Nameserver without a zone for itself

Let's say, I am running nameservers called ns1aaa.com and ns2.aaa.com which contain also the zone for aaa.com and are authoritative for that zone.

Then however I need to make some other nameservers ns1.bbb.com and ns2.bbb.com the only authoritative nameservers for the zone aaa.com (let's say because these nameservers are more advanced, faster etc.). However I still want ns1.aaa.com and ns2.aaa.com to continue to work normally and be the authoritative nameservers for any other zones they still serve.(The two nameserver pairs have no relationship the one to the other and serve different zones)

Of course to start with I move the zone over to the second pair of nameservers, keeping all the resource records as is. Then of course I will have to add the nameserver records to the new zone to state that aaa.com has a nameserver ns1.bbb.com and ns2.bbb.com.
Finally, I am ready to make the change at the registrar to make the new nameservers authoritative for aaa.com.

But just a moment... Can I be sure that ns1.aaa.com and ns2.aaa.com will continue to work correctly even though they no longer contain a zone that relates to themself?

What is the correct way to set this new zone up? perhaps delegating ns1 and ns2 as subdomains and creating subdomain zone file in ns1.aaa.com and ns2.aaa.com.

the new zone for aaa.com in ns1.bbb.com and ns2.bbb.com
currently has:

NS records:

aaa.com NS ns1.bbb.com
aaa.com NS ns2.bbb.com
aaa.com NS ns1.aaa.com (Should these last two still be in there?
aaa.com NS ns2.aaa.com

A records

aaa.com IP for aaa's web site
ns1 IP for ns1.aaa.com
ns2 IP for ns2.aaa.com

(localhost, ftp, other subdomains etc pointing to their appropriate IPs)

Cnames

As before for www to aaa.com

MX

Usual pointing to aaa's mailserver IP

Any pointers would be much appreciated.

ThatGregory

You are seeing problems where none exist. The below diagram is a perfectly acceptable and common.

ns1.dnscompany.com (127.0.0.1)
ns2.dnscompany.com (127.0.0.2)
--dnscompany.com
--reseller.com

ns1.reseller.com (10.0.0.1)
ns2.reseller.com (10.0.0.2)
--client1.com
--client2.com

In the above example you have a domain name company who registers and hosts domains. Another company called 'reseller' chose to host their domain with them and resell the domain registration services. However, they decided to host THEIR client domains on their own servers instead of the parent company. To do this they created the ns1 and ns2 name servers for their domain which points to a server that does NOT host the reseller.com domain.

As I mentioned, it is extremely common that a person who sells domain hosting services may choose to host their own domain on another server so that their website (hosted at a 3rd location) does not go down if their name server(s) go down.

Thank you for your post. However my question was not really concerned with whether it was common or not, but how one would implement it completely correctly.

In other words:

1) Do the ns1/2.reseller.com nameservers in your scenario need to contain a zone that relates to the reseller domain. Yes/No?
(I think no, but I look for guidance to gurus such as you, on my path to true dns enlightenment)

2) Leaving aside mail and website related entries, what A and NS record entries are required in reseller.com's zone (on ns1/2.dnscompany.com), for the reseller.com nameservers to function correctly:

For A records, I imagine that <ns1 (TTL) A (IP address for reseller ns)> and same for ns2, are sufficient.
Are there any other A records required?

For NS: just the usual <reseller.com (TTL) NS ns1.dnscompany.com> and <reseller.com (TTL) NS ns2.dnscompany.com>
Any other NS records required?

I am about to make this change and if for any reason my namesevers (in this scenario: reseller's) stop doing their job correctly I will be lynched by people whose domains are served by those nameservers. Hence I tread carefully.

ThatGregory

ah, I see. heh, sometimes I get confused as to what the person is asking without a little summary or something.

1) No.

2) This is the rule of thumb. The NS records in the zone MUST match what you set at your registrar as your zone hosts. The hosts you set at your registrar MUST be to servers that truly host your domain. Knowing this should answer your question. But there's 2 ways you can setup the hosts at your registrar, so here's the equivilent two ways you can set it up in your zone:

reseller.com. NS ns1.dnscompany.com.
reseller.com. NS ns2.dnscompany.com.

OR

reseller.com. NS ns1.reseller.com.
reseller.com. NS ns2.reseller.com.
ns1.reseller.com. A 127.0.0.1
ns2.reseller.com. A 127.0.0.2

The second solution is setting up "virtual servers" which may be using YOUR domain, but with THEIR IPs. But if you do this, you should register the name servers at your registrar (the A records) and then assign them to your domain (the NS records).

Thanks for that. I think I'm just about clear on things now.
If I understand you rightly, of those two possible solutions for setting up the zone, the first one pertains to my situation as I am not dealing with "virtual hosts", but of different pairs of nameserver machines. One pair of nameserver machines, simply happens to be authoritative for the zone on which the other machine is based.

However, I hope I'm right in assuming that, with regard to your first solution you gave for the reseller.com zone on the dnscompany's nameservers, i.e.

reseller.com. NS ns1.dnscompany.com.
reseller.com. NS ns2.dnscompany.com.

These are the only two necessary NS entries, however one must also add the A records that point to the IPs of ns1.reseller.com and ns2.reseller.com.

1)That is correct, yes?

2) Also, as the nameservers based on reseller.com are already registered, and effectively do not change (apart from losing the reseller.com zone and authority over it), no action has to be taken regarding them at the registry. The only change at the registry, relates to reseller.com's authoritative nameservers which are changed to ns1.dnscompany.com and ns2.dnscompany.com. Right?

That should be the end of the matter. Many thanks again.

Yes, and yes, and you're welcome.