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Craig Otis
Asked: 2011-08-16 17:42:06 +0800 CST

Setting up Custom Nameservers on CentOS machine

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I used to have a network setup as follows:

DomainOne.com -> Server 1 (XXX.XXX.XXX.1)

DomainTwo.com -> Server 2 (XXX.XXX.XXX.2)

Server 1 simply redirected all port 80 traffic to Server 2. It was also being used to store files and run a couple other services.

Recently, I upgraded Server 2, and eliminated Server 1. Everything now looks like:

DomainOne.com -> ???

DomainTwo.com -> Server 2 (XXX.XXX.XXX.2)

I asked my hosting provider if they could update their DNS cluster to point DomainOne.com to the same IP address as the second domain, but they require an additional fee to do so.

I'm very new to this, but I think my goal is to set up a custom nameserver on Server2, and update DomainOne.com to point to the nameserver running on Server2. Can someone maybe point me towards a good tutorial/explanatory guide showing how to accomplish this? I've Google'd a bit, but I got a bit lost. I have a good amount of Unix knowledge/experience, but very limited networking knowledge.

centos domain-name-system web-server nameserver

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Here is a very quick-and-dirty description of how DNS system works, and here is a bit longer explanation. Before you start tinkering with DNS try to grasp how the system works.

    Depending on how your systems are set up you could just add Server 1's IP address (possibly as an alias) to Server 2's network card and be done. If it won't work for whatever reason (e.g. routing), you have at least 3 possible roads:

    1. Pay the fee and have the DNS records updated.
    2. Change the provider to one who doesn't charge you for such minor service.
    3. Set up your own DNS servers.

    If you decide to go via route 3, you again have several options :). Just note, that DNS servers are a crucial piece of infrastructure -- if they fail then people will be unable to reach anything within your domain. Also note, that to have your own DNS server, you have to own a domain. This means, that if you want to have a server in domainone.com you have to own the whole domain. If your host is alpha.domainone.com, but someone else owns beta.domainone.com, then you have to have the same server.

    There are several ways to get your DNS servers point where you need:

    1. Find some reliable company providing DNS services. They should have at least 2 DNS servers in 2 different networks (so that failure of a single router won't cut the world off from your DNS servers).
    2. Set up your own servers. If your servers fail, or there won't be usable route to them, then people wont be able to resolve names to addresses, but then the hosts with these addresses won't be accessible either. This affects everything from shell accounts to web pages to mail.
    3. Find another person in similar situation, set up your master DNS server on your host and have him host your secondary DNS server. Repay by hosting his secondary DNS server. This increases availability of your DNS service.
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  2. Nameservers are set within the network adapter itself. 2 computers on the network can have 2 different name servers. One could even use the other as a name server. To point a domain to an IP, you need to A) have bought a domain name and be able to set name servers within, if you are hosting the server on the domain name its pointing to; or B) use a custom DNS service like "http://afraid.org" and set up A-records to point the domain to an IP. Email me "Support/@/u4ik.us" for free DNS service. I run a few DNS servers.

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