assistance in using a dyndns secondary dns server

stardotstar

Well-Known Member
Sep 14, 2009
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0
56
All,

I recently had a case where an unscheduled data centre outage caused my cpanel/whm server to go down. My other server which hosts several sites lost all dns services...

I have seen this post from ages ago:
http://forums.cpanel.net/f5/editing-named-conf-62360.html
it has no replies but essentially states the same case as I am interested in.

Can I use a dyndns service as a secondary name server for my zones such that if my main host goes down I don't lose the ability to resolve the names on my other server?

The Dyndns zone information section says this:

DNS Zone Activation

This page shows you information regarding DNS service status.

Your zone, "thedomain.com.au", has been pre-activated. Your zone file will be loaded onto our nameservers within an hour of pre-activation. Once your domain is properly delegated to us, we will mark the zone as active. (If you pre-activated your zone more than two hours ago, you may delegate your domain to our nameservers at any time.)
Your domain delegation does not include required ns2.mydyndns.org nameserver.
We recommend to include ns3.mydyndns.org, ns4.mydyndns.org and ns5.mydyndns.org nameservers to your delegation list to ensure global distribution of your DNS data.
Is this anything I can or need to do with the cpanel or do I simply have to go to the domain registrar and add the delegation to the zone there?

Sorry to be a bit dim but DNS is still one of the great arts that I am a very lowly apprentice at!

TIA
Will
 

stardotstar

Well-Known Member
Sep 14, 2009
68
0
56
I have added the

ns2.mydyndns.org
ns3.mydyndns.org
ns4.mydyndns.org
ns5.mydyndns.org

as "Other nameservers" in the registrar's manage domain name servers/hosts and saved that.

Do I need to add entries to the zone file on the whm config:

thedomain.com.au 86400 in NS ns2.mydyndns.org

etc...

How does that sound?
 

stardotstar

Well-Known Member
Sep 14, 2009
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0
56
I note that the documentation says that all I should need to do is allow transfers out of my primary name server - I am beginning to think that this need not impact cpanel/whm at all and can be done:

Our Secondary DNS nameservers will detect this change within an hour of its completion, and attempt to transfer the zone file from your master server. You will need to ensure our nameservers are listed as allowed to transfer in your master server's configuration. Here is an example for BIND (syntax may vary depending on the system used):
In named.conf:

zone "mydomain.com" {
type master;
file "db.mydomain.com";
allow-transfer { 1.2.3.4; 2.3.4.5; 3.4.5.6; 4.5.6.7; };
};

Remember, substitute the real IPs of our nameservers (listed under "Secondary DNS Nameservers" above) for 1.2.3.4, 2.3.4.5, etc.
In your zone file:

mydomain.com. IN NS ns2.mydyndns.org.
mydomain.com. IN NS ns3.mydyndns.org.
mydomain.com. IN NS ns4.mydyndns.org.
mydomain.com. IN NS ns5.mydyndns.org.

If you use IP-whitelist-based firewall rules, you will need to ensure the addresses for our nsX.mydyndns.org servers are added into the whitelist as permitted to connect on port 53 on both TCP and UDP.
My question now is whether this needs to be done to named.conf or can it be done within the individual zone in the zone editor?

Still very keen to hear from someone expert in these things guys>!
Will