A DNS outage is a state of the Domain Name System in which you cannot access web pages with their domain name. Very unpleasant, right? In today’s article, we will look at what causes it and how you can protect yourself from it.

What is the definition of a DNS outage?

Domain Name System is the process that connects domain names to IP addresses. This is a necessary component of the Internet. It’s also one of the most precarious. DDoS and other hacker assaults on DNS servers have the potential to bring down large portions of the Internet. DNS issues are caused by more than just hackers. Hardware problems, database corruption, and networking issues can all cause DNS to go down.

So, when people are unable to connect to an IP address using a domain name, this is known as a DNS outage or DNS downtime. A notice such as “DNS server not available” or “Server DNS Address could not be found” would appear. It’s the equivalent of dialing a phone number and getting a busy signal. There could be a number of reasons for this, but the final effect is a broken link.

What can cause it?

A variety of factors can trigger it. The following are a few examples:

• Human mistake. Don’t be surprised if this happens. Human errors account for the majority of technological errors. For example, someone did not properly configure DNS records. Another messed up a DNS move, and so forth. A variety of issues could cause it.
• Hardware issues. If you use your own DNS server, any hardware failure could bring your server and all of its services to a halt. That is one of the disadvantages of having your own server.
• DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. A Distributed Denial of Service attack is targeted traffic directed at your server or servers with the goal of taking them offline. DDoS attacks have become more common in recent years, and their popularity is only growing. They are also becoming stronger, so the future does not appear to be very rosy in this regard.

Is it possible to prevent a DNS outage?

Yes, it is feasible to avoid DNS downtime. How? You can use the followings methods:

• Make use of Secondary DNS servers. Adding Secondary DNS servers to your DNS network will increase redundancy. This move will result in more copies of your DNS records being saved, and you will be able to control your traffic better. If your primary DNS server goes down, the Secondary DNS servers will respond to your client’s requests.
• Extensive monitoring of the DNS server. Every unusual traffic pattern could indicate something significant. Get a good monitoring program. Some can display information in near-real-time, by region, country, continent, and so on, allowing you to analyze the problem, its source, and respond.
• Make use of DNS load balancing. This is a good way to distribute traffic amongst servers. It takes into account elements such as the number of active connections, connection time, and so on when working. DNS load balancing, which uses two or more servers, manages traffic so that servers have roughly the same amount of work and aren’t sluggish or overworked. It’s an excellent technique to deal with traffic surges, which can be natural or a sign of malware activity. It improves web performance while also preventing security risks and downtime. If one of your servers fails or is hacked, another will handle your clients’ requests.

Conclusion

In closing, the DNS outage is quite harmful and could significantly impact your business. So please don’t wait for it to happen, but safeguard yourself in advance by implementing various protection and monitoring methods.