[cobalt-users] Master and Slave DNS's.

["Dan Brown" <dan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I've got a couple of questions here, these should be relatively easy. :D

1.  Currently we have a pair of Cobalt RaQ3s running RaQ4 OS software and
serving us as our primary and secondary DNS servers.
In the primary DNS in the Admin UI, we see the records as they should be:
	militarytour.com		->		198.169.127.208
	www.militarytour.com	->		198.169.127.208
	198.169.127.208/24      ->		militarytour.com
	198.169.127.208/24     	->		www.militarytour.com
	militarytour.com      MX  ->		qmail.amanah.com

and they are editable, etc.
* - I abreviated this "mail is sent to the High priority mail server"

On our secondary DNS in the admin interface however it looks like:
	militarytour.com   is served by IP address   204.83.155.145

Now the pri.militarytour.com record on the primary DNS is:
------------------------
$TTL 1800
militarytour.com. IN SOA ns1.amana.ca. support.amanah.com. (
        2003081206
        10800
        3600
        604800
        1800
        )
militarytour.com.       IN      NS      ns1.amana.ca.
militarytour.com.       IN      NS      ns2.amana.ca.
; End SOA Header
;
; Do Not edit BIND db files directly.
; Use the administrative web user interface
; /admin/ -> Control Panel -> DNS Parameters
; Custom additions may be made by creating a file of the same name as this
but
; with a; .include suffix.  Click Save Changes in the DNS web interface and
; the inclusion will be made.
;
militarytour.com.       in      a       198.169.127.208
www.militarytour.com.   in      a       198.169.127.208
militarytour.com.       in      mx      30 qmail.amanah.com.
------------------------

And in the sec.militarytour.com on the secondary DNS it is:
------------------------
$TTL 1800
militarytour.com. IN SOA ns1.amana.ca. support.amanah.com. (
        2003081206
        10800
        3600
        604800
        1800
        )
militarytour.com.       IN      NS      ns1.amana.ca.
militarytour.com.       IN      NS      ns2.amana.ca.
; End SOA Header
;
; Do Not edit BIND db files directly.
; Use the administrative web user interface
; /admin/ -> Control Panel -> DNS Parameters
; Custom additions may be made by creating a file of the same name as this
but
; with a; .include suffix.  Click Save Changes in the DNS web interface and
; the inclusion will be made.
;
militarytour.com.       in      a       198.169.127.208
www.militarytour.com.   in      a       198.169.127.208
militarytour.com.       in      mx      30 qmail.amanah.com.
------------------------

I've never pulled the plug on our primary DNS to see what would happen
as we run far too many sites at the moment but I've been asked to look
into this as people seem to think that the records on the secondary
should be editable even if they never are edited.

I also found this quote in a previous message:
http://list.cobalt.com/pipermail/cobalt-users/2001-December/061125.html
"If the primary nameserver fails, the secondary will keep responding to
requests for domain info. Usually, you'll have anywhere between 12 and 24
hourse to get the primary back up, before the domain disappears."

If this is true, is it possible to simply replace the sec.x.x records with
pri.x.x records and change named.conf (and a couple of others) to reflect
the secondary nameserver becoming a master?


ok, I'll post my other question in another message.

Thanks,
Dan Brown
dan@xxxxxxxxxx