Question

What are the usage scenarios of Openprovider DNS servers?

Answer

When using Openprovider nameservers, you can use them either as master (DNS zone will be created and managed on Openprovider DNS servers) or as a slave (DNS zone will be created on your own or a 3rd party DNS server and a copy of the records from master server will be copied to Openprovider DNS servers via AXFR transfers (a special automatic updating mechanism).

The Master DNS server (primary DNS server) is a server that stores the original copies of all zone records. In contrast, a slave DNS server (secondary DNS server) is just a backup server that uses a special automatic updating mechanism (AXFR transfers) to communicate with the master server to maintain an identical copy of data similar to the master server. 

Master configuration (default)

When registering or transferring-in a domain name with Openprovider, one can choose to use Openprovider nameservers. If you do not have your own DNS servers and just need to host the DNS zones of your domains registered with Openprovider, you can choose the master DNS zone type.

In case a DNS zone for the domain that is being registered does not yet exist, a master zone will be created automatically based on the selected template.

NB: Master zones can be created before domain registration/transfer-in.

Slave configuration

The purpose of the DNS slave-master configuration is to improve the reliability and availability of DNS services. By having multiple servers distributing the workload and serving as backups, it helps ensure that DNS resolution for a domain remains uninterrupted even if one of the servers fails or goes offline. It also helps distribute the DNS traffic across multiple servers, improving the overall performance and response times for DNS queries. If you already have your own DNS server or a 3rd party DNS server for hosting DNS zones of your domains, you may add Openprovider nameserver as a slave DNS server. You can find instructions to configure Openprovider nameserver as a slave DNS server here.

Slave zones have to be created prior to domain registration since record synchronization between Openprovider and one's master server can take up to a minute.

NB: it is not possible to run one's own slave nameserver and use Openprovider as a master nameserver. In order to support such a configuration, Openprovider would have to open its master nameserver, including all DNS zones that it stores.