Hello all,

We have a couple servers using Plesk.

1 - Plesk for Linux
1 - Plesk for Windows

We made the Linux box a primary DNS server and the Windows box is setup as the secondary name server.

When a customer registers a domain, it sets the primary DNS server up as our Linux box above and the Windows box as the secondary.

However, when the domain is added to the Plesk Linux server, we have to MANUALLY create the domain on the Plesk Windows server and set it as the secondary/slave in DNS.

Same goes the other way, if a client wants Windows hosting once the domain is added to Plesk for Windows we have to MANTUALLY log into the Plesk Linux box and set it up as the secondary.

I want customers to still be able to manage their DNS in Plesk. Perhaps the answer is a SECONDARY that each of the multiple Primary Plesk servers can use?

In that example, we might have:

ns1.domain.com (Linux Plesk, Primary)
ns2.domain.com (Windows Plesk, Primary)
ns3.domain.com (3rd DNS server that could be the secondary to either of the above)

Seeking some best practices here, any feedback would be much appreciated!

Hi Dimsys,

Here you will find information. Not same products than yours, but will give you an idea about how to do those tasks. Also i have a text document with a post i found ... will paste it to you :)

http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=131845

http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=130285

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Question: BIND to Win2k DNS server automatic zone transfer
Hello, my problem is that I have many BIND servers that manage their own domains and two win2k DNS servers (primary and secondary) that have to be refreshed manually. When I say refreshed is that we have to create the zone manually with all the hosts.

So, my question is if I could automatically transfer the zones of the Bind servers to the primary win2k server and to the secondary. If it's needed I would change to BIND the other two servers.

Thanks.

Answer: There are a few ways to achieve this, and really how you do depends on your skill set and personal preferences.

Scripting is the obvious choice for dealing with this, both systems have the capability to deal with that kind of solution, just the methodologies differ.

If you decide to approach scripting zone creation on the Windows DNS server then you're going to need to install the Windows Support Tools (which are on the CD) as they come with the DNSCMD utility. That allows full configuration of Windows DNS through the command line.

Equally, you can also script a process on Linux / Unix to configure zones for BIND and handle everything there. Not something I'd particularly be able to help with though.

Before going on, why do the Windows DNS Servers need to be setup as Primary and Secondary. Why not both Secondary? If both are Secondary then it would suggest you don't need to worry about the NS and SOA records when configuring the zone on the Windows DNS Servers.

Perhaps one method to put all this together would be:

1. Create Zone on BIND
2. Fire a Script that uses FTP (perhaps) to copy the Zone File onto an area on the Windows Server
3. Configure a Script to run on the Windows Server as a Scheduled Task
4. The Script will check a specific folder (FTP folder) for new zones, then run a series of commands to configure the zone on both Windows DNS Server.

Let me know what you think, I can help you with the Windows side of things and DNS in general (whether in BIND or not). Just not the *nix scripting.

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Hope it helps. We still have those tasks pending to work on :)