Re: Internet presence during a disaster

[Graham Toal <gtoal () UTPA EDU>]

> To activate the server we would change the registration for
> our main web server to the IP address of the provider so that
> anyone going to www.su.edu would be directed to the off site server.

You have to be careful when you do that - currently you will have
one master DNS server which holds the zone files, and several
secondary DNS servers which fetch your zone file on the fly.

Assuming your primary DNS server is in the disaster area and
also offline, what needs to be done is that you manually contact
your backup DNS admins and ask them to discontinue secondary
service and for a time become primary servers, with a pre-prepared
cut-down zone file which you supply them in advance.  *Do not*
rely on them making edits to the automatically fetched file from
the secondary mechanism.

Since this switchover is an activity that if abused could take your
campus down at any other time, you need to tell the remote DNS admins
exactly under what circumstances they should put up the temporary
primary zone file.  I'ld recommend giving them a password that you
could quote on the telephone when you call them.

Also if you are very brave, you might give them instructions to kick
in the zone file if they are aware of a major disaster in your
area, and your network has been unreachable for a certain period
of time (such as 2 days) and they have not heard from you (as *all*
communications may be down).


Graham