Clustering

[ianmarie]

Having experimented a little with clustering, i am seeking an answer to a question that I'm not sure has been addressed in the documentation.

Can I have a 'reseller' on one machine clustered to another whm server, without that reseller then getting ALL the dns records from the server it's clustered to showing up in his WHM? (ie dns records for domains that the reseller should not even know exist, let alone have access to editing)

On all experiments done so far, it seems that it's not possible, unless I have missed something very obvious. (So a simple "Yes it's possible" / "No it's not" would be OK)

I thought it should be able to happen with the options of 'Standalone' etc; but seems that even if what should be the obvious choice is made, that dns records end up being replicated back to the 'lesser' permissioned server.

Has anyone documented it? (seems that cpanel's documentation is VERY limited in this regard; and only spells out the obviously obvious)

Thanks

Ian

[mikelegg]

I'd be interested to know the answer to this question as well.

[ianmarie]

I'd be interested to know the answer to this question as well.

I asked cpanel support, and the answer was that it's not possible

Just to clarify - what isn't possible (from memory) is that a whm that a user accesses with root or reseller access (machine 1), can't be 'clustered' to a whm that operates as part of another cluster already (machine 2 [ or more ] ); or it can be clustered, but that clustering reveals all the dns records from the other cluster (machine 2) to the root whm user on machine 1.

I therefore use standalone vps' running dns-only for nameserver and mailserver redundancy. There are some relatively inexpensive deals out there (as cheap as US$16 per month) for a minimal vps. Myself I use a US$20 per month product in a LA data centre which also includes a great auto sync for mailserver records for backup mailserver redundancy.

For one customer who has their main machine in that LA data centre already, I use a VPS in Atlanta Georgia (US$16 per month) running dns-only. ie important to make sure redundancy is physically separated. LA is good for me as an Australian host, as the LA data centre has very good ping / response rates back to Australian customers. ie far better than eg East Coast or Midwest US data centres; although ping etc isn't that important on nameserver / mailserver redundancy.

Hope this helps

[Eboy]

I'd like to see an official reply from cPanel's staff on this issue as well.

I even tried through a support request, and the first reply was useless, and the second one, with specific instructions didn't work either.

[ianmarie]

I'd like to see an official reply from cPanel's staff on this issue as well.

I even tried through a support request, and the first reply was useless, and the second one, with specific instructions didn't work either.

My question to them & replies (so you get the context / same page)

Question posted 28th August 2007 - ie may have changed since then!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

i am starting to gain the conclusion that it is not possible to cluster whm's
together without one or both servers syncing ALL that servers domains, even
though one of them is a 'reseller' whm (rather than a super-user) whm.

Can you clarify for me....
I would like this server (root user) to cluster to another whm server (a sub /
reseller user account on that server); and for that other server to act as a
redundant nameserver for this machine. The other server (super user) is already
a nameserver for a variety of domains not related in any way to this server.

Each process I have tried to achieve this ends up with this server gaining all
the records - including those it should not be entitled to view let alone edit
- of that remote / 2nd server.

I ave tried a variety of standalone / synchronise role variations.

As soon as synch all records all the remote records end up on this whm. Not
good.

So - maybe WHM is not able to do what I am asking; and that the only way to
effectively cluster this machine with another (without access to the remote
machine's dns records!) is to have a completely separate standalone vps with
it's own dns install of whm.

Can you clarify this issue for me.

Reply 1
--------
Hello,

Cpanel does not support clustering at this time, so we cannot help you in
this regard for this problem

Follow up 1
------------
Thankyou

Are you saying 'No it doesn't work, and there is no way you can get WHM
to do this'
or are you saying
' It's not a question that is covered by our support ticket system'

Reply 2
--------
Hello,

It is not possible with it at this time. Some people have some success with
it, but we do not support it or provide support in that regards at this time.

[ianmarie]

Also - I think there is a BUG issue with the current release of dns-only anyway.
Have confirmed on two machines that when you try a sync all to remote, the zone files (/var/named/*.db) are written on the remote machine, but entries are not added to named.conf (ie a bit useless really :-)

There is a script which can be run on the dns-only that will write the entries to named.conf
/scripts/rebuildnamedconf
thus making it work. From observation, looks like this script looks at all the zone files in /var/named, and recreates the entries in named.conf on the basis of what it finds.

but it would be nice if it worked the way it is supposed to.

The build exhibiting this behaviour is WHM 11.2.0 cPanel 11.11.0-DNS16984

Functions to sync when editing an individual name seems to work (except if that zone has never been added to the dns-only before). And sync one domain works too. Just sync all seems to be broken.

I have a hunch this function has been broken for a while - maybe with an upgrade at some stage to dns-only, as I had noticed a few times an unusual message when deleting domains via whm which says something like 'unable to remove from named blah blah - maybe removed earlier'

In hindsight, it was a symptom of what I describe above. I thought I had good nameserver redundancy when I probably had a lame nameserver for several domains at least. Aren't servers fun :-)

[cPanelDavidG]

If you are experiencing issues regarding the functionality of DNS-Only, I'd recommend submitting a support ticket regarding the issue.

[Eboy]

From cPanel's staff (ticket):

The admin of any server in a cluster will be able to delete or modify any zone in the cluster. Even if zonefiles are not present on the server, the DNS functions read zone data from the cluster. This is the intended behavior.

So this is a huge security risk if you are offering the DNS cluster to dedicated server or VPS customers. And anyway, the DNS cluster should only retrieve zones from the hosting servers, not send the DNS zones back to other servers in the cluster... that's my humble opinion.

[ianmarie]

If you are experiencing issues regarding the functionality of DNS-Only, I'd recommend submitting a support ticket regarding the issue.

Thanks David
Not sure if this prompt was meant for me or not; but I have had a support ticket open for a while on this one. Still awaiting outcome.

[gavint]

So this is a huge security risk if you are offering the DNS cluster to dedicated server or VPS customers. And anyway, the DNS cluster should only retrieve zones from the hosting servers, not send the DNS zones back to other servers in the cluster... that's my humble opinion.

I agree, as a virtual/dedicated server provider it would seem reasonable for cPanel to offer us functionality whereby we maintain a central DNS cluster for all our clients, rather than each client having to have their own backup DNS servers or being able to modify the records of other clients.

Gavin