Is It Necessary to Change NameServers to Host a Website at DigitalOcean?

September 17, 2016 2k views
DNS Configuration Management Networking
Rehan
By:
Rehan

Hello,
Previously, my blog PlainTips.com was hosted on GoDaddy Servers.
Recently I've created a droplet at DigitalOcean. After shifting all the data (files and databases etc.) I've made just one change in my Zone File at my Domain registrar's and I pointed it to the IP address of my newly created droplet. (I didn't touch NameServer Record).

Now, my blog serves content through my newly created droplet @ DigitalOcean. While the current Nameservers record points to;
ns64.domaincontrol.com
ns63.domaincontrol.com

My question is, why do I need to change NameServer when my content is already being served through the new droplet?

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2 Answers
xMudrii September 17, 2016
Accepted Answer

Changing A record to point to Droplet IP is absolutely enough to make it work perfectly.

Changing Nameservers to DigitalOcean is only required if you want to use DigitalOcean Domain management (DigitalOcean Control Panel -> Networking). If you don't want it, be free to keep your current settings. But that means, any change you want to make to domain will have be to done from your Domain register's control panel.

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  • Rehan September 17, 2016

    @xMudrii
    Thanks for taking the time to answer my query.
    While I was looking for an answer, I read the following in a post;

    DNS records can provide a way of building a simple load balancer to distribute site visitors across several IP addresses, each one serving identical content. If more than one IP address is connected to a site, visitors will be sent to one of the connected IP addresses in order.

    Link to The Original Post:
    https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/dns-tips-and-tricks

    It would be highly appreciated if you take a minute to comment on this.
    Thanks! :)

    DNS Tips and Tricks
    by Etel Sverdlov
    This tutorial covers several tips that help a user when setting up DNS. It covers confirming if your DNS records are working with the "whois" and "dig" commands, setting up load balancing, and changing your nameservers seamlessly.
    • xMudrii September 17, 2016

      Hi.

      As tutorial says, it's easy way to setup Load balancer.
      Easy way said, you are making for example 3 droplets with absolutely same content.
      In DNS settings you are adding A records with droplet IP for each droplet.

      With this if one droplet fails (e.g. become unreachable, down, DDoS...), DNS will use second available droplet. If second fails it will use third.

      You don't have to use 3 droplets, you can do it with 2 or even more than 3 if you want Load balancer.

      Also as it says, it is not looking in visitor geography. It will only use other IPs if first is down.

      If you want to look for visitor geography, e.g. you want visitor from USA to download data from NY datacenter, but user from Germany to download from AMS you need bit more complicated Load Balancer usually alongside Content Delivery Networks (CDN). This is used under very high loads and number of visitors to give fast response time.

      This is probably something you don't need right now, I think your blog will work perfect with single droplet.

      If you want to learn more about High Availability concepts I can recommend reading What is High Availability by DigitalOcean

      What is High Availability?
      by Erika Heidi
      With an increased demand for reliable and performant infrastructures designed to serve critical systems, the terms scalability and high availability couldn’t be more popular. While handling increased system load is a common concern, decreasing downtime and eliminating single...
Rehan September 17, 2016

Thanks @xMudrii
Have a Blessed Day! :)

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