From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 27 13:07:51 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4331216A4CE for ; Mon, 27 Sep 2004 13:07:51 +0000 (GMT) Received: from internet.potentialtech.com (h-66-167-251-6.phlapafg.covad.net [66.167.251.6]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 11C0543D54 for ; Mon, 27 Sep 2004 13:07:51 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from working.potentialtech.com (pa-plum-cmts1e-68-68-113-64.pittpa.adelphia.net [68.68.113.64]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by internet.potentialtech.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 55B4169A71; Mon, 27 Sep 2004 09:07:50 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 09:07:49 -0400 From: Bill Moran To: "Toomas Aas" Message-Id: <20040927090749.18b5a909.wmoran@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <200409270802.i8R82xWQ013931@lv.raad.tartu.ee> References: <493F1EDF-0FE0-11D9-A586-000D9333E43C@secure-computing.net> <200409270802.i8R82xWQ013931@lv.raad.tartu.ee> Organization: Potential Technologies X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.9.12 (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd4.9) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Backup Mail Server Questions X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 13:07:51 -0000 "Toomas Aas" wrote: > > From: Bill Moran > > > First off, what does setting up backup DNS/mail gain the end user? Unless > > you have mirrors on radically different networks, of things like WWW and > > mail, backup DNS doesn't really accomplish anything. If the net > > connection goes down, you're offline anyway, so who cares if DNS still > > works? > > This is only true if your DNS server is behind the same network > connection with your other services. We recently had a situation where > one of our mail sub-domains and one pretty important web application > were out of operation FOR A MONTH because the external contractor who > handles DNS for this sub-domain had "forgotten" their DNS server into > another network and it was disconnected. Until they sorted out the > mess, from the end-users POV things basically didn't work, even though > the mail and web servers themselves were fine. We're not disagreeing. My comment says "unless your on different networks". If you WWW, mail, and DNS are all the same server (like the current potentialtech.com setup, for example) backup DNS gains nothing. The simple fact is that not _everyone_ needs a backup DNS and backup MX. The sysadmin needs to honestly assess the situation and make an informed decision. The reason I fight so hard _against_ it is because folks like backupdns.com are marketing so hard FOR it, even when people don't need it. And backupdns.com provides lousy service. Additionally, many registrars won't register your domain unless you have at least 2 DNS servers, which is a stupid requirement. And many DNS/SMTP validation services will consider a single DNS or a single SMTP server and error, which is not always true. -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com