Syncing Interworx With External DNS Servers [HOWTO]

Customization Hacks / Tools / Tips / Tricks
101

Does the steps in the original article work? Can the IWorx guys reproduce this if not, and maintain a sticky version. This is very useful, especially for want to sync OUTSIDE of Interworx servers. Here is an example:

TinyDNS Provider -> Interworx Cluster Manager
-> Cluster Slave 1
-> Cluster Slave 2
-> Cluster Slave 3

That way, Interworx sync’s between servers, but the external DNS (the one actually handling the nameserver registration’s, dns, etc. is always accessible through the third party)

The next question is what is a known TinyDNS provider? Anyone off the top of anyone’s head?

102

[QUOTE=anthonycl;18882]Does the steps in the original article work? Can the IWorx guys reproduce this if not, and maintain a sticky version. This is very useful, especially for want to sync OUTSIDE of Interworx servers. Here is an example:

TinyDNS Provider -> Interworx Cluster Manager
-> Cluster Slave 1
-> Cluster Slave 2
-> Cluster Slave 3

That way, Interworx sync’s between servers, but the external DNS (the one actually handling the nameserver registration’s, dns, etc. is always accessible through the third party)

The next question is what is a known TinyDNS provider? Anyone off the top of anyone’s head?[/QUOTE]

Hi Anthony,

A synchronization feature between InterWorx servers has been added to the control panel since this post was first written. I’m not sure of any tinyDNS providers myself, but synchronization to or from InterWorx is not an impossible feat with API’s and CLI clients. It just requires a bit of finesse and patience to setup a working system. To sync with an external server you can either allow AXFR zone transfers or alternatively you can have cron on the remote server pull data at regular intervals from InterWorx through the API.

103

Trying to setup a secondary, non-iworx, DNS server using this script. But it looks like the dns_sync file is no longer at the address specified. Can anyone share a copy? Dead in the water? Are there other options short of firing up another iWorx server (not a good solution at the cost).

104

wget http://techdev.gethosted.net/dns_sync/dns_sync

That link does not work anymore , so no way to download the PHP script.

So I’m stuck in step 4 :frowning:

Does anybody have the “DNS_SYNC Script” ?

105

I don’t know … but I really wish interworx would add support in core to sync with barebone DNS servers. I don’t feel like an entire Interworx install just for dns is worth the money.

106

Why not provide a FREE DNS install of InterWorx, like cPanel provides?

107

Hey folks,

Just wondering if anyone here has the InterWorx DNS Sync page setup to push the DNS records out to a plain DNS box (i.e. with DJBDNS installed manually sans InterWorx), and if so how they got it to work.

InterWorx - Is is possible for a guide to be added to your documentation on how to achieve this please? Or perhaps an update on the DNS-only version of the panel that was talked about quite a while ago (surely this wouldn’t be a massive task)?

This is a feature that many in the community are requesting, and something that your lesser competitors products can do.

We really NEED a proven and supported way of doing sync to external DNS for those of us who manage multiple instances and platforms. Much of the information in this thread refers to older versions of InterWorx, scripts that are no longer published, and so on. Yes - it is possible with research, patience and trial and error to put a working solution together, but as DNS is one of the basic features of a control panel this should be far simpler.

Thanks,

Jon

108

Hey Hacman,

We do have this guide available: http://www.interworx.com/support/faq/how-to-sync-iworx-dns-to-a-non-iworx-dns-server/

Let me know if that works out for you!

Also, the DNS-only version is in the works :slight_smile:

109

[QUOTE=IWorx-Brett;25004]Hey Hacman,

We do have this guide available: http://www.interworx.com/support/faq/how-to-sync-iworx-dns-to-a-non-iworx-dns-server/

Let me know if that works out for you!

Also, the DNS-only version is in the works :)[/QUOTE]

I did see that one, but haven’t had chance to give it a go yet. Cant believe you mention BIND in there though! Eww! :stuck_out_tongue:

Glad to hear the DNS version is coming along. Out of interest, have you guys thought about the idea of letting interested parties use the single domain versions for this as a stop-gap? Perhaps charging some nominal fee to cover costs?

One other question too - if we have 3 InterWorx servers doing DNS sync -we’ll call them HOSTING, NS1 and NS2-, and NS1 is used for hosting a few small dev sites - is there an issue having NS1 sync its DNS from hosting, but having NS2 sync its DNS from both NS1 and HOSTING - if that makes sense?

Thanks very much!

Jon

110

Hi Jon

I hope you don’t mind, but I have read your post many times, and I’m getting slightly confused, sorry.

Do you mean you want to sync to both IW and external DNS servers, or do you only want to sync to IW DNS servers only

If only IW DNS servers, this should be easy to acheive from system services, DNS server, sync, and applying the DNS servers of IW you want to allow sync to (I think you can have as many as you want but I’m not sure over the loading if you have an awful lot, 3 though, I would think would be minimal), and ofcourse, you can set as you have posted.

If you want to sync external only, Mr T post should make that possible, even setting the specific zones you only require to sync or all zones.

You can use both of the above, but as I said, I’m a little confused over which you want to use for DNS sorry.

Also, I’m sorry, the more I think about your post and hosting to dns1 dns2 etc… I am confused, as if you sync DNS2 to HOSTING, and DNS1, but only allow DNS1 to sync to HOSTING, would you not receive the full zones of HOSTING, which would include the zones for DNS2 as well, and would not DNS2 if I’m correct, receive the DNS zones of DNS1 (your dev server), unless it is 1 way sync sorry.

Lastly, as you have a lot of IW servers, I am slightly misunderstanding why you would want to have a dedicated IW DNS server, when you can make all IW servers sync, but I would also perhaps consider the rasperry PI been talked about, for dedicated DNS, which is on IW community posts I think.

I’m sorry if I am wrong

Many thanks

John

111

[QUOTE=d2d4j;25006]Hi Jon

I hope you don’t mind, but I have read your post many times, and I’m getting slightly confused, sorry.

Do you mean you want to sync to both IW and external DNS servers, or do you only want to sync to IW DNS servers only

If only IW DNS servers, this should be easy to acheive from system services, DNS server, sync, and applying the DNS servers of IW you want to allow sync to (I think you can have as many as you want but I’m not sure over the loading if you have an awful lot, 3 though, I would think would be minimal), and ofcourse, you can set as you have posted.

If you want to sync external only, Mr T post should make that possible, even setting the specific zones you only require to sync or all zones.

You can use both of the above, but as I said, I’m a little confused over which you want to use for DNS sorry.

Also, I’m sorry, the more I think about your post and hosting to dns1 dns2 etc… I am confused, as if you sync DNS2 to HOSTING, and DNS1, but only allow DNS1 to sync to HOSTING, would you not receive the full zones of HOSTING, which would include the zones for DNS2 as well, and would not DNS2 if I’m correct, receive the DNS zones of DNS1 (your dev server), unless it is 1 way sync sorry.

Lastly, as you have a lot of IW servers, I am slightly misunderstanding why you would want to have a dedicated IW DNS server, when you can make all IW servers sync, but I would also perhaps consider the rasperry PI been talked about, for dedicated DNS, which is on IW community posts I think.

I’m sorry if I am wrong

Many thanks

John[/QUOTE]

Sadly I think our DNS workload might kill a Pi :). We are however in the process of deploying them in the DC for environmental monitoring and other things.

What I’m wondering is if we have 3 servers, one (in this example) of which is our main hosting platform and 2 are DNS only.

The hosting box pushes its DNS via IWorx sync to DNS1 and DNS2. That works fine.

But, we host a few development sites on DNS1. So, if DNS2 is configured to take updates from DNS1 and the hosting box, is there a chance that it will receive “second hand” updates of the zones on the hosting box, or does the InterWorx sync have a way of preventing redistribution of sync’d records.

For the example above we’re just using InterWorx servers. My main reason for talking about both InterWorx and plain DNS in my first post is that choice is always nice. :slight_smile:

Hope that’s a bit more clear.

Jon

112

Hi Jon

Many thanks, yes it is becoming clearer sorry.

If I understand correctly, external dns is not required to be used but the ability to use it is required.

You are not concerned with keeping the dns zones of the dev sites secret, and all 3 dns servers will hold the zone records for the dev sites, as well as all dns zones.

I believe dns zone use SOA serial to determine its newest record, and therefore no deprecated zone records should be in use.

I could be wrong sorry, and I’ll have to think a little more but the above are my initial thoughts.

Many thanks

John