How to confvert a secondary DNS server to a primary?
 

Hi,

We are setting up a disaster recovery site and we will have a DNS server acting as a secondary server, I would like to know how can we convert this server to become the master in the event of a disaster, we are, of course running BIND as our DNS software.

Thanks!

Declare your primary and AS MANY secondary DNS servers with your name service provider; since slave servers have the very same configuration they read from the master, any of those will resolve in case one is missing.

If this is for LAN resolving, make sure you configure the secondary servers in your all clients.

Secondary zone
 

Thanks for the reply, let's say in a crisis situation and that the master in no longer available what steps do I need to follow to convert my secondary to master?

Thanks!

I think that editing the named.conf file of the secondary, changing the line to and removing the line you define the masters should do the job.

Thanks for the input!

Now, keep this in mind. BIND was designed in a way that you can lose connection to your master server for x amount of time and your secondaries will answer for your domain, typical configuration is 3 days but you can modify this for more days.

So, if your master catches fire, if your secondaries are up and you defined them with your name registrar and client computers, losing that server is no big deal.

As Bathory said, you can modify your named.conf file in any secondary to be master of the domain and delete the "masters" line.

Just remember to declare the zone files (btw, you can use the ones stored in /var/named that were created automatically), the IP number for the server (remember that it will be the master for the slaves, so it's easier to change the IP number for the new server than reconfiguring slave servers and clients).