Can managed DNS and own nameservers co-exist on the same cPanel VPS?

[meeven]

After a lot of research, I have concluded that implementing managed DNS (3rd party such as Easy DNS etc.) for all my customer domains is prohibitively expensive. Instead, what I would like to do is to offer it only to customers who ask for it.

Is it possible to do this on the same cPanel VPS?

For example, I was advised by my host that, if I wanted to add more nameservers (3rd party providers typically provide at least 5 nameservers) than the 4 nameservers allowed in WHM's GUI, I could add them by editing etc/nameserverips.

So, if I wish to have managed DNS and VPS-based nameservers on the same VPS, will the following set up work:

• Have a zone file for mybusinessdomain.com on the VPS for hosting customer domains with own nameservers (ns1.mybusinessdomain.com; ns2.mybusinessdomain.com).
• Add the nameservers of the 3rd party DNS service to etc/nameserverips and then update the existing zone file on the VPS (or new zone file for a new client) for the customer's domain to point to the 3rd party nameservers
• Update the customer's domain name at their registrar to match the new 3rd party nameservers

Is this correct? And, would such a set up co-exist peacefully on the same cPanel VPS?

[serversignature]

meeven try creating new accoutns on the vps after making the dns changes as advised by your host.

[eth00]

Why are you even having a client using 3rd party nameservers use your server first? That eliminates all gains you might have and makes it worse off then just using your own. At least that is what I think I understand from your question.

What I would do is setup 2 additional nameservers that are the IPs of 3rd party dns servers. Then if clients want some other dns servers just manually assign them.

[meeven]

Why are you even having a client using 3rd party nameservers use your server first? That eliminates all gains you might have and makes it worse off then just using your own. At least that is what I think I understand from your question.

What I would do is setup 2 additional nameservers that are the IPs of 3rd party dns servers. Then if clients want some other dns servers just manually assign them.

I quite agree with your question.

I made it clear to my host that clients weren't looking to use the 3rd party as secondary nameservers but as primary - that is, if a client used easydns.com, all their authoritative nameservers would be that of easydns.com, not my private nameservers at all.

Here is the final set up my host suggested:

• Clients hosting on my VPS but using a third-party DNS service don't need a DNS zone on the VPS at all because my nameservers are not authoritative for their domain(s).
  
• Clients using third-party DNS would need to set up their DNS zone with the third-party provider and point to those third-party nameservers at their domain registrar.
  
• If it's a new client, the DNS zone automatically created for the account by WHM needs to be deleted. Instead, the DNS zone needs to be created at the third-party DNS provider.
  
• If it's an existing client switching to third-party DNS, their DNS zone also needs to be deleted from the VPS (of course, after pointing to third-party at their registrar and creating their zone file with the provider)
  
• If the VPS hosts clients using private nameservers (mybusinessdomain.com) and 3rd party nameservers, then, resolver IPs are required in /etc/resolv.conf. If all the clients on the VPS use 3rd party nameservers, no resolver IPs are required in /etc/resolv.conf because it uses those nameservers to do its own lookups (the private nameservers)

I hope this helps anyone else looking for a similar solution.

[cPanelEric]

Howdy,

This view point I offer is my own personal
opinion and may not reflect the views of cPanel.

Services like EasyDNS are great when you have website content up and online in several geographical locations. You let them do the DNS work and you host your website data around the world. But if you're like most companies you only have each website hosted in one location. If that location goes down, it isn't going to be online anywhere else in the world. DNS will still work, but will point to an IP that isn't online. Since you have this single point of failure you can start scaling up and providing websites on other servers or host your own DNS, something I recommend everyone anyhow.

[meeven]

Services like EasyDNS are great when you have website content up and online in several geographical locations. You let them do the DNS work and you host your website data around the world. But if you're like most companies you only have each website hosted in one location. If that location goes down, it isn't going to be online anywhere else in the world. DNS will still work, but will point to an IP that isn't online. Since you have this single point of failure you can start scaling up and providing websites on other servers or host your own DNS, something I recommend everyone anyhow.

My intention is mainly DNS redundancy and faster resolution through geographically dispersed nameservers. By hosting everything including the nameservers on a single machine (the way a typical cPanel VPS does), if the server is down, the DNS is also down. Whereas, with third party DNS, even if the server went offline, the DNS would still function and help in resolution for at least the mail services. Also, having DNS redundancy could serve as the starting point for offering my customers the failover services you mentioned.

Of course, I could have redundant DNS by using cPanel DNS as well, but I would not have the benefits of an enterprise scale Anycast network with the DDoS protection it offers. And, frankly, it's far easier to set up EasyDNS or other managed DNS providers than deal with the complexities of DNS to set up a similar solution from scratch.