Skip to content

One server in Amsterdam, want failover to Frankfurt

DNS failover swaps records when a healthcheck fails. Not real-time HA, but good for minutes-of-downtime.

Try this first

  1. 1Lower TTL to 60-120 on the A record being failed over
  2. 2Configure healthcheck (HTTP, TCP) at a DNS host with failover support (Route53, NS1, Cloudflare paid)
  3. 3Set primary plus secondary IP with failover policy
  4. 4Test by deliberately killing primary, log the switchover time

When to bring us in

For sub-second failover, use anycast plus a load balancer, not DNS.

See also

None of the above fits?

Describe your situation below. We pass your input plus the steps you already saw to our AI and return tailored next-step advice. If it's too risky to DIY, we'll say so.

Who are you?

For the AI question we need your email and company, so we can follow up if the AI gets stuck, and to prevent abuse.

Limited to 2 questions per hour and 5 per day, kept lean so the AI stays useful. For more, contacting us directly works better for you and us.

Or skip the DIY entirely

Our Managed IT clients do not look these things up. One point of contact, a fixed monthly price, resolved within working hours.