How to setup ns1 on local BIND and ns2 on free nameserver providers like zoneedit.com

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#1 Wed, 08/10/2011 - 17:06
yngens

How to setup ns1 on local BIND and ns2 on free nameserver providers like zoneedit.com

I've appointed only one nameserver during setup and my server currently runs just fine. However, per instruction during setup I'd like to have my second nameserver running from outside of the server. So I searched a bit and found that zoneedit.com provides free nameserver (for the first domain only, but this seems to be enough to serve my needs) and since I could not find clear documentation here on virtualmin.com, I contacted them for instructions how to exactly set it up and received the following response:

It might be easiest in the long run to set up the zone as a slave zone. Then you just give our system the IP of your bind server and our servers request the zone via axfr. You would have to on your server allow our servers access to axfr zone transfers.

Another way to do it is to set up the zone here and manually create all the records that you need. Then you can add the name servers that the system assigns to you to your master's zone file, and/or to your domain's name server delegation.

Now, several questions arise:

  1. Had any virtualmin users setup second server with zoneedit.com? Maybe there some other good and free nameserver providers?

  2. What way is the best among those two described in their response: a) To setup as a slave zone? And How to do that? or b) to move zone completely on their server? What will happen on uptime then? Are they reliable then?

Thanks!

Wed, 08/10/2011 - 17:18
tpnsolutions
tpnsolutions's picture

Hi,

I'd be happy to assist you with an alternative solution which you might be interested in.

Please contact me directly at:

pknowles@tpnsolutions.com

-Peter

Best Regards,
Peter Knowles | TPN Solutions
Email: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com | Skype: tpnassist
Wed, 08/10/2011 - 17:34
Locutus

@ygens: External slave should work just fine and is probably easiest to set up. You just need to configure your Virtualmin server template, section BIND DNS Domain, to add the hostname of the slave servers in question as NS entries to newly created zones, which will automatically enter an appropriate "allow-transfer" directive into the zone's options.

You need to set up each zone manually on the external slave then though. If you have an external server where you can put Webmin on, you can use the BIND Cluster Slave feature to have new zones automatically created on the slave.

I hadn't thought of this so far, but I could offer Webmin based slave DNS services. :) Based on my root server which is hosted at a large German ISP.

Wed, 08/10/2011 - 18:43
tpnsolutions
tpnsolutions's picture

yngens,

Depending on where your server is located, I'd be happy to extend you access to our DNS cluster.

We currently run 2 dedicated and redundant DNS servers located in Dallas, TX and Fremont, CA.

Basically, you'd setup the master zones on your server, assign in the zone that we're the DNS servers that the public should poll, and we'd setup a slave zone on our servers.

Anytime you update the zones on your server, with the correct configuration (which I'd go through with you in detail) the zones would be updated on our servers within a matter of seconds.

My whole network utilizes Virtualmin, and if you search a bit, you'll see that I've been an active member for a number of years now (though lately been too busy to get as involved as I'd like)

Finally, one of the steps I'd go over with you is how to properly secure your linux machine so that zone transfers are only possible between our network and your server (saving you unnecessary attacks and such)

If you're interested in discussing things further, drop me a line at:

pknowles@tpnsolutions.com

*** I'm also available on Google Talk using the email address above. ***

-Peter

Best Regards,
Peter Knowles | TPN Solutions
Email: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com | Skype: tpnassist
Wed, 08/10/2011 - 18:43
yngens

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try to setup external slave zone. By the way, http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/dns/faq suggests:

After registering your nameservers at your domain name registrar -- you'll want to log into Virtualmin, select your "example.com" domain, click Server Configuration -> DNS Records, and create a new "A - IPv4 Address" record for ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com.

However, instead of A-record I have NS record for my nameserver and it runs just all right. Should I change it to A - IPv4 record? Or maybe I should have both types of records for my nameserver?

Wed, 08/10/2011 - 18:53
yngens

I thought I could configure slave server to work with zoneedit.com, but according to http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/dns/slave-configuration it turns out I have to have two servers:

For this to work, you need Virtualmin on your primary server and Webmin (a free download) on your slave server(s).

So I can't go this way, since I have only one server. I appreciate your offers Peter and Locutus, but I should make clear that my server is running just fine and I would like to have second nameserver just for the case, and that am looking for some free solution.

Wed, 08/10/2011 - 18:57
tpnsolutions
tpnsolutions's picture

yngens,

I'd be willing to offer a competitive pricing model to ZoneEdit, and if you simply need to host a single zone, I'm sure we could that for FREE :-)

*** just help us promote the service to others in return ***

-Peter

Best Regards,
Peter Knowles | TPN Solutions
Email: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com | Skype: tpnassist
Wed, 08/10/2011 - 18:59
tpnsolutions
tpnsolutions's picture

yngens,

I should mention that the offer to use our DNS servers as the public facing ones is based on my own experience with managing DNS for a network of half a dozen machines. The purpose of using our servers as the public facing machines is simply to reduce the load on your own server, though if you wanted to simply use our servers as secondary machines that's also fine.

-Peter

Best Regards,
Peter Knowles | TPN Solutions
Email: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com | Skype: tpnassist
Wed, 08/10/2011 - 19:10
yngens

Another, probably not directly relevant, question. http://www.intodns.com says:

WARNING: SOA MNAME (host.mysite.com) is not listed as a primary nameserver at your parent nameserver!

Do my primary nameserver (ns1.mysite.com) and hostname to be the same (currently host.mysite.com)? SOA records automatically uses hostname (host.mysite.com), so this error always be there if only I don't change hostname to be exactly the same as my primary nameserver.

Wed, 08/10/2011 - 19:14
tpnsolutions
tpnsolutions's picture

yngens,

The SOA record should be the same name as your "Primary" DNS server address.

Ex. ns1.yourdnsserver.com

-Peter

Best Regards,
Peter Knowles | TPN Solutions
Email: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com | Skype: tpnassist
Wed, 08/10/2011 - 19:18
andreychek

Howdy,

Yeah, it does default to using your hostname for that record.

If your hostname isn't what you're using for your primary nameserver name, you can go into System Settings -> Server Templates -> Default -> BIND DNS Domain, and set "Master DNS server hostname" to your preferred name (ns1.yourdnsserver.com, in your example above).

-Eric

Wed, 08/10/2011 - 19:18
yngens

Peter,

Thank you for your explanations. Probably, I will need to "unload" my server's nameserver needs in the future, but for now I have comparatively small number of websites, so for the time being I am looking for some free solution to host secondary server. And that is too, to say frankly, just out of curiosity just to see how it goes, because I have never done this before. So if you can host my secondary nameserver for free I would go ahead and try.

Wed, 08/10/2011 - 19:24
tpnsolutions
tpnsolutions's picture

yngens,

Depending on the amount of "domains", I'm sure we can work out a reasonable offer.

ZoneEdit from my understanding offers one (1) zone for FREE then charges $1.00 per zone (unless you buy into their bulk package therefore offering some savings).

I can without question compete with these prices significantly, however keep in mind my servers are still handling requests for your domain regardless of if it is a primary or secondary configuration. (don't kid yourself on that fact)

So while I haven't a problem hosting a single zone FREE of charge, if you are setting up more than that I'd expect to be paid a modest rate for my services. After all, it costs money to maintain servers, and keep them online.

-Peter

Best Regards,
Peter Knowles | TPN Solutions
Email: pknowles@tpnsolutions.com | Skype: tpnassist
Wed, 08/10/2011 - 19:31
yngens

Peter,

Thank you for your explanations. Probably, I will need to "unload" my server's nameserver needs in the future, but for now I have comparatively small number of websites, so for the time being I am looking for some free solution to host secondary server. And that is too, to say frankly, just out of curiosity just to see how it goes, because I have never done this before. So if you can host my secondary nameserver for free I would go ahead and try.

Thu, 08/11/2011 - 02:07
Locutus

yngens: How many zones are we talking about?

Remember that the big advantage with using a Webmin-based secondary nameserver is that you do not need to manually create the zones on the secondary. If you use a generic "offloading" service like ZoneEdit, you'll have to do that.

Thu, 08/11/2011 - 02:37 (Reply to #15)
yngens

Thanks, I decided to go with placing both ns1 and ns2 on the server for now.

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