erm... clicked on the banner above and i cannot access the site. how remarkable! cannot even get there...

tried typing in URL also cannot get there...

Sorry about that...

Try it again. My DNS servers need more TLC and decided to take a break untill they got it.

You should set up secondary dns on a seperate server, so that doesnt happen again.

Originally posted by cbaker17
You should set up secondary dns on a seperate server, so that doesnt happen again.

Well.. I do have a seperate secondary. The problem is that the secondary got the bad updates from the primary. What I need to do is setup a third DNS server off site that does not get automatic updates from the primary or secondary.

Perhaps this is too far off topic, but I don't want to start a new thread because then it's out of context.

If I understand correctly, (and I'm asking really), from a query point of view all DNS servers are equal. I mean, you can't tell the primary from one of the secondaries. This matters because any of the secondaries can get queries any time. (It is not a "failover" type of scheme. A query only goes to the next server if the server is dead or unreachable?) Now, if the DNS server IS ONLINE but does not have valid data, or doesn't acknowledge the domain, the query will come back as not found, correct?

Meaning, if you set up a third server, but the second server doesn't have valid data, and the second server responds the fastest (assuming it is a local server), then the query will still fail even though the third knows its stuff, right? Persons on the outside could still get correct responses, depending on which responds faster, the second or third.

I don't have my Cricket book (BIND and DNS) handy. It's easy to get caught up in primary and secondary talk but from a query standpoint doesn't the server that responds the fastest get the query? Can anyone confirm/explain this rant?

Originally posted by cbaker17
You should set up secondary dns on a seperate server, so that doesnt happen again.

Not necessarily. If you only have one web server, it really doesn't matter if you have a second dns server -- succeeding at the DNS resolution doesn't help you if the web server is still inaccessible.

While there are some minor advantages in terms of outgoing mail with fake envelope senders, they generally don't justify the risk of having one of the servers providing stale data.

remarkable: switch to djbdns. You'll never have problems again ;)

getweb: a query will only be sent to one DNS server at a time; if no response is received within a couple seconds, a request will be sent to the other. However, "primary" and "secondary" servers are equivalent: recursive resolvers MUST choose randomly.

I'll explain the problem.

I am using an automated backend program I hacked up to store my zonefiles in mysql and write them out via a script. Yesterday I made a change to my remarkablehosting.net zone file and updated the zone files.

My nameservers are ns.remarkablehosting.net, ns1.remarkablehosting.net. The error I made prevented any resolving what so ever.
(stupid mistake, i should have known better after working with DNS for 5 years :uzi: ME )

This error also propogated to the secondary server on the same update causing the secondary not to resolve.

If I had an independent 3rd DNS server queries would have gone there.

This is quite embarrassing for me.

djbdns looks interesting. I'm going to look into it more. (but not on my production system ;) )

Apart from the fact that djbdns has data files which are designed for scripts to read/write (unlike bind zone files which are incredibly ugly to parse), the major advantage is that the data is compiled into a cdb file which can then by copied across systems and dropped into place without restarting the server.

*Much* nicer than using insecure, unreliable, zone transfers.

Since the topic has sort of expanded, can any of you answer this question:

Is it a disadvantage for me to have the registrar for my domain names (currently it is StarGate) be a different company than my web host. Will this slow down the time it takes from when a visitor types in the URL for my site and when it will actually pop up on their screen? Will my domain name reside on a DNS server at both companies? I am a little confused about this. I know I have to go into my account with StarGate and make my domain names point at the DNS servers of my web host, but beyond that, I am a little confused.

Is the speed or quality of my registrar's server/network important? I assume that if either my registrar or my web host had DNS servers go down then my site would be unreachable. Is that correct?

Thanks

Arizona, the domain registrars don't operate their own DNS servers -- they simply provide an interface to the root DNS servers which are still operated by the same dozen groups as have operated them for the past decade. The registrar you use makes no difference at all to how DNS resolution is performed.

No, that's incorrect, and in fact few web hosts are the actual registrars. Most are reselling for an accredited registrar.

When you register a domain name, no matter where you register it, it ends up in the master global zone files. It is not the responsibility of the original registrar to maintain their "portion" of the domain name space. (I mean for .com, .net, etc... I know some other TLD's are handled by the original registrars. Also registrars might be responsible for the WHOIS record servers.)

But for your purposes, the only issue is support, like how easy it is to submit changes. Reliablity or speed is irrelevant because all the master zone files contain your domain.


Yeah, what he said. :D

hey remarkable,

i went back to your site now i can access...

question:
for the private bare bones, since it is VPS is there anything stopping the user from installing mysql? you stated mysql as no, dbs as zero.

what versions of php, perl, mysql are installed?

is this ensim software? so we can write to any directory like /bin /usr /lib, meaning we can install any damn software?

thanks.

Myst please contact me off-line (matthew@remarkablehosting.com)

Originally posted by myst
hey remarkable,

i went back to your site now i can access...

question:
for the private bare bones, since it is VPS is there anything stopping the user from installing mysql? you stated mysql as no, dbs as zero.

what versions of php, perl, mysql are installed?

is this ensim software? so we can write to any directory like /bin /usr /lib, meaning we can install any damn software?

thanks.