DA+Bind Vs. External Managed

[Spook]

I have been happy with a dedicated + DA and a VPS + Plesk for some months now. I have two nameservers, one on each server.

This has offered me a little benefit I guess in that my two nameservers are geographically separated. I hand edit my named.conf and zone files on both machines via SSH as it is. Not a big deal since not much changes with the servers.

Anyhow, in a couple/few months my VPS is going to reach it's 1 year anniversary (I prepaid a year) and I think that I'll let it go, not renewing my lease with the provider.

So I am trying to get my plan together to deal with the loss of the VPS...

I could:
[list=A]
Use my dedicated for 2 or more nameservers
Use dedi for 1 ns and outsource the others (find a 'DA partner' and trade/collaborate secondary ns or subscribe to a DNS service for secondary)
Outsource primary & secondary
Rent another server and equip it with DA (DNS clustering)
[/list=A]

Hence, some of the things I could think of need to be considered:
A :[list=1] no DNS separation easy DNS through DA[/list=1]
B :[list=1] DNS separation easy DNS through DA master/slave arrangement) if not free, probably less than the VPS rent[/list=1]
C:[list=1] DNS separation most portable (easier host changes if need be), centralized possibly added features (eg: failover) if not free, probably less than the VPS rent loss of easy DNS fiddling through DA loss of possibility to use some provisioning scripts? (eg: whois cart) less simple than DA with bind[/list=1]
D :[list=1] DNS separation (possible) easy DNS through DA (master/slave arrangement) doubles my current expenses :([/list=1]


It would be great to hear any comments or corrections in my thinking.

I am trying to understand the ramifications of using or turning off bind on my server and any considerations.

I don't run a hosting business and nothing is really mission critical at this point, but I do like to do things properly as best that I can.

So far, what seems to be the best of both worlds is B but it gets a bit over my head. I'm presently fiddling with a 30 day free trial with DNS Made Easy but am still on the learning curve of their web interface. If anyone has set up DA+Bind (master) + DME (slaves) or hidden master It'd be great to get any input about that.

Thanks for reading!

[Icheb]

If I were you, I'd go for option D. Uhhm, wait, we did do that ;).
We're working with our own scripts instead of the DA sync option, as our scripts kinda predate the option. Switching is not possible at the moment, als our slave servers (we did this to both servers) aren't both running DA.

What you could do is try to find a partner for option D, that way you get option B, but you should note you have to trust this partner, as they can see all domains you use their slave server for... So they know who your customers are.

[Spook]

I'd love to have another dedicated server (I could also find a host with a VPS and DA and do the same thing I guess). However presently it fufills all I need and more. It would be different if I had clients and took in some money for hosting --- which I am receptive to, just don't want to really bite off more than I can chew with that. Perhaps I should target a vertical market/interest for hosting.

The VPS was more or less a problem to start with and at the time I just went to a dedicated server out of duress. Later the VPS stabilized and became useful. I really didn't have a need for both but since the idea of trying to get a refund on the VPS sounded like a major pain I just absorbed it's cost, later figuring out a way to make it useful.

At any rate it sound like you're easily able to justify multiple servers and have much more on the ball as a dot-com business than I. Mostly all I do is host some of my own sites, test scripts and other software I write, and learn about server administration. It's kind of hard for me to justify increasing my expenses 2X at this time.

I do appreciate your comments though, thanks!

[Spook]

Well 1 of 1 votes wanted me to post the info about using DNS Made Easy as a secondary DNS service. :)

So here it is:

First I have not yet implemented TSIG to secure the zone xfer. DME talks about it but the option is not available to me right now. If and when I get that available to configure I'll follow up with how to do that. I've got a little less and 30 days left to try this service out for free. So far it all appears to be working as I expected.

Situation: Primary/Master is provided by my server with DA + bind (actually I have 2 primary nameservers but that is because I still am using the VPS) Secondary nameservers (3) provided by DNS Made Easy

Steps:[list=1] Sign up for DME account, login and select "Secondary DNS" Select "Add New Secondary DNS" Suppose the domain you want to have DME supply secondary NS for is "example.com" then put that in the domain name field of the form and click continue next enter the IP of the primary/master NS you provide with DA+bind (ie: IP of ns1.example.com) when completed you'll be shown a list of 3 nameservers + IP which will be your new secondaries, copy + paste them to notepad or something for later (you'll also get this info in an email once the DNS is ready) SSH to your server and edit your named.conf adapting in the DME IP (EG: figure 1) while your here edit your zone file example.com.db adding in the new NS records to the zone (EG: figure 2) Visit your registrar and add the 3 new nameservers so you have something like shown in figure 3 in SSH or DA restart named by this time the DME secondary servers should be live and working[/list=1]
Figure 1 - named.conf
// ns5.dnsmadeeasy.com - 63.219.151.12
// ns6.dnsmadeeasy.com - 64.246.42.203
// ns7.dnsmadeeasy.com - 205.234.170.139

acl "xfer" {
63.219.151.12;
64.246.42.203;
205.234.170.139;
};

options {
allow-transfer { xfer; };
};

zone "." { type hint; file "named.root"; };
zone "example.com" { type master; file "/etc/namedb/example.com.db"; };
-OR-
zone "example.com" {
type master;
file "/etc/namedb/example.com.db";
allow-transfer { 63.219.151.12; 64.246.42.203; 205.234.170.139; };
};
Figure 2 - example.com.db
example.com. 14400 IN NS ns5.dnsmadeeasy.com.
example.com. 14400 IN NS ns6.dnsmadeeasy.com.
example.com. 14400 IN NS ns7.dnsmadeeasy.com.

Figure 3 - nameserver setting at registrar
EG: RegisterFly

Nameserver 1 = ns1.example.com
Nameserver 2 = ns5.dnsmadeeasy.com
Nameserver 3 = ns6.dnsmadeeasy.com
Nameserver 4 = ns7.dnsmadeeasy.com

EG: 1 and 1

Primary = ns1.example.com
Secondary 1 = ns5.dnsmadeeasy.com
Secondary 2 = ns6.dnsmadeeasy.com
Secondary 3 = ns7.dnsmadeeasy.com