Moving of Domain name to another DNS server..

[Kevin Darcy]

bouw at dds.nl wrote:

> Hi Everyone..
>
> I hope this isn't to much off-topic..
>
> I am getting a headache from DNS...
> After reading the various Linux Howto documents on DNS
> I have got an 'fairly' good idea in what order the the lookups are
> performed...
>
> What I wanted to ask, how can you move a Domain name from one DNS to
> another DNS without the visitor  noticing this or the site looking
> like it is 'down'..
> With the transfer the domain on the new DNS will point to a different
> IP number/computer..
>
> What I thought was the following:
> Setup the domain in the new DNS and when this is done tell the
> the appropiate name servers that the 'new DNS' will be the DNS for the
> domain with the new IP number..
> After this you can remove the settings out of the old nameserver..
>
> Then keep the old server running to give all other DNS's
> time to expire their DNS data...
>
> Can this be done this way?  Is there a better way?

This is basically what you do. The way you "tell the appropriate
nameservers" about the change, though, is you change the delegations in
the parent. If your parent is, say, "com", then you'd need to do this
through a registrar.

> While I am typing this I can also ask the following question:
> Lets say my domain (example: amazon.com) is stored in the DNS of my
> ISP/Upstream...
>
> Is it possible (necessary?) for me to setup a DNS on my machine to
> define shop.amazon.com -> machine 1, pop.amazon.com -> machine 2
> and *.amazon.com -> machine 3 (* means the rest of the subdomains.)

You can set up your own domain on your own servers, but no-one will know
to ask them about that domain unless you change the delegations in the
parent domain. Again, if the parent domain is something like "com",
you'll have to go through a registrar in order to get the delegations
changed.

You should let your ISP know what you are doing, though. If you just
change the delegations without telling them, then all of the machines
which are pointed at their DNS will have outdated information.

Also, some (most?) registrars require that you have at least 2
nameservers serving the domain, and common sense dictates that these be
in diverse locations for redundancy. Often, when customers take over
control of their own domains from their ISP, they work out an agreement
whereby the ISP becomes a delegated slave of the zone.

> Well, I feel like I am asking very dumb questions, but I can't seem to
> find documents which tell me the answers. The most tell how a DNS
> lookup is performed, but not how the machines are kept up to date and
> what they exactly synchronisize.. What will be a good book/document to
> read??

Read the _DNS_and_BIND_ O'Reilly book.


- Kevin