[dns-operations] DNS continuity during registrar transfers (was Re: Enom's name server broken?)

[Mark Jeftovic]

On 13-01-15 11:07 AM, Matthew Pounsett wrote:

>>
>> I think this almost never happens in the real world when domains move
>> from one set of auth nameservers to another. What the losing servers can
>> do is continue to serve the data they have, especially in the case of a
>> registrar transfer because in a lot of cases the zone data will be the
>> same for an overlapping period of time.
> 
> This almost never happens because cooperation between the two service providers is difficult to obtain.  Speaking as a service provider, I've managed to get inter-operator zone transfers happening post-transfer on a small number of occasions (from both sides of the transfer), but only because the customer was large enough to demand it of the other operator when we suggested it.  With smaller customers, and here speaking also as a customer on a few occasions, it's impossible to get both operators to care enough to do the extra work to open up zone transfers between the two organizations.  
>

What can and does happen in many cases though, is the customer can set
this up in advance if the losing provider allows one to setup third
party zone transfers. They can then arrange to grab all their DNS
settings from the losing provider via AXFR.

But if they throw the switch on the RAR transfer *before* they update
the nameserver delegation (a common error), they may find themselves
without any functional DNS before they planned, as the losing RAR and
DNS provider drops the DNS right away (as in the case of Godaddy and
Network Solutions).

- mark


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