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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    85

    * Nameserver on the same box -- is it safe?

    Gurus, please help me! I'm a total newbie with dedicated servers. I've just ordered a box from FastServers.Net, and their support is asking me this:

    "What name servers are going to be used for resolution on this box? Is this machine going to be a name server itself or are these going to be located on another server?"

    Is it safe to host a nameserver on the same box? Should I use a 3rd-party DNS servers?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    New York City
    Posts
    330
    get dns hosting at another isp. When fastservers goes down you can redirect it easy.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    85
    zerphyte, what would happen with my sites if my DNS are hosted on the same box, and the box (or FastServers.Net) goes down?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    United kingdom
    Posts
    1,003
    If you've only got one server, with websites located on the same one server then having the DNS on the same server is not uncommon. Look at it this way... if your server goes down, your websites will be down and DNS will also be down. Do if DNS is on another box, your websites will be down anyway.

    You only put DNS on another box if you've got say more than one server and your websites are mirrored to the other server. That way, if your first web server goes down the DNS which is still running can point everyone to the second server and no one will know that your server went down.

    Alan
    Alan Ho
    Former Systems Administrator

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Southern California
    Posts
    12,136
    Either way then, your site(s) wouldn't be available. If the primary box that serves the site is down, your site won't be available. If the DNS server on that server should fail, then your site won't be available, however another DNS server might suffer the same fate. Having more than one would solve this, you could use a secondary from a free DNS place just to have a backup.
    HostHideout.com - Where professionals discuss web hosting.

    • Chicken

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Kelowna B.C.
    Posts
    1,686
    Yup, right on - only a necessity if you have a website that must be kept up 24x7. Most people/most webhosters use the DNS on their box.
    Hosting.Express | Affordable Web and Email Hosting
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  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2001
    Posts
    1,593
    I would suggest using a third-party DNS server. This way, you can be sure that 1) You can reroute visitors to another backup site if your server is down, 2) You don't have to change the IP of your DNS server when you change provider (you still need to change the record though).

    I personally use and recommend the service from www.everydns.net. Not only is it free, it also has a nice web interface for configuring DNS records, so it's perfect for a newbie like yourself.

    Peter

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    269
    There is a thread in the technical & security problems forum on this topic.

    http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...threadid=83694

    I'll quote what Masood said in that thread :

    Originally posted by masood
    This was happening to me for a couple of months as my hobby server in FDC used to be unreachable because of one reason or the other. Usually network congestion etc. And many ISPs, including my cable provider would not resolve the dns for many days after that - while everything was back up and running. Doing direct nslookup to the dns server would resolve, but not from my ISPs ns.

    Same problem reported by many users from around the world. For days they would not be able to access the site.

    So I put the secondary on a more reliable business server, and I never got that problem again. Weird but true. I never believed it earlier. If someone has any other explanation, I'm listening.
    So it seems that when primary and secondary DNS are both down it can result in temporary problems even AFTER the server is back up again...

    I would like to hear other people's experiences on this because I'm still debating if I should get a VPS to run my secondary DNS on.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Colorado, US
    Posts
    108
    Because i dont use more than 1 server i have DNS on the same server. But when i was techadmin for a site that had 4 servers for 100% uptime, they had all 4 servers at different places, 2 NS 2 WEB/FTP etc. So if your going to be a small, 1-2 server place its probably better to go with that everydns place or dns on same serv.
    Rave5 Web Solutions
    http://www.rave5.com

  10. #10
    Let me second the nomination for everydns.net. Use them, make a donation to keep them in business, and you'll be all set.
    I thank my Lord for all His wonderful blessings.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Posts
    85
    Thanks everyone for the input!

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