Keep site backup during downtime?

[[ih]Demetris]

Ok this post is inspired by cabron who was looking to get backup space..i to for quite sometime have been looking for this sort of solution. However instead of it being all of my clients i would like to just have my site available for customers during downtime etc so that we may stil accept tickets, forum posts etc. What would be the best way in going about getting this done. Well the obvious would be space from another host. But how do we go about dns nameservers etc? Any help is greatly appreciated...

 

[Skylar]

I would say buy a second domain so if your main one is .com get a .net or .ws or something and whne it goes down u go into your registrar such as godaddy and put a domain forwarder on it. DNS can take up to 48 hours to switch over to the new "backup" site so this is rly the only way I can think of doing it

 

[[ih]Demetris]

Nah, it can be done on the same domain..its just a matter of how to set it up..ive seen it a few times just never took the time to get it figured out..

 

[Sitebee]

Host it on a different server!

 

[[ih]Demetris]

Yeah im aware of hosting it on a different server..but my question is with it being on a different server do i need to add additional nameservers, or create a cluster..this way when server one has problems it fails over to the backup server..

 

[Robert]

This is DNS 101. As a web host, I would think you would know this simple answer.

The entire reason why domains require (not much anymore) two nameservers (ns1.xx.com, ns2.xx.com) is because ns1 and ns2 should be hosted on separate servers. This way, when ns1 is down, it directs it to ns2.

There are two solutions to this problem:

1) Create a domain that is hosted elsewhere, that will handle all your support inquiries. This way, your clients know the support website incase they can't access your main site.

2) Sign up with hosting at another web hosting provider (or setup a server elsewhere) with your domain (xsishost.com). Ask the host if they have ns3 and ns4 nameservers. Add ns3.xx.com and ns4.xx.com to your domain. When ns1/ns2 are down, it'll go to ns3/ns4 and so on.

 

[[ih]Demetris]

thats what i thought..i did know that however i wanted to confirm that this was correct before pursuing it further....no need to get all snappy Robert it was a simple question..we could have lived without the "This is DNS 101. As a web host, I would think you would know this simple answer." at any rate thanks for the reply..

This can be locked for information purposes thanks to all

 

[Robert]

Too many web hosts, too many of them no clue what they are doing. Not directly speaking to you, but in general. Often tiresome.