This article describes DNS records of type NS and SOA in detail. A general guide to DNS records and their settings in the customer administration can be found in the article DNS – Domain Records.
In this article, you will learn:
NS Record Types
NS records are commonly used to provide a list of authoritative DNS servers for a given domain or subdomain.
WEDOS supports NS records only for subdomains. If you want to set DNS servers for the main domain, follow the instructions in the article Domains – DNS Servers (NSSET).
Entering NS Records
A general guide to DNS records and their settings in the customer administration can be found in the article DNS – Domain Records.
Before you start setting NS records according to the service provider’s instructions, keep in mind that WEDOS supports NS records only for subdomains. Make changes to authoritative DNS servers according to the instructions Domains – Changing DNS servers (NSSET).
When filling in an NS record, follow these rules:
- Do not leave the name field empty; enter the subdomain name (without the main domain name).
- Enter the DNS server address in the form of a domain name, not an IP address.
- For each address of an authoritative DNS server, enter a separate record.
A general NS record therefore looks like this:
Name TTL Type Data (subdomain name) 300 NS (DNS server address)
SOA Record Type
SOA (Start Of Authority record) is a special record that must appear exactly once in each zone file. It is a kind of header containing the following information:
- MNAME – the name of the primary DNS server for the given zone
- RNAME – the contact for the zone file administrator (an e-mail address with a dot instead of the @ sign)
- SERIAL – the zone serial number (a numeric value indicating the version of the zone file)
- REFRESH – the number of seconds between serial number checks
- RETRY – the number of seconds before another attempt to check the serial number if the previous attempt failed
- EXPIRE – the number of seconds after which the zone whose serial number could not be determined expires (the secondary DNS server should remove it from its records)
- MINIMUM – the current TTL for negative caching (the time caching DNS servers remember that a record does not exist)
SOA Record Settings
The WEDOS administration does not support the SOA record; the system sets it automatically as part of DNS server settings (NSSET).
Frequently Asked Questions
My service provider wants me to enter domain NS records, but WEDOS allows this only for subdomains. What should I do?
You can set the required records by changing the domain DNS servers (NSSET) according to these instructions.
Where can I find the values of the information contained in my domain’s SOA record?
Use a diagnostic tool, for example the external Google Dig ⧉.