Q: Switching connectivity providers and root name server updates

[Chin Fang]

Barry,

[...]

After searching the archive a bit more, I ran into an article in which
you replied another list reader for a similar situation, excerpted
below:

  In article <9mlrgq$4tm at pub3.rc.vix.com>, babu
<babu at crestecdigital.com> wrote:
  >We are going to replace our T1 line with another ISP's T1. So our web

  >servers/sites network/IP addresses will change. Is there anyway we
can get
  >our new T1 line with no down time or least down time of our web
servers? 
  >Because DNS updation takes 2,3 days , what should I do to make the
servers
  >available on the internet.

  You'll have the least downtime if you can run both T1's simultaneously
for
  a short while.  Configure your servers with addresses from both ISP's
  address blocks.  After the new line comes up, change your DNS to give
the
  new server addresses.  Once the TTLs on the old addresses runs out you
can
  shut down the old T1.

In your suggestion above, by "can run both T1's simultaneously" did you
mean

1. running BGP on the router for a while, or 
2. just simply leave one name server on the old T1 (with new IP info of 
   course for zones that it is authoritative) while the rest name
servers 
   are moved to the new T1 on their new IP addresses?

Running BGP regretably is not an option for us, because our existing
connectivity provider went bankrupt sometime ago and no longer has the
in hourse expertise to do this.  Furthermore, our new ISP told us that
our router is not equipped to run BGP (insufficient memory) either.

Nevertheless, if 2. above is what you meant, we are likely to pull it
off.  Setting up a spare router, attaching a swith and an additonal
name server to it, and getting the later into the Registry database
(and thus root servers' glue records) shouldn't be that hard.

Thanks again for your insights and helpful suggestions.

Chin Fang
fangchin at leland.stanford.edu



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