Apache BIND confusion

Webmin
1

Hi All,

I am confused on when I need to run a DNS server. I register my domains at a third party who have a nice redundant nameserver set-up with neutral names i can use. As long as the DNS records point to the IP of my server I have no reason to run BIND myself right?

The reason I am confused is that i cannot get subdomains to work properly. When I create a new virtual server i have a subdomain alias made like newdomain.com.stonefree-it.net so it can be used right away, but this actually never works right away and seems to work only after the DNS has been updated.

So I have narrowed it down to a couple of options, i hope you guys can enlighten me.

  1. The newdomain.com.stonefree-it.net needs to be in the dns zone of stonefree-it.net, therefore it is only reachable after a dns update.

The thing is, i cannot find this in the DNS records, i only find an alias in the Apache configuration for stonefree-it.net. This leads me to my second guess:

  1. It is only an alias for stonefree-it.net, and DNS has nothing to do with it.
    But why then is it not reachable immediately?

So if it is option 1, do I need BIND even though i use external nameservers?

Please forgive my noobness on this topic and share your insights with me. I have searched alot on the internets and have not been able to find a satisfying answer yet.

Thanks and cheers!

Guido

2

Howdy,

As long as the DNS records point to the IP of my server I have no reason to run BIND myself right?

If you’re happy using a third party for your DNS servers, then there’s no need to run one yourself.

When I create a new virtual server i have a subdomain alias made like newdomain.com.stonefree-it.net so it can be used right away, but this actually never works right away and seems to work only after the DNS has been updated.

That’s correct, if you run DNS at a third party – no domain or sub-domain will function on your server until you add DNS for that at your DNS server.

So although DNS for stonefree-it.net is currently functioning, you’d need to setup an ‘A’ record for newdomain.com.stonefree-it.net.

-Eric

3

Hi Eric,

Thanks for your quick reply!
It is becoming a bit more clear now. I also just found out that Virtualmin does not create A records in the stonefree-it.net zone file, but instead creates new master zonefiles for the newdomain.com.stonefree-it.net subdomains. That explains a lot.

Thanks again for the quick reply,

Cheers

Guido

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