DNS only & nameservers & best setup

[Simps]

Hi,

I've currently got my main cPanel VPS configured so that the sites on it have 3 nameservers, 2 on the main server and 1 on a DNS only server :
ns1.mainserver.tld
ns2.mainserver.tld
and ns1.dnsonlyserver.tld

Would this config slow things down compared to a 2 nameserver solution like this ?
ns1.mainserver.tld
ns1.dnsonlyserver.tld

What's the best nameserver setup when using a DNS only ?

Thanks,
Simp's

[charles]

The nameservers are used in a round robin fashion, so every third query will go to each one since you have three. That means 2 out of 3 requests go to mainserver. I would put ns2 on dnsonlyserver as well, or just one on each.

hth
charles

[Simps]

The nameservers are used in a round robin fashion, so every third query will go to each one since you have three. That means 2 out of 3 requests go to mainserver. I would put ns2 on dnsonlyserver as well, or just one on each.

hth
charles

Thanks Charles.

Would changing down be as straight forward as cutting ns1.dnsonlyserver.tld out of the "Tertiary Nameserver" field in WHM>Edit setup and pasting into "Secondary Nameserver" thus replacing ns2.mainserver.tld ? (+ editing entries at hosted sites registrars)

I don't quite see the point of having 2 + 2 nameservers, am I missing something here ? If one server goes down (they rarely do with Defender ;c)) accounts still have 2 nameservers as per RFC ?

[charles]

The names themselves are irrelevant. Whats important is that in the zone files that use these nameservers, you only have the ones listed you want used (NS records). Support can help you set this up - give them the real names and they can set it up for you.

As far as the additional nameservers go, beyond meeting rfc requirements, you have no benefit using more than one per server unless your trying to direct more of the DNS load to that other server. In the case wehere you have all the nameservers on the same physical box, more than 1 just meets the RFC and anything else is pointless. When you have more than one server, the more servers you have, the lower the percentage of queries will fail when you do lose a dns server.

hth
charles