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Date:      Fri, 21 Aug 1998 23:26:29 -0400
From:      Chris Johnson <cjohnson@palomine.net>
To:        isp@FreeBSD.ORG, jack@germanium.xtalwind.net
Subject:   Re: [Q] what happens when 1 of N nameservers dies?
Message-ID:  <19980821232629.A21999@palomine.net>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.02.9808211950150.15050-100000@germanium.xtalwind.net>; from jack on Fri, Aug 21, 1998 at 08:04:48PM -0400
References:  <199808212326.QAA13587@hub.freebsd.org> <Pine.BSF.4.02.9808211950150.15050-100000@germanium.xtalwind.net>

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On Fri, Aug 21, 1998 at 08:04:48PM -0400, jack wrote:
> Looking at a `typical' whois listing :)
> 
> germanium# whois freebsd.org
> 
> [snip]
> 
>    Domain servers in listed order:
> 
>    WHO.CDROM.COM                204.216.27.3
>    NS1.CRL.COM                  165.113.1.36
>    NS2.CRL.COM                  165.113.1.37
>    NS1.IAFRICA.COM              196.7.0.139
>    NS2.IAFRICA.COM              196.7.142.133
> 
> WHO.CDROM.COM is configured as the primary server for the domain,
> all others are configured as secondary servers.
> 
> When a DNS server at someother.domain wants to find
> www.freebsd.org's IP address it will first query WHO.CDROM.COM,
> if that fails it will try NS1.CRL.COM, if that also fails it will
> try NS2.CRL.COM, if that fails .....

That's not the case. To the outside world, all listed name servers are
considered equal -- there's no concept of primary and secondary. Primariness
and secondariness matter only to the administrator: a primary is where the data
live, and secondaries load their data from a primary. Any listed name server is
considered to be as authoritative as any other.

In BIND 8.1.x, they're not even called primary and secondary any more --
they're called master and slave, probably to avoid this confusion.

In the case of FreeBSD.org, the SOA shows that the primary name server is
implode.root.com, which isn't even listed as a name server for the domain. So
all of the listed name servers are secondaries (or slaves).

Chris

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