This tutorial is going to cover the setup of a 3-server DNS solution! 1 master and 2 slaves.

Knowledge Requirements - what do you need to know?

The multiple server setup is fairly complicated and should not be attempted by newbies. If you are a newbie, I would reccomend using the single server setup first.. To complete the multiple server setup, you will want to have a descent knowledge of *nix based operating systems (Unix or Linux) and be comfortable in those environments. You should have a solid understanding of how DNS works and how DNS zone entries work. Terms like nameserver, A record, CNAME, MX record and PTR should not be strange terms that you've never heard of. You should also be familar with the use of rsync and crontab. There will be other smaller items you will need to know as well, but those pretty much fall under general Unix/Linux knowledge previously mentioned.

Server/System Requirements - what do you need to have?

Here's a list of server and system requirements. If you don't meet any one of these, you'd better do something about it because the setup probably won't work without them.

1. You will need a seperate physical server for each DNS server you intend to have in your setup. One server will function as the master DNS server and the others will be slaves. This tutorial is going to go through the setup of a 3-server DNS system, so you will want to have 3 physically seperate servers.

2. If you can arrange for each server to be in a different geographical location, that's the best scenario. For example, you could have your master server at hosting company A , a slave server at hosting company B and still another slave at hosting company C. If each DNS server is on is in a different area, you will enjoy greater redundancy, as a failure at one datacenter will not spell disaster for your entire DNS system. If you don't have servers that are seperated geographically, at least try to have each server on a seperate vlan. If you can't have servers on sepereate vlans, you just better be on a damn good vlan.

3. DNS servers do not take much processing power so, while a super bad-ass server is always a plus, a slower server is not anything to get worried about. I've got plenty of DNS servers running on Celeron 1.3 boxes, and I've heard of people running them on boxes as old as a Pentium 66 with no trouble.

4. You will need root access to the server. Virtual private servers (jails) will usually NOT work.

5. You will need at least 1 available IP address on your master DNS server and each slave server. Keep in mind that DNS runs on port 53, so if you are serving websites (for example) on a given IP, you can still use that same IP for DNS server purposes.

6. Daemontools - If you've already installed my version of Qmail, you should already have this installed. If not, click here to learn how to install it. Daemontools will need to be installed on the master DNS server as well as each slave server.

7. UCSPI-TCP - Again, if you've already installed my version of Qmail, you should already have this installed. If not, click here to learn how to install it. UCSPI-TCP will need to be installed on the master DNS server as well as each slave server.

8. Firewall requirements - You will want ports 22 and 53 open. 22 should already be open for SSH services, so just make sure you've got traffic on port 53 allowed as well.

That's all. Once you've got these 8 items covered, you can proceed to the actual installation.

Proceed to Step 2