Is there a simple answer to the DNS

[Jjsbthree]

I've read the forum from begining to end and it is informative etc. The problem is that is it also contradictory. I was more confused after reading that before. If anyone has a simple clear aswer I would really apprecaite it.. thanks

[JoshPet]

I'm not sure I know what your question is.... are you trying to run your own DNS servers - or use ServerBeach's DNS tool?

[Jjsbthree]

Thanks for the reply. But the question is the same problem.. i.e. there should be a simple paragraph that explains the ramifications of each.. or -- if you use SB DNS the pros are X and the CONs are Y... So far I can see no reason to not use their DNS.. (there are some posts that says there are downsided but then there are others the contradict them so users like myself are left with precisely no usable information unless we launch into and investigaion of the creds of the original posters. The root probelm is that SB doesnt seem to have any resident expeerts in the forums that are clearly marked as such.)

I appreciate your help and I suppose my answer is that I would like to use whichever is best given a standard reseller situation. I care nothing about what name appears in the dns info and care greatly about performance under stress and general usablity. I hope that answers you question better.

Either way NO ONE in any post has definitivlely answered the following: You have FOUR DNS FIELDS in the cpanel setup. Precisey what do you put in the first (master) and the other 3 if you are looking to set up a plain ol SB hosted DNS. Same queston for other configs but we can reason through it if we have a static mode.

Thanks

[charlie]

Ok i think what you want is not all the nitty gritties, just the "hey i want to host the name server, what do i put? they host the name servers what do i do? and what's the diff?" so let's see if this makes it simpler...

You have 2 basic options and a 3rd where you might want to hide the fact that you're hosting from serverbeach by using only your name servers (this is possible if you have a 2nd ip address or 2nd server from serverbeach [goodluck, they are pretty stingy with them] or if you re-reference your same server twice, which is not a good idea normally since you are relying on a single server to do all of your DNS without any redundancy, but it's possible), you host the master dns zone records and act as a PRIMARY (master) name server with SB as SECONDARIES (slave), OR you don't use your server as a name server at all and use only SB's nameservers. first let's go over why one over the other.

If you set your server to be the PRIMARY name server, there is a distinct advantage when using this setup with Cpanel. You can use the subdomains and other domain management tools in WHM and Cpanel, then the changes will automatically be made and then sent out and replicated to the SB name servers, without any other intervention necessary by you or your clients. This means that if you give your client a CPanel setup with the ability to add domains and subdomains, they can manage it themselves. You do not have to manually add and change things.

On the other hand, if you set your Primary Name servers to point to SB's name servers, ns1.geodns.net / ns2.geodns.net, and you make subdomain and domain changes in WHM or Cpanel, those changes will only be added to your server locally, but this does nothing for you because only your server knows about the changes, no one on the internet has been notified about those changes because nothing is replicated to the primary or secondary name servers because those name servers are not managed by your site, it's only managed using the SB DNS Tool, therefore all those subdomains and domains will not work, unless you manually add them using SB's DNS Tool. The only advantage to setting SB as the primary name server is that SB probably has better redundancy and response time to fix any problems with their name servers than your own server, which means that if your server has issues, or dies, or needs to be refreshed, or has other related problems, you can use the DNS tool to temporarily point the sites to some other host on a different IP. This is if you only have one server with SB, if you have 2 then you can set yourself up to be your own primary and secondary for better redundancy.

Setting YOUR server to be PRIMARY Name Server...

1) In WHM, run the "Initial Nameserver Setup" to activate the Nameserver services on your box, f you haven't done this already. If you're not sure, run it anyway.

2) Click on the "Modify Resolver Configuration" setup and set it to:
PRIMARY: your.primary.ip.address
SECONDARY: ns1.geodns.net
TERTIRARY: ns2.geodns.net

3) Log into your my.serverbeach.com site and go to the DNS Tool. Set up the domain there, but make sure to set it up as a SLAVE. Put in the IP address of your server that's acting as the primary name server.

4) When you register your domain, set your Name Servers with your registrar for your domain to:

PRIMARY: ns1.yourdomainame.com
SECONDARY: ns1.geodns.net
TERTIRARY: ns2.geodns.net

5) Go to WHM and setup the associated account.

6) Make sure you have the following entries in the master zone DNS file.
yourdomainname.com. IN NS ns1.yourdomainname.com.
yourdomainname.com. IN NS ns1.geodns.net.
yourdomainname.com. IN NS ns2.geodns.net.

Also add an A record entry for ns1.yourdomainname.com that points to the IP address.

NOTE 1) Remember anything you do with the registrar will take about anywhere from one to three days for it to let the rest of the internet community know the new information. If you had already registered your domain, no problem, just go back to registrar and let them know of the changes to match what's up above, then wait a few days for the changes to take affect.

NOTE 2) Now when you add new domains to your server, you will need to add their DNS records using WHM and also add them into SB's DNS Tool as secondary (slave).


Setting ServerBeach to be primary name server...

1) Register you domain with your domain registrar, if you haven't already and set the name servers with your registrar for that domain to be...
PRIMARY: ns1.geodns.net
SECONDARY: ns2.geodns.net

2) Set the "Modify Resolver Configuration" setup to:
PRIMARY: ns1.geodns.net
SECONDARY: ns2.geodns.net
TERTIRARY: <you can leave this blank>

3) Log into your my.serverbeach.com and go to the DNS Tool. Set up your domain there, for this case, you must select SB to be the MASTER name server. Enter your server's IP Address, that's it, you're done.

4) Go to your WHM and setup the associated account.

~~~~~

If this doesn't make sense, confuses you, or is incorrect, please let me know and post. It's late, so I might have missed a step. I'll edit this same post for corrections.

thanks,
charlie
=T

[JoshPet]

Excellent Charlie... you are most helpful. :) Thank you. ;)

[Jjsbthree]

Charlie, now that is what is know as a clear and thoughful and USEFUL post. It should become the template for every user forum not just SB

Many thanks,,

John

[bkusnir]

Hey, noticed that you posted an informative post. I have a question which builds off your previous post. I have setup my master WHM domain (top level) to use SB's ns1.geodns.net and ns2.geodns.net DNS servers (in WHM as well as DNS tool) and I seem to have gotten this to work properly. As I can now ping my domain and the correct IP is displayed. I am trying to setup a reseller account for another domain which needs to have its own name servers. Is the process for this the same as you explained before? To complicate things, I already have existing nameservers setup for this domain ... so WHM won't let me add IPs for those name servers. It comes up with an error message "Sorry, the nameserver ns1.mydomain.com already has the ip x.x.x.x assigned to it". I can however, add something else in there and then change it in the shell /etc/nameserverips. I guess my concern is, that when I change the ips for my reseller account domain (ns1.mydomain.com, ns2.mydomain.com) in my domain registrar account ... I want to make sure that my linux box is setup properly so that there is a smooth transition and no downtime. Which DNS zone entries should I have for my nameservers to work correctly when the settings take effect in 24-72 hours (mydomain.com, ns1.domain.com, ns2.domain.com ?) ... and what should the zone files look like exactly. I know WHM tries to create them, but they don't look quite right and I am getting all sorts of dns/bind errors. I have set the domain (reseller) up in SB's DNS tool as a slave and pointed it to my server's IP. Here is what my DNS zones look like.

ns1.mydomain.com

ns1.mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns1.geodns.net.
ns1.mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns2.geodns.net
ns1.mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns1.serverbeach.com.
ns1.mydomain.com. 14400 IN A x.x.x.x (my ip)
localhost.ns1.mydomain.com. 14400 IN A 127.0.0.1
ns1.mydomain.com. 14400 IN MX 0

ns2.mydomain.com

ns2.mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns1.geodns.net.
ns2.mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns2.geodns.net
ns2.mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns1.serverbeach.com.
ns2.mydomain.com. 14400 IN A x.x.x.x (my ip)
localhost.ns2.mydomain.com. 14400 IN A 127.0.0.1
ns2.mydomain.com. 14400 IN MX 0

mydomain.com

mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns1.mydomain.com.
mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns2.mydomain.com.
mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns1.geodns.net.
mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns2.geodns.net.
mydomain.com. 14400 IN A 0
localhost.mydomain.com. 14400 A 127.0.0.1
mydomain.com. 14400 MX 0
mail 14400 IN CNAME mydomain.com.
www 14400 IN CNAME mydomain.com.
ftp 14400 IN CNAME mydomain.com.

will this work for sure? Is there a way to test the nameserver service to make sure it is ready so I will not experience downtime? I have 24 domains (some which I do not have the passwords for, etc... so I need to keep my personalized nameservers)

--Thanks For Your Help

[hoover]

Originally posted by charlie
Setting ServerBeach to be primary name server...

1) Register you domain with your domain registrar, if you haven't already and set the name servers with your registrar for that domain to be...
PRIMARY: ns1.geodns.net
SECONDARY: ns2.geodns.net

2) Set the "Modify Resolver Configuration" setup to:
PRIMARY: ns1.geodns.net
SECONDARY: ns2.geodns.net
TERTIRARY: <you can leave this blank>

3) Log into your my.serverbeach.com and go to the DNS Tool. Set up your domain there, for this case, you must select SB to be the MASTER name server. Enter your server's IP Address, that's it, you're done.

4) Go to your WHM and setup the associated account.

~~~~~

If this doesn't make sense, confuses you, or is incorrect, please let me know and post. It's late, so I might have missed a step. I'll edit this same post for corrections.

thanks,
charlie
=T

Ok, I think I'm 90% there, and apologize if I'm de-railing this post with newbie questions... but:

I went into my server and added a DNS entry for my name. The zone file says:

First two fields are
'domain name' / 14400 / ns / ns1.geodns.net
'domain name' / 14400 / ns / ns2.geodns.net

3rd field in zone file is:
'domain name' / 14400 / a / my IP address

4th field is:
'domain name' / 14400 / a / 127.0.0.1

in the 'server setup' area / edit setup, I have an option to set the master server (however, this tells me that my machine will become a slave, and I don't want that.

If this is where I need to add something about server beach, what do I add?


(I've already updated my whois record with the correct name servers)
Thanks for your help.



(((( update/EDIT ... .my dns is now working. ))))))

[Siliconjunkie]

First, THANK YOU Charlie!

While I don't want my hand held, there is a distinct lack of documentation.....But, now I am happy.

Just wanted to add my little tidbit to this:

How To Test It- This is how you find out if your nameserver is giving out the info you would like it to, you can do this from either an SSH session or from any box on the internet:

First- Fire up nslookup (will work with either Windows or Linux)
After starting nslookup you will get a > prompt.
enter 'server your.ip.addy.here' This tells it to ask your server and not the default name servers. Should look like this:
> server 66.135.32.xx
Default server: 66.135.32.xx
Address: 66.135.32.xx#53
>

Now, ask it the IP for your domain by entering your domain name. Should look like this: Make sure you get back the IP of your server.
>youdomain.com
Server: 66.135.32.xx
Address: 66.135.32.xx#53

Name: metro-host.com
Address: 66.135.32.xx

Next, ask it for the ip of ns1.yourdomain.com (or whatever you configured), like so:
> ns1.yourdomain.com
Server: 66.135.32.xx
Address: 66.135.32.xx#53

Name: ns1.yourdomain.com
Address: 66.135.32.xx

Now, if all looks good, you can use the 'server' command to query another name server to make sure that they are in sync. A helpful command for that is to ask who the name servers or MX are for a domain using the 'set type' command. This is useful in seeing if your registrar is dragging its feet. See below:
>set type=ns
> serverbeach.com
Server: 10.0.0.2
Address: 10.0.0.2#53

Non-authoritative answer:
serverbeach.com nameserver = ns1.serverbeach.com.
serverbeach.com nameserver = ns2.serverbeach.com.

Authoritative answers can be found from:
ns1.serverbeach.com internet address = 66.139.72.5
ns2.serverbeach.com internet address = 66.139.72.21

Or for MX records:
> set type=mx
> serverbeach.com
Server: 10.0.0.2
Address: 10.0.0.2#53

Non-authoritative answer:
serverbeach.com mail exchanger = 100 mx.serverbeach.com.
serverbeach.com mail exchanger = 10 mail.serverbeach.com.

Authoritative answers can be found from:
mx.serverbeach.com internet address = 66.139.72.7
mail.serverbeach.com internet address = 66.139.72.23


Well, I hope this helps some of you in making sure that your DNS is working....

If I made any mistakes, feel free to correct me. On some pain killers right now and sometimes things get fuzzy.

[bkusnir]

Thanks for the reply. I seem to have gotten my namerserver up and operational on my own, but I tried using nslookup from winXP like you described. Everything goes according to plan except when I type:

>ns1.mydomain.com
Server: server1.mydomain.com
Address: X.X.X.X

***server1.mydomain.com can't find ns1.mydomain.com

BUT ... things seem to be working just fine, all of my domains are pointed to ns1.mydomain.com, ns2.mydomain.com and when I make a change in my zone files and re-start named, records are updated in the DNS system and I can verify from another box.

--weird, oh well if it aint broke don't fix it. might be because I setup my nameservers under a reseller account domain as apposed to my main server domain, for transfer reasons.

additionally I am getting these errors in my log

the first line in the named log concerns me, and seems like it could be related to my "problem"

################## LogWatch 2.6 Begin #####################

--------------------- Named Begin ------------------------

**Unmatched Entries**
/etc/named.conf:19: couldn't add command channel 127.0.0.1#953: not found: 2 Time(s)
/etc/named.conf:19: couldn't install keys for command channel 127.0.0.1#953: not found: 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns1.mydomain.com.db:11: ignoring out-of-zone data (mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns1.mydomain.com.db:12: ignoring out-of-zone data (mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns1.mydomain.com.db:14: ignoring out-of-zone data (ns2.mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns2.mydomain.com.db:11: ignoring out-of-zone data (mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns2.mydomain.com.db:12: ignoring out-of-zone data (mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns2.mydomain.com.db:13: ignoring out-of-zone data (ns1.mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
lame server resolving '162.1.247.64.in-addr.arpa' (in '162.1.247.64.in-addr.arpa'?): 209.123.159.1#53: 1 Time(s)
lame server resolving '162.1.247.64.in-addr.arpa' (in '162.1.247.64.in-addr.arpa'?): 209.123.167.10#53: 1 Time(s)
lame server resolving '86.29.248.68.in-addr.arpa' (in '248.68.in-addr.arpa'?): 206.141.193.168#53: 1 Time(s)
lame server resolving '86.29.248.68.in-addr.arpa' (in '248.68.in-addr.arpa'?): 206.141.251.2#53: 1 Time(s)
lame server resolving 'mail7.webcontrolcenter.com' (in 'webcontrolcenter.com'?): 216.119.106.5#53: 1 Time(s)
lame server resolving 'www.postnuke.com' (in 'postnuke.com'?): 204.68.170.21#53: 1 Time(s)
named shutdown failed: 4 Time(s)
zone 0.0.127.in-addr.arpa/IN: loaded serial 1997022700: 2 Time(s)
...
---------------------- Named End -------------------------

[QT]

Originally posted by bkusnir
################## LogWatch 2.6 Begin #####################

--------------------- Named Begin ------------------------

**Unmatched Entries**
/etc/named.conf:19: couldn't add command channel 127.0.0.1#953: not found: 2 Time(s)
/etc/named.conf:19: couldn't install keys for command channel 127.0.0.1#953: not found: 2 Time(s)



What is on line 19 of your named.conf? You may be trying to use a key that does not exist. If this is a CPanel server, try running "/scripts/fixndc" as root. This error will not cause named to fail, you just won't be able to perform dynamic updates or on-the-fly zone reloads.


dns_master_load: /var/named/ns1.mydomain.com.db:11: ignoring out-of-zone data (mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns1.mydomain.com.db:12: ignoring out-of-zone data (mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns1.mydomain.com.db:14: ignoring out-of-zone data (ns2.mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns2.mydomain.com.db:11: ignoring out-of-zone data (mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns2.mydomain.com.db:12: ignoring out-of-zone data (mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)
dns_master_load: /var/named/ns2.mydomain.com.db:13: ignoring out-of-zone data (ns1.mydomain.com): 2 Time(s)


Out-of-zone data means you are trying to define records which do not belong to the current zone. A common example of this is when people use nameservers which are part of another domain, and attempt to create A records for them. For example:

mydomain.com. IN NS ns1.otherdomain.com.
mydomain.com. IN NS ns2.otherdomain.com.
ns1.otherdomain.com. IN A 127.0.0.1
ns2.otherdomain.com IN A 127.0.0.2

The A records for ns1/ns2.otherdomain.com are out-of-zone .. they should be configured in the otherdomain.com zone.


lame server resolving '162.1.247.64.in-addr.arpa' (in '162.1.247.64.in-addr.arpa'?): 209.123.159.1#53: 1 Time(s)
lame server resolving '162.1.247.64.in-addr.arpa' (in '162.1.247.64.in-addr.arpa'?): 209.123.167.10#53: 1 Time(s)
lame server resolving '86.29.248.68.in-addr.arpa' (in '248.68.in-addr.arpa'?): 206.141.193.168#53: 1 Time(s)
lame server resolving '86.29.248.68.in-addr.arpa' (in '248.68.in-addr.arpa'?): 206.141.251.2#53: 1 Time(s)
lame server resolving 'mail7.webcontrolcenter.com' (in 'webcontrolcenter.com'?): 216.119.106.5#53: 1 Time(s)
lame server resolving 'www.postnuke.com' (in 'postnuke.com'?): 204.68.170.21#53: 1 Time(s)


Lame server messages can generally be ignored unless you see one of your nameservers listed in there as being lame, or you see hundreds of these per second. Lame server means that one of the (supposedly) authoritative nameservers for a domain returned a SERVFAIL for a query, which means it doesn't know anything about the domain in question. If you see 10-100 per second for an extended period of time, it is possible someone is trying to DoS your namserver by making thousands of bogus requests.


named shutdown failed: 4 Time(s)


This is a result of the first error. By default, named tries to use rndc to do a graceful shutdown, which needs the command channel that failed to load. If you fix the first error, this sould go away.

[charlie]

I guess not many people know about this...

After you give your DNS changes time to take affect and want to check out how you are configured looking from the outside (internet) in (you).... try using..

http://www.dnsreport.com

you can fairly safely ignore all the WARNings. most of the mail category can be ignored as well and everything will still work fine. that's because it alarms you of how you are out of RFC compliance although everything works fine. it's up to you if you want to follow the RFC's to a tee. It doesn't hurt, but things like setting a postmaster@mydomain.com may just end up a spam magnet box and it won't kill you not to have one.

for a whole set of spam database and dns tools that they have, go to their other site.

http://www.dnsstuff.com


charlie
=T

[bkusnir]

OK ... I understautnd what those error log messages mean now, but I still don't understand why I am getting them.

This is my ns1.mydomain.com.db file:

; Modified by Web Host Manager
; Zone File for ns1.mydomain.com.
@ 14400 IN SOA ns1.mydomain.com. my.email.com. (
1060661252
28800
7200
3600000
86400
)

mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns1.mydomain.com.
mydomain.com. 14400 IN NS ns2.mydomain.com.
ns1.mydomain.com. 14400 IN A 66.139.X.X
ns2.mydomain.com. 14400 IN A 66.135.X.X

localhost.ns1.mydomain.com. 14400 IN A 127.0.0.1

ns1.mydomain.com. 14400 IN MX 0 ns1.mydomain.com.

--I don't think there is anything wrong with it. Maybe this error message is old, how do I find out if this is a recurring problem .. is their a time date stamp, etc?