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We currently have a number of clients that are pointing their domains at our old nameservers, for this example they are:

NS1.OLDDOMAIN.COM
NS2.OLDDOMAIN.COM

We have moved the server to a new provider (the old server is still running) and the new provider have their own nameservers and I no longer require "whitelabel" nameservers.

The majority of domains that point to our servers are in our control, so I can simply point those to the new nameservers. However, there is a small number of domain names that we don't control that will need updating. Some clients are notoriously slow at making these changes, or they simply don't know how to do it.

What I am intending on doing is basically pointing the original nameservers at the new providers nameserver IP addresses. For example, if the new providers nameservers are as follows:

NS1.NEWSERVER.COM > 123.123.123.123
NS2.NEWSERVER.COM > 124.124.124.124

can I simply point the old nameservers at the above IP addresses and it will work the same way as re-pointing the domains at the new nameserver?

So:

NS1.OLDDOMAIN.COM > 123.123.123.123
NS2.OLDDOMAIN.COM > 124.124.124.124

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

dannymcc
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3 Answers3

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Looks reasonable. As long as you control the A records for NS1.OLDDOMAIN.COM and NS2.OLDDOMAIN.COM it should be possible and it should work. Caveat: obviously this won't work if your clients have hardcoded the old IP addresses anywhere. Make sure there are no more requests to the old servers before turning them off.

An alternative approach would be to keep your old nameservers running but change their configuration to forward everything to the new nameservers.

Tom Shaw
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The fact is that unless you want to continue to provide DNS forever, you will have to give those, who are slow to move, a drop-dead date. Otherwise, some will never do it on their own. You will need give them plenty of time, and keep the old server up, otherwise, you will have many pissed off customers.

After moving the ones you control, if there are not too many, I would give the others a two-month warning (longer if you need more time to do what follows), and tell them that you will start calling them to ask them if they need help with the process.

You made a major change in that you can't just point your ns.nameserver.com to a new IP, so they deserve some extra help if they need it, in my opinion.

KCotreau
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If you've got full control of the DNS entries for the old server names you could set up CNAMES so that the old DNS entry points at the new one, so if you change the IP of the new servers you only have to change it in one place

NS1.OLDDOMAIN.COM > NS1.NEWSERVER.COM > 123.123.123.123
Phil
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  • I thought about discussing that, but in the long run, there is something about using CNAMES for name servers that just does not feel right. It would still be a short-term fix to me. I can't this specifically what it would be, but I would worry that something could go wrong with a non-standard configuration, and a very important one at that. – KCotreau May 29 '11 at 14:40