15

Is it possible/recommended for two servers to use the same name servers?

For example, if I have two VPS servers; one for business one for personal. Can they both use the same name servers?

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  • 23
    If all my servers had to use different unique nameservers, I'd be a little bit screwed. – Tom O'Connor Aug 4 '11 at 20:31
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    @Tom - imagine the environmental damage if it was a 1-DNS-server-to-1-client ratio - the world would look like something from the matrix – Chopper3 Aug 4 '11 at 20:40
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    @Chopper3 - We'd all just revert back to downloading and using THE hosts file. – voretaq7 Aug 4 '11 at 20:43
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    @Answerers: Nice gravatars, guys. Bunch o' Chopper slappies! – squillman Aug 4 '11 at 20:44
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    @NARKOZ: I've got no idea what you're talking about; they're different. – MikeyB Aug 5 '11 at 12:37

12 Answers 12

31

If they can both see the name servers in question (i.e., not on an internal network to one of them)...sure.

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  • This would be the major consideration - also many ISP's DNS servers these days only answer recursive requests from "authorized" clients (machines on a network they were set up to serve) to avoid DNS cache poisoning attacks and ungrateful bandwidth/resource moochers using the service for free. – voretaq7 Aug 4 '11 at 21:06
25

A large proportion of the internet uses the Google name servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 so yes.

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  • 10
    Delicious google name servers – Nixphoe Aug 4 '11 at 21:24
19

Yes - this is how the internet works.

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17

Indeed, name servers are hearty things that can handle one, two or even three concurrent connections at a time. I think you're safe in using one name server for both VPSs.

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17

Certainly!

If each server needed a server of its own, you'd end up with a horrific sort of pyramid scheme where the servers at the bottom wouldn't have any servers to call upon.

Edit: fixed avatar

MikeyB

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  • 4
    If you provide DNS service to 5 friends, and they provide DNS service to 5 of their friends… – voretaq7 Aug 4 '11 at 21:07
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    Downvoted for inappropriate avatar. Succumb to the hivemind and you'll live. – Wesley Aug 4 '11 at 21:07
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    Conformity is sooooo much better, don't you think? – Holocryptic Aug 4 '11 at 22:48
  • I like that avatar! Have an upvote... – Bart Silverstrim Aug 5 '11 at 2:20
14

Yes, this is the way it is designed to work, otherwise there would be as many name servers as there were sites.

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13

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having more than one client performing lookups against the same server. Just make sure the DNS server is adequately sized to support the load.

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13

There isn't a problem with doing that, it'll work fine.

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12

Yep. This is how "normal" networks are setup.

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11

YES!

A whole bunch of my servers all use the same nameservers.

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6

Two independent name servers seems to be considered sufficient variety. How many computers use the same two name servers seems to be of little consequence. As long as you have two independent sources in different physical whereabouts and dependent on different networks you can attach about as many "clients" as you like. In fact half the world seems to be able to use the same two name servers, there is no reason two servers couldn't :)

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  • 4
    Where's your Choptar? – Chris S Aug 4 '11 at 23:20
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    Don't tempt the Coppertar minions. We know bear-fu. – Wesley Aug 4 '11 at 23:37
6

You can surely setup your name-servers in one server and use the same for the other using the cpanel inbuilt DNS Cluster feature( WHM >> Cluster/Remote Access >> Configure Cluster). But, It is better if you,

  1. Configure nameservers as,

    ns1/ns2.yourdomain.com --> server 1

    ns3/ns4.yourdomain.com --> server 2

  2. Cluster the DNS using the DNS Cluster option in your WHM.

  3. Use these four nameservers for your domains at your registrar.

By this way, if one of your nameserver server fails, the other will successfully serve for DNS requests(ofcourse there is no use, if the whole server is going to fail, unless you have proper mechanisms configured to handle such instances in place).

DNS Clustering Doc: http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/WHMDocs/ConfigureCluster

Cheers

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