How to do dns level redirect multiple servers for same domain?
I have S1 (with ip x.x.x.x) in NY and S2 (with ip y.y.y.y) in SG. My questions are,
Do linode dns nameservers use anycast or unicast? if they use anycast will it resolve my A host based on latency?
If i had entered both ips as A records using Linode DNS manager, will it resolve to the one with less latency for any given visitor? Or will it use only round robin?
I'm considering Azure traffic manager for this purpose, but still this anycast, GeoDns service providers are very confusing. Any suggestions of such similar services (latency based redirection at dns level) at competitive rates?
1 Reply
rgerke
Linode Staff
Great questions!
Do linode dns nameservers use anycast or unicast? if they use anycast will it resolve my A host based on latency?
I have good news for you. Even though the name servers aren't using Anycast right now, it's on our roadmap for this year. Check out our announcement in our blog. Just scroll down to the bottom where we give a sample of our plans for the year:
If i had entered both ips as A records using Linode DNS manager, will it resolve to the one with less latency for any given visitor? Or will it use only round robin?
You can configure your DNS with multiple A records which will give you a similar result to load balancing. If one A record does not respond, or is experiencing high latency, it should try the other. This is explained best in this Stack Exchange post that I found when doing a bit of research on this:
Using multiple A-records for my domain - do web browsers ever try more than one?
You may also want to take a look at our NodeBalancers as they might help you accomplish what you're looking to do.
I'm considering Azure traffic manager for this purpose, but still this anycast, GeoDns service providers are very confusing. Any suggestions of such similar services (latency based redirection at dns level) at competitive rates?
This is something that I, personally, don't have an answer to simply because I've never used a traffic manager. I did a Google search and found some reviews, but without any personal experience I wouldn't want to make a recommendation.
But that's what our Community Questions site is best at - getting in touch with other users who have had experience with things like this and can provide recommendations. That's why I'd like to open this up and encourage other users to chime in with their recommendations here.