Advice/help with DNS

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Posted by Daniel B, 05-30-2014, 10:25 PM
Ok..DNS has never really been my strong suit, though over the years I've gotten a lot better with it...however...before I mess something up, I'd love to get advice/help on how I should go about doing what I want to do . Right now I'm running single dedicated server for a few different things and I'd like to split it into a few separate servers. The first step in this process is moving my main site to it's own vps as well as the dns to it's own. (ramnode vps for the site, ramnode cpanel dns only for dns). My issue is...the domain that I want to use for my main nameservers is currently on my current server, and is being used for nameservers for a few active websites. I could get away with bringing them down for this process (they are all mine), but I'd rather not. Another issue is this domains email is handled through Office365...so I need to have as little downtime between the dns servers as possible in order to prevent missing emails/etc. So...any advice on the steps I need to take? My main issue I'm looking at, is that I have to point the main domain to ramnode nameservers in order to use the cpanel dns only setup with them. Once I make that change...my Office365 is going to stop working until I get the dns up and running again on that install. To recap: I need to Move main domain to new VPSMove all DNS to new dns only serverEmail and some gameservers are on current server...so as little downtime as possible is required.
Posted by FRH Lisa, 05-30-2014, 11:02 PM
Are you running WHM / cPanel on the original server? You should be able to just set up your DNSonly node as part of a DNS cluster (search WHM on the original server for "cluster"). Once they sync up, you can then add that as the primary DNS server for any domains that need it. After a few days, you can simply delete the DNS server on the primary dedicated server. It's pretty straightforward, especially with WHM, but tread carefully and make sure you have backups of your DNS zones before you start. Their documentation on this section has some nebulous wording that should be improved. http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/vie...nfigureCluster
Posted by Daniel B, 05-30-2014, 11:14 PM
I'm actually going to be using Interworx on all of my servers, only using cpanel dns for the dns server because it was free. The current server is running Virtualizor with a few VMs, and Interworx for the control panel on the hosting VM.
Posted by GIJose, 05-30-2014, 11:26 PM
Register all dns servers with your registrar. ns1,ns2,ns3 etc. Setup replication/notification (axfr) of zones so you can transfer all the zones between the servers in about a second. Don't forget to setup the views (acl) for security. Configure split horizon if you really want to fine tune it. Now it doesn't matter if you shutdown any of the servers.
Posted by Daniel B, 05-31-2014, 08:12 AM
aha, replication should work perfectly (I think). Thanks!

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