Edit DNS Zone

Edit DNS Zone

This feature allows you to edit the records in a domain’s DNS zone file.

Warning:

You must configure your DNS records correctly to allow visitors to access the domains.

To edit a DNS zone or view zone information, select the desired domain from the Choose a Zone to Edit menu and click Edit. A new interface will appear.

Zone and server information

The top of the Edit DNS Zone interface displays the following zone and server information:

  • cPanel first — The cPanel & WHM version and build number on which you created the DNS zone.
  • update_time — The Unix date and time of the last update to the zone file.
  • Cpanel::ZoneFile::VERSION — The zone file version that cPanel & WHM uses.
  • hostname — The server's hostname.
  • latest — The current cPanel & WHM version on the server.
  • Zone file for — The DNS zone's domain.
  • $TTL — The default time to live (TTL), in seconds. This value specifies how long clients cache DNS zone data. 

Edit DNS Zone

The Edit DNS Zone interface displays a table of the domain's DNS entries in the following columns:

  • Domain — The domain name.
  • TTL — The DNS entry's TTL.
  • Record Type — The DNS record type.

Warning

The Class value for each DNS zone must be IN.

Record Type

The following table lists the most common DNS record types:

Record Type
Description
Details
SOA Start of Authority record.

Contains authoritative information. Authoritative information includes the following information, on record with an accredited domain name registrar:

  • The authoritative nameserver’s hostname.
  • The server administrator’s contact email with a period (.) in place of the @ character.
  • The following time-related data:
    • The serial number, which includes the year, month, date, and time at which you last edited the record.
    • The time interval during which clients wait before they refresh zone data.
    • The time interval during which clients wait before they try again after a failed refresh attempt.
    • The time interval after which the record is no longer authoritative.
    • The minimum TTL.
NS Nameserver record. Specifies the hostname that clients use to search for the domain.
A IPv4 address record. Matches the domain name to an IPv4 address. 
AAAA IPv6 address record. Matches the domain name to an IPv6 address.
MX   Mail Exchange record. Matches the domain name to a list of servers that handle mail for the domain, and tags each server with a priority (the highest priority is 0).
CNAME Canonical name record.

Matches the domain name to an alias.

Add entries

Use the empty text boxes below the Add New Entries Below this Line heading to add new entries to the DNS zone.

Warning:

You must configure your DNS records correctly to allow visitors to access the domains.

After you enter the desired information, click Save.

Set a separate IP address for the domain and mail server

If you change the IP address of the domain's A record, your mail server's IPv4 address also automatically changes. This occurs because the standard zone template uses a CNAME record to point the mail server to the domain's A record.

To assign a different IPv4 address to the mail server, perform the following steps:

  1. Change the MX record value to mail.$domain., where $domain. represents the domain. For example, change example.com. to mail.example.com.

    Important:

     You must include the trailing period after mail.example.com. 

  2. Select CNAME from the Record Type menu.
  3. Click Save.

To change the zone template so that all new domains create MX records that assign your mail server a different IP address, use WHM's  Edit Zone Templates  interface ( Home >> DNS Functions >> Edit Zone Templates ).

Email Routing

You can select any of the following Email Routing settings for your mail exchangers:

Setting
Description
Automatically Detect Configuration

Select this setting to allow the system to choose the most appropriate Email Routing setting, based on a query of the MX record.

The system queries the MX record and uses the following criteria to determine the Email Routing setting:

  • If the lowest priority mail exchanger points to an IP address on this server, the system selects the Local Mail Exchanger setting.
  • If a mail exchanger with a higher priority points to an IP address on this server, the system selects the Backup Mail Exchanger setting.
  • If there are no mail exchangers that point to an IP address on this server, the system selects the Remote Mail Exchanger setting.

Note:

The system cannot perform automatic detection for this setting if the MX entry does not resolve (for example, if you mistype a domain name or enter one that does not exist). If the MX entry does not resolve and the Email Routing setting is Automatically Detect Configuration, the system generates a warning and defaults to the last known Email Routing setting.
Local Mail Exchanger Select this setting to cause the server to always accept mail for the domain.
Backup Mail Exchanger Select this setting to cause the server to accept mail for the domain and store it until a higher priority (lower number) mail server becomes available.
Remote Mail Exchanger

Select this setting to cause the server to never accept mail for the domain.

Note:

The system always assigns the lowest priority value to Remote Mail Exchanger mail servers
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