Setting up Primary and Secondary DNS 1

[castellu]

I am moving my web site to a dedicated hosting solution. I am running 2 servers, win nt 4.0 sp4 with iis 4. One will be the web server, Server1 and Server2 will be a SQL database server. I need to set-up primary and secondary DNS for these two machines which each have an assigned C-class static ip address. I also have 16 virtual ip addresses to use. My question is, would it be smart to make Server2 my primary DNS for the web site hosted on Server1 and then make Server1 the secondary DNS? or would it be easier another way?

Will there be any problems in doing this? Also, should I use the assigned c-class ip given by my provider for each machine as the DNS server ip address, or can I utilize the virtual ip's they have provided? If I can use the virual ip's how do I go about setting this up on my server. I am new to nt, but understand the DNS process as it relates to the DNS records and so forth. I am just unsure how to efficiently set this up, and make it work on nt.

I have read many of the posts regarding registering the address, I use bulkregister.com which allows me to add the nameservers ns1.domain.com, and ns2.domain.com fairly easily. I really just need any input on whether the set-up I described above is good, and ways to go about doing it properly.

Thanks in advance for all help....

 

[SteelDragon]

castellu,

Your setups are fine if you are not going to have a very high traffic web site. If you are I would look into hosting your DNS server (primary) on a dedicated box. Your secondary should be ok on the SQL box, but don't put it on your web server, that's like the old saying.. "don't put all your eggs in one basket" Anyhow, on the IP address I would use the c-class given by the ISP for your DNS unless you plan on using NAT to let your DNS see the outside and syncronize it's records. If I missed anything, just post again, and I'll try to cover it.

Good Luck,
SteelDragon

 

[castellu]

Steel,
Thanks for the info. I will use the class c specified addresses. I guess my question is how much traffic is too much traffic for the DNS to be hosted with my machines. I do not have the ability, or cash to add another server just to do the DNS work right now. The site will have...atleast that is the plan....good traffic. 5,000 visitors per day. Good traffic for me, but it won't be millions. Anyhow, will this really create a good amount of server load? Also, I was hoping to be able to use Server2 as my Primary DNS server, and Server1, the web server as secondary. The DNS will only be for sites that are hosted on Server1, so what does it matter if the secondary server is down with the web server at the same time? If the web server is down, it really won't matter to me if people can get proper DNS lookup as they can't access the site....Is there something I am missing?

I hope to have a dedicated DNS server to do the work in the future but will there be any major conflicts? If so let me know and I will have to rework this plan.

Thanks for your help....

 

[majestrate]

I agree with Steel, you really should have a dedicated box for DNS. The reason you don't want DNS running on your web server is resources. If you're planning on 5000 hits a day, then your servers performance will decrease with each user. That could cause your server to crash. I've seen servers that were PDC and DNS servers, with 300 users, but a high amount of DNS requests, and it crashed the server (it only happened once, because then we went in and optimized the performance and fixed the problem.). I don't have a lot of experience in IIS, just a little, but from what I've seen, it's resource intesive.

I would look at a UNIX box to provide DNS resolution. It's actually a lot easier to manage (for me, because I don't like Microsoft's GUI for DNS admin, and I end up administrating DNS through text files anyway), and once you get it setup and configured, there's nothing you should have to mess with. That's only my opinion though...

 

[castellu]

I was hoping that was not the answer but thanks for the info. I have expereince with linux boxes, not with DNS, so I will look into using that for my DNS. Thanks for your help guys.....

 

[majestrate]

I know nothing of Linux, but I guarantee you that DNS is very simple, especially since you're not gonna have to worry about constant updates. If you want a book on DNS, O'Reilly puts one out called "DNS and BIND". It should be able to answer any questions you have. If it doesn't, you should be able to ask for assistance from whoever is giving you the dedicated bandwidth. If neither of those work out, you can always repost.

 

[SteelDragon]

Castellu,
Have you thought of trying to run your web server on linux and your DNS on NT? Just a thought, but Linux web servers are a bit more secure and handle their resources a bit better than their NT counterparts. If I were in your situation, 5000 hits per day is a fairly good amount, I would look at the Hardware on the NT and Linux boxes, and if they are close go with the web server on linux, with the DNS on the dedicated NT box, and the secondary on your SQL box you should have a very stable and secure environment.

Good Luck,
SteelDragon

 

[castellu]

Steel,
I have a Linux box running just web server for many other sites I host and it is great, cheap, and has been up for almost 400 days, however I am running Cold Fusion on the NT box for that particular web site. I know they have Cold Fusion for the other platforms now, but unfortunately it was designed for windows and they are still working out issues with the Linux version of Cold Fusion. For that reason I felt I had to go with the NT box to run the Cold Fusion web site....Also, I already owned the license for Cold Fusion on NT so that would have been another $1500.

Also, just to be clear, I am using a dedicated hosting solution for this web site which is 2 NT boxes(Web Server and Database Server), and I was hoping to leave it at that. I have a seperate Linux box running basic web server that is located locally, but the NT boxes are with a National hosting company. I was hoping to be able to set up everything I needed for the single web site on the two NT boxes without having to add additional servers for the DNS and so forth......but it looks like I have to make a decision. Thanks for the help.