A question to anyone leasing a server from Alabanza.

I am curious how you handle DNS with them ie:

1) Are there central Name Servers which handles DNS for all their customers?

2) Can you add new domains/accounts to the DNS without having to involve Alabanza

3) What about pointers (ie multiple domains for the same account). Can you add these to the Name Server yourself.

Any other relevant info that you can share on how the DNS works with Alabanza would be appreciated.

I think most Alabanza-based hosts use their own nameservers. Domains that you enter are set up automatically in /etc/named and are then fed out, just like anywhere else. No reason to involve them unless there's an odd binding problem, but a ./setupdns to remove the baddie and reset the good one generally works for that. Pointers have to be done manually using NameVirtual to set a new domain to a subfolder of an existing domain, but it can be done. Parking against a domain can be done automatically by the system or manually, as you prefer.

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Annette
Hosting Matters, Inc.
http://www.hostmatters.com

If you have root access on your Alabanza leased server, you can pretty much do what you want with the server config.

The DNS is at your disposal, but they won't support you doing anything out of the ordinary or outside the bounds of of their automation.

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Phillip J. Crane
Business Development
DomainBuilder web hosting services
DomainBuilder.net (http://www.domainbuilder.net)

Thanks for the replies so far.

Is it possible to set up (manually or otherwise) a pointer to a domain on an external server?

I don't mean to a sub-directory - but to the main domain (ie a second domain name). But where the domain being pointed to is not on the server where the DNS is (ie the Alabanza server) but on a separate server.

?? Why would you want to, and what are you trying to do? Do you want to redirect a domain or subdomain to another domain elsewhere? That's better done without playing around in httpd.conf or with the domain.com.b - a simple cgi that intercepts and redirects would be good. Another solution would be to modify the domain record at the registrar level to point to the nameservers of the domain to which it is to be pointed, and then make a ServerAlias entry for the pointed domain in the httpd.conf file on the other server which holds the domain you want to reach. Or park the new domain against the master domain on the other server, which is even easier.

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Annette
Hosting Matters, Inc.
http://www.hostmatters.com

Sorry I did not explain myself very well.

I am thinking of going with Alabanza. I currently have web sites spread over a number of hosting companies plus a whole bunch on my own RAQ. I would move almost all of these to the Alabaza server except for a small number which (for reasons I won't bore you with) I would want to leave where they are (not on the RAQ).

At the moment I use the RAQ to provide DNS (nameservers) for all domains on the RAQ PLUS a few domain names which are not on the RAQ but in fact are just additional domain names (pointers) for domains elsewhere. The reason I do this is simply that to add a pointer with the hosting company who actually does the DNS for the main domain would cost me money - when I can add it to my RAQ DNS for no cost. It is not a problem - works fine - costs me nothing.

I could update the registrar to point to the DNS of the company doing the DNS for the main domain but I would have to have them add a pointer and pay them accordingly. It is no big deal - I can do that if necessary. But if it was possible for the Alabanza DNS to hold the ponter for these domains it would just make things simpler and of course cost me nothing.