switching from primary to secondary

Re: switching from primary to secondary

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On 01/07/00 at 11:02, Alex Miller wrote:

> I have a number of domains with my ISP
> that are configured as primary masters
> on Quick DNS. I have my own linux box and
> am running bind. Now these domains are
> masters on bind 8 and successfully slaves
> (secondary masters) on ns1.granitecanyon.com
> the Public DNS.
> I want to have my zone records switched
> from primary masters to secondary masters
> (or masters to slaves, whichever term QuickDNS
> uses) on the name server that uses QuickDNS.
>
> My ISP was originally under the impression
> that QuickDNS made no distinction between
> primary and secondary and simply looked
> to the list of authoritative servers from
> the registrar and the one at the top of the
> list was primary, and therefore QuickDNS would
> respond accordingly.

Um. No. As with any other name server, the difference between a primary master
and a secondary is how the server gets the zone data. A secondary gets its
data through a zone file transfer from another name server (usually a primary
master for the zone, but it could be another secondary). The name servers
listed for a domain by the registrar are not necessarily listed in any
particular order (actually, at least in the case of our friends at Network
Delusions, they're listed in the order given by the registrant). The registrar
has no knowledge of which of them are primary masters and which are secondary.
They could all be primary masters or, I suppose, they might all be secondaries
(if, say, the primary master were set up as a private server and not listed
with the registrar).

> Now we have found a way of setting the
> primary server in an advanced option for
> the zone records, which correctly changes
> the SOA record.
>
> My suspicion is that primary zones
> and secondary zones are completely different
> entries in QuickDNS, and that the
> procedure will be to delete the current
> entries and create new secondaries.
>
> Can anyone provide any guidance here. I
> realize, of course, if I had the manual,
> if I were the owner of that nameserver
> I could probably find it, but I don't
> and I'm not.
>
> I'd like to pass on the information to
> my ISP so they'll refer to that part
> of the manual, but it would be diplomatic
> if I described it as a solution rather
> than just telling them to read the manual.

It is indeed different from setting up primary zones. It's actually somewhat
analogous to setting up secondaries with BIND, but with a MacOS GUI. 8^)

To remove the primary zones, simply move the zone files in question out of the
':QuickDNS Data:Primary Data' folder located in the folder in which QuickDNS
resides. The files don't need to be deleted, just moved out of the Primary
Data folder. To be safe, you should probably keep them around at least until
you know that QDNS is successfully getting zone transfers from the primary(s).
QuickDNS periodically polls the Primary Data folder to see what zones it
should be serving, so you shouldn't need to restart QDNS for the changes to
take effect (someone from Men & Mice can correct me if I'm wrong).

To create the entries for the secondary zones, select (oddly enough)
'Secondary Data' from the QuickDNS Pro Admin application's Window menu. This
opens a window that lists zones to be served as secondary. To add a new
secondary zone, select 'Create Record' from the Domain menu, which will add a
new line (record) to the secondary data window. Then, simply type the
appropriate info (zone name, local zone file name, address(es) of the primary
master(s)) into the proper fields. Click on the 'Save' button and in a few
moments QuickDNS should set about grabbing the zone data from the primary(s).

One last thing (probably obvious, but important nonetheless). Make sure that
primary (i.e. BIND on your linux box) is set up to allow zone transfers to
your ISP's server.

Christopher Bort

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