?

Separating the mail onto a dedicated server will happen in the future - but I suppose thats a whole other thread. = )

Any more info would be great.

Thanks