Topic: DNS resolution with Virtual servers

[Graeme Fleming]

Hi all

Discussed this in passing with Gordon Rowell & he suggested I post this here.

Using SME 5.5 or 5.6.

I have an issue with the DNS resolution methodolgy used by SME & am looking for an elegant (read good) solution - as you will see I have my own (read crude) solution that basically works.

Scenario - I have several clients that have a public domain name that their server hosts EXCEPT for the website (hosted via the ISP).  The websites are on an Apaceh virtual server.

Problem - within SME you can point the www hostname entry to the remote IP address of the system hosting the site BUT this Apache server when addressed this way has a redirect page that sends the user to the ISP homepage; when you try to reach the clients public website the vitual server box just redirects you to the ISP homepage.

Additonal Info - is the www site is deleted from the hostnames then it fails to resolve because the system beleives itself to be authorative for the domain so does not go 'public' for resolution.  If the www entry exists it either reolves locally or to the remote IP.
The DNS server under SME currently operates as a caching server with requests for cache updates being requested from the Root servers.

Solution(s) - insert a forwader entry into the named.conf file (pointing to the ISP's DNS server) and delete the www entry in the hostnames.  As the local system cannot resolve the name itself the request is forwarded onto the ISP DNS server that can resolve the request (this is my crude hack).
Use the Master DNS server entry in the text config screens to force the ISP DNS server to resolve all requests for the local LAN (I suspect this would insert a forwarder only entry into the named.conf); this is not a good solution either.

So right now I am looking for suggestions for a better way to do it; I would also be grateful if someone could come up with the correct template mod to insert the forwader option into the named.conf file as at the moment it just a manual hack.

If ya still reading at least I haven't bored you to death

[Charlie Brady]

Graeme Fleming wrote:

> Problem - within SME you can point the www hostname entry to
> the remote IP address of the system hosting the site BUT this
> Apache server when addressed this way has a redirect page
> that sends the user to the ISP homepage; when you try to
> reach the clients public website the vitual server box just
> redirects you to the ISP homepage.

Two things spring to mind. Either

- there's something wrong with the website content (*), and you won't be the only one with viewing problems

or

- you need to point more than just "www" at the hosting site.

Either way, fiddling with your server's named configuration isn't the right way to fix the problem.

Charlie

(*) A redirect to the ISP's home page would be one such content problem.

[Boris]

Did you try ProxyPass add-on?
It can be used to redirect (correctly) url to another webserver including remote server. I have it done successfuly in the similar situations few times.

[Graeme Fleming]

Thanks for the heads up Boris - I will give it a look.

[Boris]

Where are few versions of ProxyPass contrib. Make sure that you try the one updated by Abe Loveless for SME 5.6