Linux BIND 9 ? Confused :/ (Windows Server 08 too)

[Chapster5]

Basically at work we have had a guy running the systems here for the past 14 years and recently he was let go due to a back injury and unable to return to work. Work in the meantime got in another guy he is a desktop support technician who has taken over said position running the servers too he has been here the past 2 years and is still piecing together how the system is layed out. We are converting to Virtual Servers running Virtual Sphere on Server 2008 R2. In the process kicking out all the old boxes which run Linux. Now heres where the fun begins, we are having a new site setup which is in turn going to change the Server IP of the Nameservers that points to the domain name.

There is 2 Linux machines here which are named NS1 and NS2 obviously these hold all the DNS records in which Email filtering gets sorted and what not and FTP and Web hosting. Now how do we go about finding out where the Webhost server IP is being assigned to the Nameserver address? In the domain name provider the name servers point to

NS1.xxxxx.com
NS2.xxxxx.com

Which confused me normally in here you would put the IP to the hosting company being it under the main Domain name then every sub domain or what ever gets pointed to the NS1 and NS2 records. Where do we find where the IP is being assigned to the Nameserver records? Would the NS1 and NS2 Linux machines be able to do this?

An external company are currently overlooking the windows side of the server system they came in and set it up and are in the process of virtualising everything as said.

I'm confused and tired lol can't think any help is appreciated

Sorry for jibbering on its a long drawn out problem

(Oh also the NS1 machine has a damaged VGA input, we can get NS2 to display on a screen but we don't know the login credentials and the old IT guy is failing to release them to us he just says I dont know) We also can't shut these Nameservers down as the site will go down as well as Email which we obviously can't do. We need to know the DNS records in the NS machines to know where email is being filtered to (the IP of an external company who is our email filter) and where FTP is being pointed to

Cheers

Nick

 

[Cookie]

I'm guessing they're running BIND

 

[Chapster5]

Would BIND assign the IP from the hosting server to the NS1 and NS2 record? So you can just go to a domain host and type in the NS1 and NS2 record and it will resolve to the web host?

 

[sn00p]

You have 2 name servers for a reason.

Take down the one that "works" and boot in single user mode and then change the password.

Bring it back up and then fix the other ones display issues and then do the same.

 

[Chapster5]

Cheers Snoop so if we took down NS2 and changed the Password NS1 would still run as its meant to and not interrupt Mail, FTP, Site?

 

[ivegota16v]

ignoring the linux questions at the minute, what on earth is virtual sphere? do you mean vsphere?

if you are running server 2008 R2 you might as well use hyperv as its a type 1 hypervisor , im guessing your using vmware workstation on server 2008 r2? !

 

[Chapster5]

Yes V sphere hah as for the server question I have no idea I'm a store man for the company but in my spare time to websites so we are both trying to work out what's going on

 

[sn00p]

Would BIND assign the IP from the hosting server to the NS1 and NS2 record? So you can just go to a domain host and type in the NS1 and NS2 record and it will resolve to the web host?

That's the theory, but you'd need to check that this is the way it's configured.

If you only have one name server and it goes down, then you have a problem as things won't resolve. If you have two and one goes down, then resolutions will happen on the second name server - although by the sounds of it both of yours are physically sitting next to each other, which isn't a great idea - but that's another issue altogether.

So in theory, you should be able to take them down one at a time "for maintenance" without any issues.*

(*no warranty is given, expressed or implied)

 

[Chapster5]

That's the theory, but you'd need to check that this is the way it's configured.

If you only have one name server and it goes down, then you have a problem as things won't resolve. If you have two and one goes down, then resolutions will happen on the second name server - although by the sounds of it both of yours are physically sitting next to each other, which isn't a great idea - but that's another issue altogether.

So in theory, you should be able to take them down one at a time "for maintenance" without any issues.*

(*no warranty is given, expressed or implied)

Nice one matey,

We aren't certain how long they have been like this or even what version of Linux they are running. They are say next to each other which yes is a very dodgy move (the last IT guy didn't really have a clue apparently our current IT guy has been through most of his old emails and turns out he got external people to do the setting up)

Hopefully in theory then we can take NS2 down and get that sorted then focus on NS1 fingers crossed hey! Lol

 

[fulhamfcboy]

Also depends what the TTL is for the specific record. If for instance a TTL is 24 hours you can get away with a lot more that a 60 second one