A Back Up Host. Is It As Simple As Adding More DNS Entries

Hi,

I have some websites that I would just not want to see inaccessible. So here is an idea:

* I buy hosting at a second host too.
* Keep my files up to date on both hosts.
* With my domain name provider, list the first 2 DNS entries from my preferred host and the next 2 DNS entries from my backup host.

Will that do the trick? Or am I being too naive here?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks
Ajeet

 

• Buy hosting for the exact same domain at two hosts or even the same host at to geographically diverse locations.
• Get an account with http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/ that supports DNS failover
• Setup the DNS for your domain at dnsmadeeasy and configure failover as per their instructions
• Update your domains nameserver records to use those of dnsmadeeasy

If all goes well as one host fails the traffic should get switched to the other server, it's not exactly instant as devices can cache DNS information but it should work.

There are other providers besides dnsmadeeasy so you need to look around and see which fits your budget and requirements best.

If you did what you originally proposed then traffic would be split between the 2 servers, a poor mans load balancer, but if one failed then some people would see the site while others would not.

 

Nice thinking I suppose.
But I'm not sure It will work.

 

You could try looking for a web host that offers fail over hosting. They tend to cost a bit more but then the host manages the fail over.

 

The only things that can stop it working are:

1. User caches old DNS records for longer than they are supposed to but those effects should be limited to a few users or a few ISPs.

2. Databases/files are out of sync between the 2 servers

 

DNS takes about 48 hours to propagate. Even if one host is down, it won't bring most of you to the another host on that instant. Not a bad idea unless you are with a host who can go down for about 48 hours.

 

Wrong, it takes the time you specify in the DNS records, granted if an ISP aggressively caches the DNS it takes whatever time for their clients to get the update.

I've set an A record to 30 and swapped it back and forth between multiple IPs and yes it really does resolve in 30 seconds or less, it all depends on what you configure in your DNS records and if any visitors are with an ISP that's ignoring your TTL values. So assuming everyone uses the values you set in your records then swapping IPs can happen in seconds.