Re: [cobalt-users] IP Address and Web Servers

[Kris Dahl <krislists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

on 4/24/00 1:18 PM, PyschoCotic@xxxxxxx at PyschoCotic@xxxxxxx wrote:

> Ordered that today on Amazon.com :-)  Can't wait for it to come!

You won't regret it... Its in my library of must-haves. Its actually a great
resource for *understanding* DNS, not just running Bind.  Which I guess is
why its called Bind/DNS (they are almost synonmous, Bind runs like 95% of
the worlds DNS).  It is a little confusing at first, but after you get your
hands dirty, it'll make sense.

> I run a web hosting company, started using WinNT (because I wasn't familiar
> with linux)... moved all my clients to a linux based server -- that server
> didn't allow for to much expansion so I bought a RaQ 3 and am trying to set
> that up now.

Well I hope it all works out for you.

I'm going to make a couple of breif comments on your problems that you
encountered--to help everyone avoid them in the future.  These are all
common mistakes (I've made some of them myself).

> Mistake's I made:
> #1) Attempted to transfer 95 customers in a single shot (last wednessday)...
> All clients have been down for 5 days due to corruption of the RaQ 3 system
> files.

Its always a good idea to have both systems up and running at the same time,
and let Network Solutions and the DNS servers gradually migrate the load
from one to the next *after* you have confirmed that everything works.

> #2) Changed DNS in networksolutions.com for 95 customers by hand -- only to
> realize networksolutions for some reason didn't accept changes from the
> technical contact.

I would highly suggest setting up a Role account that you can use.  That way
you can submit changes to the Network Solutions (like the name servers) and
it will go in effect for all the domains.  Very handy.  Do it once, never
have to do it again.

Also, it should have requested an Acknowledge from the administrative
contact.

> #5) Attempting to enter 95 DNS zone files using the Web Interface by hand
> (yes before I had to restore the server).

I wrote a little script that vastly speeds up this process.  I will try to
clean it up and post it somewhere.  If anyone wants it 'in the rough' email
me and I'll give it to you.  Essentially it just creates the 'skeleton'
record for www. mail. ftp. and an mx and a reverse pointer to a single ip.
The most common configuration for a virutal host, and it saved my an
*enormous* amount of time.

A word of note about the Raq2's (not sure about the Raq3s)--they don't parse
the zone files.  They parse the 'records' file and create the zone file from
this file.  So you can't import you exising bind zone files and still expect
to use the web interface--it will just overwrite your records.  The purpose
of me writing that script is so the administrator of the box could still
admin from the web interface, but I wouldn't have to hand enter them all in
to get them going.

> #3) DNS zone files can be created in files instead of using web interface --
> allowing me to write a script or program that generates these files (I will
> make that program public and free once I complete it)

I'll give you my script to start with.

> #5) You mess up the config files, don't ask for professional help!

This is why its really important to try to purchase the machine from a VAR
that has systems engineers on-staff to give you a hand when you need help.

> My thoughts on Cobalt and RaQ 3....  Despite all my problems... Very good,
> besides the limiting Web Interface...  They could promote and provide more
> documents for using telnet to configure things or make more options in the
> web interface.

I agree with you--I think that the Cobalt products are very well designed,
and typically work very well.  Only thing I would add is that you have to
know where you're going beyond the intended scope of the product, and
essentially when you're on your own.  And you can't knock Cobalt if the
system doesn't work when you're trying to do something they haven't
intended.

If you are looking for a book on administering linux in general, I would
suggest 'Running Linux' published by O'reily.  Pretty good.

> I have fallen in love with linux :-)  and I learned a lot from my mistakes
> and problems.

Its also nice to get it up and running on your workstation, where its less
severe if you completely hose something.  Linux skills are Linux
skills--meaning if you can run Redhat you can run Cobalt gear.

-k