How to add your own nameservers on your server

[luchtzakje]

Like to have my own nameservers: e.g. ns.luchtzak.be and ns2.luchtzak.be

I have my own server and tech explained to me that I can have my own.

Where to start, how to add?

thanks,

Bart

[Pawel Kowalski]

You have to first register them at your domain registar.

There is a good knowledge base article here that applies to various registars:

http://www.jaguarpc.com/support/tuto...hp?list=dns_ns

This recent thread might be helpful if you are using godaddy:

GoDaddy Domain

[jason]

The first question is...what kind of server is it? Do you have a control panel?

If you have a control panel then it will likely support DNS already, though you may need to enable it. Sticking with the CP's built in system means you probably get a nice GUI for managing domains, too.

If you are running a Unix variant then BIND is the most popular option, but there are several out there. The Interworx control panel, which I'm currently running on a VPS, uses djbdns which I really like.

For Windows, your best bet is to go with the Windows DNS server which offers a "snap-in" for MMC for easy management, similar to the way you'd manage IIS.

Basically download and install the server as per the publisher's directions. Since you are required to list two DNS servers on domain registrations, you'll need to have the DNS server listen on two IP addresses. Technically each DNS should be a separate server for redundancy, but you can get away with doing it this way.

Once you're up and running you'll need to load your zone data (the actual mappings) and then register your DNS IP addresses with your domain registrar. Once all of that's done you can switch your domain names to start using your server.

Sorry that this is a bit high-level, but since every package will be different, that's about as much detail as I can give you right now.

--Jason

[Gwaihir]

Technically each DNS should be a separate server for redundancy, but you can get away with doing it this way.

Personally I find this quite a price to pay for a fancy named nameserver, something hardly anyone notices. Due to the way DNS is cached, even a short outage can keep your site unreachable for a group of users for quite a while.

If you happen to have a friend with a dedicated server (or VPS) some place else, you might want to team up with him and offer eachother a truly seperate secondary DNS server.

[luchtzakje]

Thanks for all the information! Currently all my websites are pointed to ns.nocdirect.com and ns2.nocdirect.com but tech support told me that was not the correct procedure as I have a dedicated server. Will have a look into your posts!

[Gwaihir]

The problem probably is that any and all changes to your DNS records require staff labour in this setup. I think that it is (and can only be) automated for the standardized JagPC managed servers (shared/SDX/possibly reseller). If you have frequent changes they may want to charge you for their labour. I doubt there is much of a formal company policy for these matters though. If you have few updates, you can probably leave it be.

I wonder, couldn't JagPC set their DNS servers up as secondary for interested dedicated & VPS clients? I.e. the client runs the primary and makes all the updates himself and the JagPC DNS servers offer all the redundancy DNS is supposed to have (i.e. a secondary server on a different physical machine in a different datacenter).

Isn't that something that can be arranged by a simple once-per-client setup? (I'm not entirely sure; my BIND skills are rusty.)