Moving from separate-server DNS to clustered DNSONLY servers

For years we've just had the one server (now several), and each server had its format for single-server nameservers:

servername1.mydomain.com
servername2.mydomain.com

Now with multiple servers, and confused clients, we're wanting to setup clustered DNS. A single list of nameservers that any hosting server can make use of, and for better redundancy within our infrastructure.

My primary question is how we roll it out to customers. I already know pretty well how to set it up, link them to various hosting servers, etc. What I don't know is how this will impact clients.

1. Can we have some clients on the new NS servers, and others on the old ones?
2. What happens if some clients are slow to respond to our request to update nameservers?
3. Do we need to plan for a cutover window?
4. Are there any conflicts I need to know about, such as the same DNS zone being present on more than one server?

We're still in the planning phase of this, but want to move quickly. Just looking to square away a couple of those important items. Many customers control their own domain name, and some don't even know their current password I'm sure, so I'm trying to anticipate some of the issues we'll run into.

It would be great if we can somehow do a slow rollout, where early adopters can jump onboard when they want to the new DNS servers, and we can continue to transition others over time as communication between us and the client allows.

Thanks for your help. Should be an interesting thread!

 

I think I understand what you're asking. Here's what we have right now.

Code:

firstservername.mydomain.com (hostname/server)
-- firstservername1.mydomain.com (a record + dns served from this server)
-- firstservername2.mydomain.com (a record + dns served from this server)
----- domain1.com (hosted on this server, uses above nameservers)
----- domain2.com (hosted on this server, uses above nameservers)
----- domain3.com (hosted on this server, uses above nameservers)

secondservername.mydomain.com (hostname/server)
-- secondservername1.mydomain.com (a record + dns served from this server)
-- secondservername2.mydomain.com (a record + dns served from this server)
----- domain4.com (hosted on this server, uses above nameservers)
----- domain5.com (hosted on this server, uses above nameservers)
----- domain6.com (hosted on this server, uses above nameservers)

thirdservername.mydomain.com (hostname/server)
-- thirdservername1.mydomain.com (a record + dns served from this server)
-- thirdservername2.mydomain.com (a record + dns served from this server)
----- domain7.com (hosted on this server, uses above nameservers)
----- domain8.com (hosted on this server, uses above nameservers)
----- domain9.com (hosted on this server, uses above nameservers)

Ultimately I'd love to just have clients always use the following, 100% of the time:

Code:

ns1.mydomain.com
ns2.mydomain.com
ns3.mydomain.com
ns4.mydomain.com

Hopefully that makes sense. Thanks for the quick response!

 

Veldon, it's been a long time since our kicking off the Network Redux forums.

Thanks for chiming in my friend! :D

 

@cPanelMichael -

I'm also a little concerned by this as well. If we go this route, not all customers will be able to use the name servers due to this known security bug. Unless it's fixed...in which case I wasn't aware it was. Any update you may be able to share?

http://forums.cpanel.net/f185/all-root-owned-dns-zones-available-all-resellers-307992.html