Redundant Hosting...

[PNWDweller]

This is sort of a easy question if you know what to do, but since I am not sure, I wanted to ask here since someone might know. :)

I am hosting a VPS right now with a company that the last couple of weeks has had some down time which was not their fault. Basically, their Data Center kicked them offline due DOS attack on one of their clients. This forced them to have to relocate with another Data Center which for their needs, they found across the country from them and shipped the servers there. This caused 5 days of downtime for a couple of my sites and the rest were online due to their customer service letting me use a different server which was shared on a different DC but was for small traffic.

Currently, they are still experencing some bad luck right now with their server and new DC. Downtime has been very sporatic this last week but Uptime has thankfully been very snappy and good in the mean time.

I want to know what I would need to do to point a domain to two different servers using my main host now as the master, but if it is down, then move on to the next server. I have tried pointing domains to 4 diffent Name Servers, with the first two being mine at the host and then #3 and #4 being a different hosting company/server, but no matter what - if Server A is down, it doesn't roll over to Server B. So, I am almost 100% certain that is wrong.

I want to keep my sites up and at least running while they get the 'bugs' worked out with the new DC and am willing to wait a bit since I can't find any better value and customer service combined with them. :)

[remixedcat]

looking for a new hosting provider for the long term?? I can help

[CrispCreations]

The simplest solution would be to use the DNS servers that you have set up which aren't hosted by your main host (can't change 'em if your main host goes down), and then, in the case of main host being down, change the DNS records to point to the second server. Change back when the main host comes back up.

There'll be a delay whilst the DNS propagates the changed IP so you should set your DNS records TTL to something suitably low to account for this possibility to minimise downtime.

Hosting wise, you'd need a web host that provides failover (or fallback) hosting in the same manner. Be aware though, some hosts advertising such a service just have a backup or VM in the same datacenter which can move between servers, if the DC goes down though, as you know your site goes with it, so look for a host that duplicates your data to another server in another DC entirely.

[PNWDweller]

My current host is working on a fall-over product so until then, needing something interim. I have been looking at dnsmadeasy for their services, but have to do some further reading on them later today after work. They might be a good interim. Just not a big fan of using their nameservers in place of mine. I prefer to have mine for a more professional look instead of ns1.dnsmadeasy.com or whatever it is. :)

Looking at other forums around the web last night, someone mentioned a heartbeat server to monitor failures, then redirect traffic to backup server. I am guessing this would be dnsmadeeasy's function.

[simsie]

Although I've never used it I've heard good things about cloudflare.

[PNWDweller]

I use Cloudflare for some of my sites. VERY good for when this happens, but you have to change the IP by yoursellf if you want to redirect, otherwise, they give a "Site offline" and a cached version of it.

[remixedcat]

what is your current host and what are they charging you?

[PNWDweller]

I will PM you with the detals as I don't want to give their name out or info for various reasons.