Search Again: Re: switching from primary to secondary From: Men & Mice Support Date: Saturday, January 8, 2000 Time: 4:35:00 am Most of the questions here have been answered quite well. I just want to address a few additional points. At 10:58 AM -0800 1/7/2000, Global Homes Webmaster wrote: >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. A little terminology: BIND 8 QuickDNS Pro & BIND 4 ------------ --------------------- Master Primary Slave Secondary SOA record Domain Information dialog So the master (primary) server is the one where you make changes to the zone files. Any and all slave (secondary) servers get their copies of the zone via a zone transfer from the primary (master). The secondary (slave) servers periodically check for new versions on the primary (master), at a frequency defined in the SOA record (Domain Information dialog). >> 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. The Primary field of the SOA record (Domain Information dialog) is for informational purposes only; it serves no function. >> 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. That is essentially correct. >> 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. You can download the manual in PDF format from our website, if you can decode a Stuffit/BinHex archive. (If you can't, I can send it to you in zip or tgz format.) >> 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). You are not wrong. QuickDNS Pro scans for changes to the Primary Domains folder and the Secondary Data file every minute or so. >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

Messages In This Thread: switching from primary to secondary by Alex Miller on Jan 7, 2000 at 4:02:00 pm Re: switching from primary to secondary by Global Homes Webmaster on Jan 7, 2000 at 6:58:00 pm Re: switching from primary to secondary by Men & Mice Support on Jan 8, 2000 at 4:35:00 am