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Possible Duplicate:
In DNS can an IN NS point to a CNAME?

I am in the process of migrating hosting providers. Currently I have significant number of domains pointed at my current NS servers. My new provider has their own NS server that I will need to update all my hosted domains to in order for them to point to the new server.

As updating a few hundred domains with new NS records is going to take a LONG time I was wondering if it was possible to point my current NS records at the new hosts NS's using CNAMES?

i.e

ns1.myns.com => CNAME => ns1.newns.com
ns2.myns.com => CNAME => ns2.newns.com

All domains that are currently pointing to ns1.myns.com would then actually be pointing to ns1.newns.com where the DNS records have been mirrored and are correctly pointing to the new servers IP.

Does that make sense? Will this work?

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    Don't do it. This causes "lame servers".
    – Marc B
    Oct 24, 2011 at 3:38
  • Is this a big problem if it is only a temporary thing? The main reason for wanting to do this is due to the time it will take up update all domains to the new nameservers, which exceeds the amount of time I have to complete the hosting migration. Oct 24, 2011 at 3:42
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    Can you do it? Well you can use cnames to point anything to just about anything. Should you do it? That rather depends on how you feel about things working correctly.
    – Rob Moir
    Oct 24, 2011 at 8:01

2 Answers 2

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Don't do it. If you have access to the DNS records of nsX.myns.com then change the A record to point to the A record of nsX.newns.com. This is how it is designed to work.

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It would be nice if its possible, but it works only on some clients, and others it fails.

The thing is that the name server on the right side of the cname will think that its name is being used (delegated) since the delegated name servers use cname that point to their name servers. If you use an IP (or a sub domain/child name server), their name servers will check for their names and not see any delegation to their name servers (even though their ips are being used) and may take the domain offline. (seen that problem)

Its sad cnames are not supported 100% in ns records, but some dns clients expect an immediate resolvable answer and fail on cnames (very bad programming).

Sometimes I think those BIND programmers should be shot, as its really easy to break BIND servers and spoof results, and on top of that they don't program things that seem logical.

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    You've posted 2 "answers" so far and both are nothing more than a rant about BIND programers. If you think you can do better then please feel free to do so but your completely unfounded and massively over the top comments are unwelcome. Oct 26, 2012 at 7:37
  • Was giving an answer as I have already tried it out. Oct 20, 2013 at 5:13
  • And yes that was a strike at bind programmers. I have the right to criticize things as I have been programming since 1994. Oct 20, 2013 at 5:14
  • Some clients support it, most don't. All it takes is for 1 dns server in the chain to mess up and your domain name is down. Oct 20, 2013 at 5:21

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