dns setup for hosting on another server, leaving current services in place

Question

Say I have an old website for a business with the following DNS settings:

website.net      NS  a.nameservers.net
website.net      NS  b.nameservers.net
website.net      MX  mailfwd.something.net
www.website.net  MX  mailfwd.something.net
ftp.website.net  A   155.55.55.01
vps.website.net  A   155.55.55.01
www.website.net  A   144.44.44.44
website.net      A   144.44.44.44

I need to point only website.net and www.website.net at a different name server and website.net + www.website.net at a new ip, without disrupting email/vps/ftp/etc...

a.othernameserver.net
b.othernameserver.net

133.33.33.33

Please advise on the best method to point to the new website without disrupting any other services.

Answer 1

To accomplish what you're asking for is straightforward (as long as you understand how DNS works), but messy.

You'd have to delegate the domain (website.net) to the othernameserver.net nameservers; on those nameservers, you'd need to have the A and MX records for www.website.net; and NS records for ftp.website.net, vps.website.net etc pointing those subdomains back at the nameservers.net nameservers.

Depending on what software the nameservers are running, you might be lucky enough to keep the same config you already have; but my guess is that you'll have to configure a bunch of new zones (ftp.website.net, vps.website.net and so on) on the nameserver.net nameservers to handle your new records.

This is complicated and messy and almost certainly not what you want to do.

The easiest solution would be to just change the necessary records on your existing nameservers. The second-easiest would be to migrate the entire zone to the new nameservers, and have them continue to serve the same A records, MX records etc that you're already serving from the old servers.

Answer 2

My understanding is that once you move the ns to a different host, the MX and everything else follows. Typically, what I've done in the past is at the new host setup all the MX and other settings to point to the correct places before you move the ns records and then it should be unnoticeable.

Also, if you're hosting at a different location, I think the ftp will have to change as well - the two can't be separated.