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I've ordered a secondary nameserver from Dyn, but before I add the nameserver to my domain I want to test it.

Is there a way to make my local machine (Mac OS X or Windows) use this secondary nameserver for my domain?

i.e. force my local machine to use secondary.nameserver.com for mydomain.com?

Thanks.

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2
  • What is it you are trying to do? Your question is not at all clear. – Michael Hampton Mar 3 '13 at 13:23
  • Need to make Mac OS X or Windows use a nameserver for a domain without updating the domain's listed nameserver. i.e. I don't want it edit my domain's nameservers without testing to see if the nameserver works. – cappuccino Mar 3 '13 at 13:59
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you can use the dig command in MacOS terminal with the @ argument to specify a nameserver to use for the query.

e.g. dig example.com @b.iana-servers.net SOA

will run the query against b.iana-servers.net.

You can compare the SOA serial numbers (ie 2013012703) between your current nameserver, and the one you want to add.

For example:

  • dig example.com @a.iana-servers.net SOA

  • dig example.com @b.iana-servers.net SOA

    cwevans-home:~ cwevans$ dig example.com @a.iana-servers.net SOA

; <<>> DiG 9.7.6-P1 <<>> example.com @a.iana-servers.net SOA
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 41112
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.com.           IN  SOA

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com.        3600    IN  SOA sns.dns.icann.org. noc.dns.icann.org. 2013012703 7200 3600 1209600 3600

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.com.        172800  IN  NS  b.iana-servers.net.
example.com.        172800  IN  NS  a.iana-servers.net.

;; Query time: 36 msec
;; SERVER: 199.43.132.53#53(199.43.132.53)
;; WHEN: Sun Mar  3 07:18:15 2013
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 134

    and then compare to the second nameserver:

    cwevans-home:~ cwevans$ dig example.com @b.iana-servers.net SOA

; <<>> DiG 9.7.6-P1 <<>> example.com @b.iana-servers.net SOA
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 17019
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 4
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.com.           IN  SOA

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com.        3600    IN  SOA sns.dns.icann.org. noc.dns.icann.org. 2013012703 7200 3600 1209600 3600

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.com.        172800  IN  NS  a.iana-servers.net.
example.com.        172800  IN  NS  b.iana-servers.net.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
a.iana-servers.net. 1800    IN  A   199.43.132.53
a.iana-servers.net. 1800    IN  AAAA    2001:500:8c::53
b.iana-servers.net. 1800    IN  A   199.43.133.53
b.iana-servers.net. 1800    IN  AAAA    2001:500:8d::53

;; Query time: 39 msec
;; SERVER: 199.43.133.53#53(199.43.133.53)
;; WHEN: Sun Mar  3 07:18:22 2013
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 222
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-1

Yes you can add this second machine as the nameserver and test your domain. But it's with no point if this machine will be secondary, since as a slave DNS it will receive a working copy of your primary DNS machine.

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  • Need to test the secondary nameserver as I cannot tell if it has successfully copied the primary nameserver. I would not want to add the secondary nameserver to my domain yet in case it does not work. Using Dyn's Secondary DNS service, but it's annoying since I can't tell if it copied the primary nameserver machine successfully. – cappuccino Mar 3 '13 at 13:57
  • No, it wont work. You're mixing authoritative nameserver and resolver. – bortzmeyer Mar 3 '13 at 17:27
  • Of course it will work. If you set, on your machine, the ip address of this second server, your Machine will use it as nameserver. You may not get other addresses resolved, but it will work for your domain. But again, it's useless. Use tools like dig or even nslookup to test it out. Or, if you have access to the machines, take a look at the logs and/or transferred files. – fboaventura Mar 4 '13 at 3:31

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