MX Record/DNS help needed

[Brad Knowles]

At 10:53 AM -0700 6/29/01, BCC wrote:

>  Sorry this may be an ignorant question, but why do I want to set up my own
>  nameserver at all?  The ISP we colocate with provides 2 dedicated
>  nameservers...?

	What role do those machines actually perform?  Are they 
caching/recursive-only?  If so, then your machines can use them to 
resolve queries, but then you wouldn't have a nameserver anywhere to 
act as your authoritative primary nameserver.  You still need a 
machine (or two) to perform that role.

>  Does the machine have to be set up as a nameserver to use named
>  services?

	Nope.

>             Like MX records?

	It doesn't matter what the services are that it needs.  Any 
machine can be a client of a nameserver, and does not necessarily 
need to be running a local nameserver to do that.

>  Can I just set the machine up to forward email (after learning how to
>  set up the proper configuration!), and use the default cts nameservers?

	You could, but you still need to have a machine somewhere to 
provide the answers to the information about your zone.  Otherwise, 
you've got a co-location, but no one will know where to find you 
because you don't have any nameservers registered.

	Keep in mind that you should still separate the web and mail 
servers onto separate machines, even if you don't end up needing to 
run your own nameserver(s).

>  I agree wholeheartedly... but after a small amount of prodding, it 
>doesnt seem
>  there is money for a new machine in the budget.

	Why doesn't this surprise me?  It probably costs you more in 
terms of hours lost fixing machines that shouldn't have been set up 
insecurely (and running too many services) in the first place, than 
it would to buy several extra machines.

	There's never money to do it right, but always money to do it 
again ... and again ... and again ... and again.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles at skynet.be>

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