Please advise if it is possible to get the DNS to automatically redirect
traffic to an alternate IP address if the main production IP address is not
available?

I am considering this as a Disaster Recovery failover solution in the hopes
that the application can continue to call the production database server, but
should that become unavailable, the DNS will redirect requests to the hot
standby database server seamlessly.

I had a look at "Netmask Ordering" (Roundrobin isn't applicable), but with
my limited understanding of networking and DNS, there doesn't appear to be
control over the order in which IP addresses are returned, where I would need
traffic to ALWAYS go to the production database server until it fails, then
redirect to the IP address of the hot standby database server.

Our DNS and Active Directory is on Windows 2003.

Adrian wrote:
> Please advise if it is possible to get the DNS to automatically
> redirect traffic to an alternate IP address if the main production IP
> address is not available?
>
> I am considering this as a Disaster Recovery failover solution in the
> hopes that the application can continue to call the production
> database server, but should that become unavailable, the DNS will
> redirect requests to the hot standby database server seamlessly.
>
> I had a look at "Netmask Ordering" (Roundrobin isn't applicable), but
> with my limited understanding of networking and DNS, there doesn't
> appear to be control over the order in which IP addresses are
> returned, where I would need traffic to ALWAYS go to the production
> database server until it fails, then redirect to the IP address of
> the hot standby database server.
>
> Our DNS and Active Directory is on Windows 2003.

DNS cannot do what you would like, it can only resolve names to addresses
and addresses to names and return records the querier asks for. It would
have to be up to the application DNS delivers the record to, to decide what
to do with the answer DNS provides.
If you could get you application to query for an SRV or MX record and
connect to the servers based on the weight or priority of the record, then
you could create those records in DNS.

--
Best regards,
Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
Hope This s
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Thanks Kevin

"Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]" wrote:

> Adrian wrote:
> > Please advise if it is possible to get the DNS to automatically
> > redirect traffic to an alternate IP address if the main production IP
> > address is not available?
> >
> > I am considering this as a Disaster Recovery failover solution in the
> > hopes that the application can continue to call the production
> > database server, but should that become unavailable, the DNS will
> > redirect requests to the hot standby database server seamlessly.
> >
> > I had a look at "Netmask Ordering" (Roundrobin isn't applicable), but
> > with my limited understanding of networking and DNS, there doesn't
> > appear to be control over the order in which IP addresses are
> > returned, where I would need traffic to ALWAYS go to the production
> > database server until it fails, then redirect to the IP address of
> > the hot standby database server.
> >
> > Our DNS and Active Directory is on Windows 2003.
>
> DNS cannot do what you would like, it can only resolve names to addresses
> and addresses to names and return records the querier asks for. It would
> have to be up to the application DNS delivers the record to, to decide what
> to do with the answer DNS provides.
> If you could get you application to query for an SRV or MX record and
> connect to the servers based on the weight or priority of the record, then
> you could create those records in DNS.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
> Hope This s
> ===================================
> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group"
> via your newsreader so that others may learn and
> benefit from your issue, to respond directly to
> me remove the nospam. from my email address.
> ===================================
> http://www.lonestaramerica.com/
> http://support.wftx.us/
> http://message.wftx.us/
> ===================================
> Use Outlook Express?... Get OE_Quotefix:
> It will strip signature out and more
> http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/
> ===================================
> Keep a back up of your OE settings and folders
> with OEBackup:
> http://www.oe.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
> ===================================
>
>
>

Try dnscmd.exe from the NT 4 resource kit.

JayJay

"Adrian" <Adrian@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
newsC8584F6-2AEA-4D56-9DCB-15372E802B2A@microsoft.com...
> Please advise if it is possible to get the DNS to automatically redirect
> traffic to an alternate IP address if the main production IP address is
not
> available?
>
> I am considering this as a Disaster Recovery failover solution in the
hopes
> that the application can continue to call the production database server,
but
> should that become unavailable, the DNS will redirect requests to the hot
> standby database server seamlessly.
>
> I had a look at "Netmask Ordering" (Roundrobin isn't applicable), but with
> my limited understanding of networking and DNS, there doesn't appear to be
> control over the order in which IP addresses are returned, where I would
need
> traffic to ALWAYS go to the production database server until it fails,
then
> redirect to the IP address of the hot standby database server.
>
> Our DNS and Active Directory is on Windows 2003.
>