For our hosting we made the step-up from shared hosting to a virtual dedicated server on the premise that it would give us greater control. Included in this was the desire to be able to specify DNS settings directly. The hosting package is Plesk which provides the ability to manage DNS settings for each domain, so that looked ideal.
However, on closer inspection we realised that all domains have to have a minimum of two nameservers. The first of these could be provided by BIND, the DNS server software on the hosting account, but who was to provide the second? It would have been possible to set up IP addresses such that both nameservers could have resolved to the server IP, but that provides no redundancy.
Another option would be to use one of the variety of companies offering external management of secondary name servers. However that would require the DNS settings to be managed in two different places using two different interfaces, an undesirable extra layer of complexity.
So the solution adopted was to switch off all DNS settings in Plesk and use an external DNS provider for all name server functions, both primary and secondary. Our vendor of choice was DNS Made Easy. Their product is good value, simple to use, but powerful. An an example of its power, it can be used to switch a domain from one server to another within minutes. That will be the subject of a later post.
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Geographical coverage: AlphaOne Computing Services
provides a range of small business computer support and I.T. services throughout Sussex, including
Brighton, Hove, Shoreham, Worthing, Steyning, Burgess Hill,
Haywards Heath, Crawley, Lewes, Newhaven, Seaford, Uckfield and Eastbourne.
