Managing DNS (Domain Name Server) is part of the scope of work covered in our domain name management services. Our DNS servers are hosted on geographically-dispersed networks, because we’re aware that one’s email and web services can be badly affected once a DNS server goes down.
Each domain name has their own “pointing” recorded in a Zone file hosted in the DNS servers. Those records are used to tell your email where it should be routed and how visitors are to be directed to your website. Besides standard pointing, we do provide additional services such as Failover Support and Critical DNS Servers.
How does the failover service work?
The failover monitoring service works when you have two or more web servers running the same (or similar) website.
1) First, you’ll need the IP address of your domain and get it working. Then you add the failover monitor.
2) The failover monitor watches your web server(s) by hitting a URL you’ve specified and looking for text in the results.
3) When the system detects that one of them has an error, and the others don’t, it pulls the IP address out of the list.
4) If none of the IPs respond, and a failure IP/URL is defined, it points the site to the failure IP/URL
5) If the system can’t get to all of the IPs, then it assumes that the fault is its own connection and it takes no action
6) If any of your IPs come back online, they’ll be restored
This effectively and safely keeps your site online, even if one of your web servers is down. The average failure detection time is 10 minutes, but the time varies depending on the speed of your site and the nature of the failure. Recovery times are faster, averaging 5 minutes.
In a recent case, we helped Infinity Logistics to configure the failover support for their in-house hosted email server. We’re proud to say that it works perfectly now.