Moved server, changed nameservers

Question

So we wanted to move a server, previously hosted and maintained by a large company. If we wanted to move the server we'd have to switch registrars as well.

So i moved everything to a new server, tested if it worked by editing my hosts file, worked fine, so figured it wouldn't be to much trouble to switch registrars. Made an account at a registrar (gandi, but it shouldn't matter?), using gandi's nameservers. Got my 'zone file' set up, and transfered the domain. To my surprise, the site went off.

So I just hope to get some clarification on this.

1. It shouldn't matter what nameservers I use, as long as they're valid and I own the domain, correct?
2. How can the site go offline? It was my understanding that either the DNS would point to the new entry, or the old, but never 'not exist', so what's happening there?

3. The only real settings i need on the Registrar zone are

   domain.net 3600 IN A xxx.xx.xxx.xx
   www.domain.net 3600 IN A xxx.xx.xxx.xx

correct? Is there other settings (CNAME/MX) that would interfere with this basic functionality?

4. How long can the site be off like this?

You may have noticed I'm panicking a tiny bit, even though i -think- all it needs is time to propagate, but I'd like to be sure, and any answers would be very comforting right now. Another thing i think is odd and sometwhat worrying is that if i do nslookup domain.net a.dns.gandi.net (primary nameserver im using) it gives 'can't find: no answer', any answers/wisdom would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It looks like the domain interactie-academie.be is delegated to {a,b,c}.dns.gandi.net (as mentioned in your question) and these nameservers do appear to have a interactie-academie.be zone but the records you mention (interactie-academie.be A, www.interactie-academie.be A) do not appear to exist in this zone.

$ dig @a.dns.gandi.net interactie-academie.be. A +norec

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P3-RedHat-9.10.3-10.P3.fc23 <<>> @a.dns.gandi.net interactie-academie.be. A +norec
; (2 servers found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 64613
;; flags: qr aa; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;interactie-academie.be.                IN      A

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
interactie-academie.be. 10800   IN      SOA     a.dns.gandi.net. hostmaster.gandi.net. 1456608542 10800 3600 604800 10800

;; Query time: 18 msec
;; SERVER: 2604:3400:abca::1#53(2604:3400:abca::1)
;; WHEN: Sat Feb 27 23:22:39 UTC 2016
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 113

$

Are you absolutely positive that you have added these records to the interactie-academie.be zone on the Gandi nameservers?

It appears that the names that actually have these A records are www.interactie-academie.be.interactie-academie.be and interactie-academie.be.interactie-academie.be.

Eg

$ dig @a.dns.gandi.net interactie-academie.be.interactie-academie.be. A +norec

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P3-RedHat-9.10.3-10.P3.fc23 <<>> @a.dns.gandi.net interactie-academie.be.interactie-academie.be. A +norec
; (2 servers found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 59345
;; flags: qr aa; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;interactie-academie.be.interactie-academie.be. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
interactie-academie.be.interactie-academie.be. 300 IN A 153.92.127.223

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
interactie-academie.be. 10800   IN      NS      c.dns.gandi.net.
interactie-academie.be. 10800   IN      NS      b.dns.gandi.net.
interactie-academie.be. 10800   IN      NS      a.dns.gandi.net.

;; Query time: 19 msec
;; SERVER: 2604:3400:abca::1#53(2604:3400:abca::1)
;; WHEN: Sat Feb 27 23:29:25 UTC 2016
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 151

$

There appears to have been some confusion as to how Gandi expect the input, the names you entered were considered zone-relative while you expected them to be treated as absolute.

For the future, much like you mentioned testing that other services worked as intended before changing servers, I would suggest actually testing the new nameservers respond as desired before changing the delegation. (Eg dig @new.nameserver.example example.com A +norec, etc.)

Answer 2

Your question rather implies that you don't fully understand how DNS works. It would have been helpful if you had supplied the real details about the website, it's IP address before and after and the hosting, then we could have assessed whether the currently published data matched what you think it should be.

While buying your hosting and DNS from the same provider can give a very small cost saving, as you have found out to your cost, it can create problems if/when you try to move your site.

the site went off.

This is not a meaningful diagnosis.

Is the problem that the resolved IP address on the client you are using points to the old provider? Or is it pointing to the new provider and the webserver does not recognise the site name or is it failing to resolve an address?

You can find out what IP address is being returned for the name with nslookup. If your new nameserver is unable to find the records you are paying them to host, then you should be talking to their support people in the first instance. You can override the address returned by DNS by setting the address in your hosts file(to test the hosting).

BTW please don't start sentences with a conjunction.