JANET Primary Nameserver Service: Web Administration Interface
Web Administration Interface
Organisations using the JANET Primary Nameserver Service can now request access to a secure web portal to undertake administrative tasks to their zone files.
This will enable the authorised administrators to edit their resource records whenever they need to, and schedule changes outside of normal working hours.
Web Administration additional features
As well as permitting administrators to update their resource records directly, the web administration interface will also offer organisations two additional features:-
Backup nameserver
Organisations can run their own local nameserver, using the JANET nameserver as a slave.
This means that the JANET nameserver would always have a current copy of the customer's zone; so in the event of the local nameserver becoming unavailable, authorised administrators could access the JANET nameserver via the web portal, and assign that to become the customer's Master Nameserver. This will allow customers to update records such as redirecting web traffic to an alternate site. Once the organisation's primary nameserver returns, the customer would then switch the JANET nameserver back to being a slave, and everything should then revert back to the normal state.
Before applying to use this service please contact JANET(UK) to discuss your organisations requirements.
Automatic failover
Setting specially crafted TXT records on the JANET primary nameserver will cause it to monitor the associated IP address. In the event that the monitored IP address becomes inaccessible, it could either drop the address or failover to an alternate address until the original address becomes accessible again.
It is primarily intended for web servers, so that if a site is down traffic to the web servers can be automatically redirected to another site in a reasonably short time.
For further information
Current subscribers of the PNS service who wish to enable the new enhancement please email service@ja.net requesting access to the web administration interface.
If you are currently managing your own DNS services, but would like to discuss how JANET(UK) could help with your DNS resilience plans or additional requirements please contact ansg@ja.net.