Re: [cobalt-users] Virtual Name Server

["Rodolfo J. Paiz" <rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 5/10/01 05:22 PM -0400, you wrote:
> So, and I've gotten confused in the yes you can/no you can't thread
>
> Could I use two exisiting IP's to register 4 name servers?
>
> 111.222.333.88 ns1.mycompany.com
> 111.222.333.88 ns1.hiscompany.com
> 111.222.333.89 ns2.mycompany.com
> 111.222.333.90 ns2.hiscompany.com

Let's be clear about this and not use the term "name server" this way, OK? 
Let me try to phrase it some other way.

When you register a domain, you must supply two "NS records" consisting of 
names and IP addresses. The rules are:

* a DNS server must be listening at both addresses
* that DNS server must answer for that domain
* the IP addresses must be different from each other

So the only thing you cannot do is have two NS records for one domain, 
pointing to only one IP address like this:

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
NO  ns1.mydomain.com.  IN   A   111.111.111.111 NO
NO  ns2.mydomain.com.  IN   A   111.111.111.111 NO
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Since we're talking about DNS records here, never forget the final dots 
where applicable. And here's the key: one domain does not have anything to 
do with another (or it shouldn't, except to the blithering idiots at NSI). 
So as long as you have DNS server programs like BIND listening on two IP 
addresses, you can use those two IP addresses for as many domains as you 
please or your computers will handle.

Bottom line: you need *two* IP addresses to register domains, no matter how 
many domains. Then what you do is:

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
YES  ns1.everydomain.com   IN   A   111.111.111.111 YES
YES  ns2.everydomain.com   IN   A   222.222.222.222 YES
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

I hope this is much clearer now.

> I have a customer who is in a "dispute" situation.  NSI tells him that
> while he can not change the name of his nameservers, he can change the
> address of the servers.  Being able to share the ip's would allow him to
> have the domains active, since the company that hosted hiscompany.com
> went belly-up, so the hiscompany.com nameservers are pointing at
> cyberspace.

This is why I always use the two NS records as being part of the same zone. 
If he's joe.com, I have:

joe.com.       IN   NS   ns1.joe.com.
joe.com.       IN   NS   ns2.joe.com.
ns1.joe.com.   IN   A    111.111.111.111
ns2.joe.com.   IN   A    222.222.222.222

where 111.111.111.111 and 222.222.222.222 are the nameserver addresses I 
use for *every* domain. In this case it's easy as pie to change the two IP 
addresses registered as nameservers to my machines, then just make sure I 
have A records in that zone that say this machine has that name.

Make sense? Again, I can help you on how to do things right but I refuse to 
predict how NSI will want to do them.


--
Rodolfo J. Paiz
rpaiz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx