DNS & DNS & DNS

[Vegito]

I'm looking to redudant my DNS in case there is a point of failure..

My topology

East Coast - HQ
West Coast - WHQ
South East - EHQ

I will have 3 exchange server and using domain.com if 1 fails, all mail can be deliver to the other 2 exchange server with MX records

Now the problem is DNS, I was looking at UltraDNS or dns server like those.

Where Ultra or mine will be primary and a bunch of secondary and tertiary DNS and etc.. ie

if HQ loses power, all router & server will be down, - unable to contact primary DNS at HQ and will use secondary DNS & tertiary DNS in W or E HQs. It doesn't sound too bad if you have multiple DNS but what if all my DNS server dies at the same time, at least I'll still have UltraDNS or dns service to host my DNS and deliver the people to the right place Sounds good ?

UltraDNS cost 4.99/month, 50,000 queries for 22 bucks.. seems cheap enough right ? Anyone suggest services like this or not ? I'm just worry that one day, with the power outages, the DNS will die somewhere (using cheap-o equipment also doesn't help)...

 

[Fallen Kell]

And the purpose of this post? A bump for UltraDNS?

This place is for questions not ads for services.

 

[randal]

when was the last time anyone had 3 dns servers in far apart locations all fail simultaneously? hrmm ... from what I know, most people have an on site dns server, then a secondary dns server offsite doing zone transfers just in case ... i know some places have like 30 dns servers to compete with the volume of resolution requests, but I doubt your application warrants this.

3 way redundant dns? sure, nice to have just in case, but imo, not necessary.
$.02
randal

 

[Vegito]

too bad, i'm in need of real dns design not in the field of advertisement.. too bad I dont work for them, i'm inquiring about dns design. Anyway, I think i saw a article that UltraDNS may be folding so i'm in search for better DNS

Problem is my site uses 8 T1, it's highly redudant but in Greenwich, CT we suffer 8 hour power lost last summer, even the T1 died from the phone company.
8 hours of lost email is hard to suffer.. we ran BGP for redudancy but guess what, when you lost power, BGP doesn't worth crap

Our other two site uses a combination of T1 and DSL service, which is the only thing thats available in those buildings and highly unstable, connection drops a lot. No BGP is available since most ISP won't advertise anything less then a /24 block

So I'm not advertising for any company, so If i say I use 4 cisco router and 3 baystack 450 switchs and dell servers, I'm bumping for those company ?

 

[spidey07]

two or three DNS servers in your situation would work perfectly.

you can use your mail records anyway you see fit, assign all 3 mx records same priority for round robin effect or prioritize them.

 

[Vegito]

hey spidey, I knew someone smart will reply, didn't wanted to PM and bug you.. but the problem is an 8 hour outage here kills me, it happens every summer... UPS only keeps us up for about 1.5 hours, building code prohibits generators...

My question is where should the primary be... some service out on internet where it's better kept up all the time ? should I be primary and let something like UDNS or other type of service be primary where everyone on the internet can contact them ? i mean 5 bucks a month is cheap but what other dns service are out there?

I was gonna run DNS out of my house in NYC but I lose power a lot at times... i can't trust our seattle link because our VPN drops a lot and i run trace routes and I see a lot of high times through 14 hops and going through cable & wireless routers doesn't do good..

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< when was the last time anyone had 3 dns servers in far apart locations all fail simultaneously? hrmm ... from what I know, most people have an on site dns server, then a secondary dns server offsite doing zone transfers just in case ... i know some places have like 30 dns servers to compete with the volume of resolution requests, but I doubt your application warrants this.

3 way redundant dns? sure, nice to have just in case, but imo, not necessary.
$.02
randal >>



If anyone can create a product where 3 separate servers in separate locations at once MS can do it.

3 servers would not be a bad idea, depending what is at each site. If there are internet accessible services at each site a local dns server could be useful. Each server could be master for the local site and slave for the other 2 sites. This is not a bad idea and not overly expensive in time or money. Very easy to do with BIND/djbdns running on say... OpenBSD.

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< hey spidey, I knew someone smart will reply, didn't wanted to PM and bug you.. but the problem is an 8 hour outage here kills me, it happens every summer... UPS only keeps us up for about 1.5 hours, building code prohibits generators...

My question is where should the primary be... some service out on internet where it's better kept up all the time ? should I be primary and let something like UDNS or other type of service be primary where everyone on the internet can contact them ? i mean 5 bucks a month is cheap but what other dns service are out there?

I was gonna run DNS out of my house in NYC but I lose power a lot at times... i can't trust our seattle link because our VPN drops a lot and i run trace routes and I see a lot of high times through 14 hops and going through cable &amp; wireless routers doesn't do good.. >>



Downtime is unavoidable. Plain and simple. Redundant services is not easy nor cheap but can be done relatively so. You can run slaves in each of your locations and get a co-lo with a major player in a major tech area (california looks like a bad idea, nyc, DC, maybe chicago, etc) and set up a primary dns server there. If a company has a good sla you should have fewer problems. Good luck, and stop promoting dell

 

[Vegito]

I doubt DNS would fail but if the link to the DNS fails or a combination since our seattle site suffers from earth quake and power failures and CT just suffers from power outage. CT is saved by BGP but not power, Seattle isn't save by anything.. Another bad thins is our DNS are running on p200.. old equipment soon to be upgrade or switched to dns service...

 

[Vegito]

dell is a big rip but the equipment i used on the trading floor are solid, no dead ones yet for about 2.5 years... and machines doesn't get turn off, they run rc5 hehehe

 

[Damaged]

You really ought to look into some generators for these sites. We have like two smaller Hondas and one large (300amp) mobile unit on it's own trailer. You probably don't need something that large though.

This isn't going to help if the TelCo circuits die, but it certainly takes care of those smaller power outages.

 

[Vegito]

Yeah, I would but building code prohibits little generators... i gotta get on a bike and pedal...