Changing the name of a nameserver without breaking DNS

[Barry Margolin]

In article <a8ko23$bel at pub3.rc.vix.com>,
Tom Sellers <tsellers at myrealbox.com> wrote:
>Following the advice I received earlier in this group, I need to take a
>nameserver that I currently run and is based upon a '.ca' domain and
>base it on our '.com' domain to achieve glue. Accordingly I went to the
>registrar and created a new nameserver called 'ns2.mparam.com'.
>
>The server that gets this name change is currently delegated as primary,
>is called 'mpp.mparam.ca', and I'm looking for advice on any pitfalls I
>may encounter, I guess timing is the main concern. Given that the IP
>address of the server that gets renamed remains the same, would this
>procedure make sense? 
>
>1: In the zone data for mparam.com create an NS record for
>ns2.mparam.com, and create an A record for ns2.mparam.com
>2: Go to the registrar and change the nameservers by removing
>mpp.mparam.ca as the primary and adding ns2.mparam.com in its place.
>3: Wait 48 hours for propagation
>4: Physically give the server which is now called mpp.mparam.ca its new
>name, and then reboot it so that it now identifies itself as
>ns2.mparam.com to all queries it receives.

The server never "identifies itself".  The only data it ever gives out is
what is in the zone file.  The name by which it knows itself is mostly
irrelevant (the machines we advertise as dnsauth[1-3].sys.gtei.net, and use
for all the domains we host, actually have different names internally --
this allows us to move the virtual addresses to different servers when
necessary).

>5: In the zone data for mparam.com now remove the NS record for
>mpp.mparam.ca
>
>If I've overlooked anything I'd certainly appreciate your comments.
>Thanks.

Your process looks good to me.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at genuity.net
Genuity, Woburn, MA
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