DNS, MX Records and Server settings

ace2109

ace2109

ace2109

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Northern Ireland
Hi Guys,
Not sure were to g with this one so I could really do with some help. A company I do some work for have purchased a dedicated server online for hosting their website along with client websites. Now we have limited knowledge about this so bare with me.

What do I need to do to make the domain name point towards the site on the dedicated server? Do I need to setup the server with its own DNS details first i.e.. ns.companyname.co.uk and then point the domain name of the website to these name servers?

We are using fasthosts and running a Linux server that can be accessed through the plesk control panel. Any support you can give me is much appreciated.
 
It's my understanding that nameservers are just used to host the DNS records for your domain, if you've purchased a dedicated Web Server then you just need to point the www.domain.com record to the new IP address of your dedicated server, and as long as it's configured to do so, it will work as a Web Server should do.

Assuming you can use the fasthosts CP to modify DNS records, you don't need to adjust your nameservers at all really.

Basing my experience from IIS here, but you can host multiple IIS sites on a single box as long as you configure the bindings for each IIS site.

If the domain currently has live webhosting, I would at least begin by creating a dummy site like test.domain.com in IIS on your dedicated box, and then pointing the DNS for test.domain.com to the dedicated box as well, so you can make sure it actually works before you start to break your live site!
 
is there a way to create a name server within my domain so i can give clients something like ns.companyname.co.uk?
 
I would assume that's possible if you made your dedicated server into a DNS server, however I would not like to comment further on that to be perfectly honest.

Unless you're planning on selling a lot, I would seriously consider perhaps some kind of Reseller panel in a well established domain Registrar so you can manage DNS for your customers (maybe even give them access to do so as well) and without having to develop some kind of bespoke system of your own. Even if you succeed, any time the customers want a DNS change they'd have to go through you, nightmare.
 
I think you are getting a little confused here.

Your name servers and your dedicated servers are 2 different things.
Your name server holds all the DNS records and your dedicated server runs your services.

When you got your domain name, your register probably setup the authoritive servers to be their own name servers - for example, I get my domains from Easily.co.uk and they initially setup ns1.easily.co.uk and ns2.easily.co.uk as the auth servers for the domain name. I can then setup DNS records via Easily's webpage which in turn sets the records on ns1.easily.co.uk and ns2.easily.co.uk.

These DNS records - MX records for mail and usally CNAME for Web - should then point to your dedicated servers IP.

If you have your own nameservers you can transfer control of the domain name to them - again in the Easily example I'd login and set the new name servers (which requires a minimum of 2) and then you'd need to configure the domain on your own nameservers.

Renting a dedicated server wont usually come with name servers - but the company you rent it from may allow you to park your domain on their nameserver and give you a web interface to set the records (in the same way Easily does).

If you wanted your own name servers, you'd need to setup 2 name servers, set them as authoritive for the domain and most importantly you'd need to set GLUE records with the registry pointing to the IP addresses of your nameservers (DNS can't lookup your servers ns. records without querying the nameserver and it can't find the nameserver without a DNS lookup, so this is what the GLUE record is for)

If you wanted to supply nameservers ns1/2.somecompany.co.uk for your clients you'd again need to do the same as above - 2 nameservers, then to set their domain to your name servers and for them to set the GLUE records to your IP's with the registry. You'd also need to give them some way of managing those DNS records, be that directly on the server or indirectly via a request to you.


Sorry if that seems like rambling, but hopefully it'll help.
I have been running my own authoritative nameservers from home for a number of years so I understand how it works, but I might not be the best at explaining!
 
If you have DNS management with fasthosts, your current nameservers will be something like:

ns5.fasthosts.co.uk
ns6.fasthosts.co.uk

Don't change this.


--------
Go into the DNS management and set up the following records:


"A" record for yourdomain.com - 104.54.67.54 (your server IP address)
"A" record for www.yourdomain.com - 104.54.67.54 (your server IP address)

"CNAME" record for ns0.yourdomain.com - "ns5.fasthosts.co.uk" (or whatever your first NS record is)
"CNAME" record for ns1.yourdomain.com - "ns6.fasthosts.co.uk" (or whatever your second NS record is)


The CNAME records will let you give out ns0.yourdomain.com to clients and it will redirect to the fasthost servers - some people will tell you you can't do it this way - but I do it this way with no issues!
 
I don't mean to be disrespectful, but if you're asking these kinds of DNS questions this early on after taking on a dedicated server, you need to think about whether an unmanaged server is right for you.

The easiest way to point a domain to your server will be to use an external DNS service (normally provided by your registrar) rather than setting up DNS servers on a single dedicated server (which would then be a single point of failure if it went down). Mail will be queued at the sending server so long as your nameservers are up, even if the MX is down, whereas if your DNS is down you'll lose any email sent during that period.
 
ace2109, why a dedicated server with limited knowledge?

If it is just for websites you should have just purchased a domain name, domain space and that's it job would have been done.

I think you are a tad confused on how to set things up here.
 
most definately confused guys but a little less now that I have read through everything above. The people who this is for wanted a dedicated server so it wasnt really my choice I have just been asked to help get it setup.

This is what I have done after reading the above

registrar - godaddy
parked the domain and changed the A records on the domain name to point to the IP address of my dedicated server.

created a domain on my server that matches the domain on go daddy and now im just waiting for the changes to take effect.

I really appreciate all this support guys and I admit this is a little above my head but hey we all have to start somewhere.

any other advice.
 
Hosting one site is as easy as changing the a record on the domain to the ip address of the server and that is it. You should not need to change anything internally for that. Except a reverse dns setting that you might find in your dedicated server control panel, but not always an option available.

To host multiple sites on one dedicated server you would need to setup more domains and redirect them to specific virtual path via the httpd configuration. But plesk might do subdomains which will allow you to host multiple sites, never used plesk.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/vhosts/examples.html
http://www.visualwin.com/host-header/
 
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Definitely some great stuff on here guys thank you so much. I have managed to get the domain names to point to the server and now its just dealing with the multiple domains and what "groen" has detailed above looks like a great start.
 
Hi Guys,
Sorry for the delay, I have been pretty busy the past few days.

So I have setup two domains and pointed them both towards our dedicated server and they both pickup the default "Site Preview" Page fine. However when I upload new pages to the http and https folder the site does not go to them it defaults to the site preview page over and over?

any ideas?
 
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