Help to Setup Multiple Website under Webmin

Lfairland on 11/03/2016 - 23:25
Last edited 11/03/2016 - 23:27

Hello,

I'm having few website that I am currently hosting on shared host server, however I have decided to get cloud VPS and host all my website on it.

Here's what I have done so far:

1- installed Ubuntu server 15.10 64-bit
2- Installed Apache server
3- Installed MYSQL server
4- Installed webmin control panel

Webwin Control Panel Side:

I have installed Bind DNS server and Created "Virtual Host" and "Master Zone" for each domain.

Domain Registrar Side:

Normally I would login and change Nameservers under "domain management section"

Example:

let's say my domain registrar is godaddy for domain name: domain_name.com and my hosting company for example is hostcompany101
I will need to change Nameservers to ns1.hostcompany.com and ns2.hostcompany.com

After doing the above Nameserver changes I should be able to have full control over the domain records from hostcomapny101 Cpanel and I can change all DNS records and everything will work nice and smooth.

Problem I'm facing with VPS is to do with Nameserver:

I have configured one of my domain names to be the server domain. e.g. server1.com and I have created my own Nameserver ns1.server1.com and ns2.server1.com using webmin control panel.

Now to get my SERVER domain to work, I needed to login to my domain registrar and ADD DNS A records to point to my VPS IP address. But before I used to just change namerserver, that is understandable as this is the main server domain name.

Next step, I wanted to host all my other domains on my VPS via webmin, as mentioned earlier that I have Created "Virtual Host" and "Master Zone" for each domain.

After doing so, I logged to domain registrar for each domain and I have edited each domain Nameserver from (ns1.hostcompany.com and ns2.hostcompany.com) to (ns1.server1.com and ns2.server1.com) as I always did. As (ns1.server1.com and ns2.server1.com) are my current Nameservers for my VPS where I want all my domains to point to.

Issue:

After changing nameservers, none of my domains are working as (ns1.server1.com and ns2.server1.com) are not resolving for some reason. The only way to get my other domains to work is to add A records and remove my own nameservers from domain registrar control panel which is not what I want.

So how can I get my domains to work with my own nameservers that I have created in webmin?

Thanks

Internet

Comments

scatman00 on 11/03/2016 - 23:52

Hoping someone here can help you out here, but, thinking there may be more relevant places for specific advice like this… (whirlpool and reddit are the first two that come to mind)
scotty on 11/03/2016 - 23:55

+2

It's chicken & egg problem. Basically it is not able to resolve ns1.server1.com and ns2.server1.com, because in order to contact ns1.server1.com, it needs to know ns1.server1.com's IP address. However it cannot known its IP address unless it can contact ns1.server1.com or ns2.server1.com…

Usually registrars is able to let you bind IP address to your name servers (it's called glue records). I haven't used GoDaddy so I am not sure where the options are.
fairland on 12/03/2016 - 01:20

I'm aware of glue records and I have tried that as well 3 days ago and still not working.

My domains are with different registrars and I have tried all of them with no luck.

I have just reinstalled the whole system again from the scratch and still not working
- scotty on 12/03/2016 - 08:30
  
  You cannot just say "still not working". Try some diagnosis.
  
  Check whether your domain's name servers have been updated by the registrar. Use whois to check the name server records.
  
  Check whether your name server is giving you correct ip address for your website. Use host or nslookup to query your name server directly.
  
  If your own name server is giving the right answer, finally check whether your name server is resolvable in the domain name's cascading system. Try to resolve your website's IP directly for example using host or nslookup or dig.
  
  Resolving problems is usually about isolating them into smaller problems and figuring out where went wrong.
fairland on 13/03/2016 - 12:13

Hello Scotty,
Thanks a lot for your help. I'll follow your given steps and let you the outcome.
fairland on 07/04/2016 - 00:02

All working now without any issues. The problem was with my domain registrar as I had to Add DNS A records and wait for few hours before creating Host records (glue records) for domain that is going to be used as server. It was very strange to know that I couldn't do both at same time.

But all good now. Scotty, thank you very much and sorry about late updates as I have been so busy.