Question regarding proporgating DNS records

Hi, quick question.

I have a domain www.domain.com and i have it pointing to

ns1.hostingcompany.com
ns2.hostingcompany.com

My question is,

can i set up a DNS zone www.domain.com and set all records to point to one IP. So ns1 will point point all A records for domain.com to 123.xxx.xxx.12

and then setup the same zone www.domain.com on ns2, but this time point all A records for this zone to a different IP like 123.xxx.xxx.66

Thus mean, if NS1 servers go down, i can use NS2 to direct all DNS queries to a different server thus providing redundancy.

Quick EG:

ns1.hostingcompany.com

ZONE: mydomain.com

www (A) - 123.xxx.xxx.12
ftp (A) - 123.xxx.xxx.12
(A) - 123.xxx.xxx.12
mail (A) - 123.xxx.xxx.12
etc

ns2.hostingcompany.com

ZONE: mydomain.com

www (A) - 123.xxx.xxx.66
ftp (A) - 123.xxx.xxx.66
(A) - 123.xxx.xxx.66
mail (A) - 123.xxx.xxx.66
etc


Thanks guys!!

You do realize that says www.domain.com has two different IP addresses according to which nameserver you ask?

If you want redundancy for the DNS servers then that's what multiple nameservers are for. If you want load balancing then you should be setting up actual load balancing.

i dont get it...

So ns1 and ns2 records must be EXACLTY the same?

Thanks!

No... The nameservers should be different machines in different places. I'm saying that's where the redundancy is - not in the locations of the www or the ftp or the mail or those others.

I think what Requinix is getting at is the following:

Your goal (if I understand correctly) is to ensure that people can still resolve your FQDN to an IP address if one or more nameservers become unreachable.

You're theorizing that by having NS1 and NS2 point to two different public IPs for the same FQDN, that this will provide redundancy if either NS1 or NS2 fails. This will not do what you're wanting, it will merely point your domain to two different public IPs...which may be advantageous for load balancing or redundancy with the actual domain itself (not 100% on that because that's a little beyond what I'm used to).

To ensure your FQDN is always resolvable (not the servers hosting your websites or anything else but just DNS resolution) you can, and should, use multiple nameservers that point to the proper public IP address or addresses; ideally multiple nameservers geographically isolated if it's "mission critical"...think Google, Amazon, etc...

Yea OK i get it, the seperate Name Servers simply provide a backup to point your domain to your hosting servers.

so backing up your A records,
so if ns1 cant be reached, it will query ns2 for DNS records.

So, i am designing a hosting website/server (for learning purposes) http://megahosting.co.nz, i have two name servers already

What i really want is a backup for the hosting. So my NS1 is pointing to 121.xxx.xxx.122 say, and the server falls over (this is the server HOSTING my websites and databases etc.) how can i have a backup server take over for redundancy.

I know its not explained too well ive had a few beers hope you understand!

Thanks again!

PS: can probbaly remove "very quick" from the topic title now LOL

If you're talking about ensuring that if your server hosting your website/database fails you may want to start a new thread in the Windows forum (assuming its a Windows based server).

There are a few different ways to do this, some of which is beyond me. However, I've heard of people using VMware to host a server. If the physical box hosting the virtual server fails, it a 2nd physical box automatically takes over. Not sure how it works, and it's probably beyond what you're wanting to do from a price standpoint.

You could also just save snapshots of the server, if it fails, restore the snapshot to a new server.

yea thanks man ill look into this, bit off topic now

Thanks!!