Tips and Tricks

Tip

Propagating DNS records HostingDirector relies on standard Bind to manage its DNS. Therefore, DNS updates are propagated using the bind infrastructure, which typically updates only once every 12 hours.

Some hosting providers want to provide a faster turnaround for propagating changes to the DNS records. This can be accomplished simply by changing the default refresh time from 12 hours to a shorter timeframe (e.g. 2 hours).

Trick

1. Run the DomainDirector management utility :dnsmutil (typically in /usr/local/DomainDirector/bin)

2. Select option 2 Set BIND Refresh Time from the menu.

3. Adjust to the desired timeframe and the change will take effect immediately.

Words of caution:

(1) Servers with thousands of DNS records may take a minute or two to load. It is recommended you avoid refresh times that are too frequent (e.g. do not set refresh to be every 10 minutes).

(2) It is recommended that your primary and secondary servers do not refresh on exactly the same intervals, so one of them is always available. For example, your primary would refresh at 12:00am and every 4 hours thereafter, while your secondary would refresh at 12:30am and every 4 hours thereafter.