Paul Swainson wrote:
You have almost answered it at the end, what I was getting at was setting up a secondary name server on a second machine for fault tolerance. So if I add a second ns record on the primary sever to my domain this time containing the domain name for the secondary name server (tiny_dns IP on the secondary nameserver, not the ext_dnscache IP) this will complete internal domain name ns record setup.
Now, copy (rsync or a suggested method?) the all tiny_dns data and vegadns data to the secondary name server. If the client machines on my network have the 2 name servers ext_dnscache IPs in there network settings, the primary is queried first, if this had been powered off or unable to answer queries for some reason, the client machine the queries the secondary name server, this has the 2 ns records, the first NS record is dead so I then assume it moves to the second NS record which contains the hostname (IP) for the secondary name server resulting in the query being answered?
I'm sorry this is long winded but I need to understand each stage of admin
and mechanics. You may have a easier way of explaining this for which I
would be eternally grateful
The idea of having 2 authoritative servers, and one cache is a good plan. I'm not sure if I follow what you mean by "If the client machines on my network have the 2 name servers ext_dnscache IPs in there network settings"... but this is what I think you should do:
Have all your local host information in NS1. Use rsync (automated) to sync the data to NS2. Have an external cache that does lookups to the outside world but also has direct routes for your internal domain pointing to NS1 and NS2. This way, all your clients are pointed to the external cache *only*. And when they lookup a local hostname, the cache gets the information from NS1 or NS2 (I believe the choice is random, and if one is down the other is tried before giving up). That should provide the fault tolerance you want, and provide local data information as well. If you are worried about having only one cache, setup a second identical to the first, and put both IPs in the client machines for lookups.
Regards,
Bill
