Revise default DNS template values to meet RFC recommendations

[sneader]

Current DNS templates use the following values by default:

SOA value (86400)
Refresh (86400)
Retry (7200)
Expire (3600000)
Minimum TTL (86400)

And for the individual DNS records:
NS (86400)
A, MX, CNAME (14400)

We have noticed that some DNS checking utilities will say that our customers have DNS problems because the values we are using for some of the above settings are not meeting RFC recommendations.

For example, the Minimum TTL value... RFC2308 suggests a value of 1-3 hours, however the default is 24 hours. Another example, for the SOA Expire value, RFC1912 suggests 2-4 weeks, however the default value of 3600000 is well over 5 weeks (41 days).

Can someone at cPanel review the RFCs and then revise the default DNS values in all of the appropriate DNS templates? This would only affect new cPanel server installs.

Next... there should be a way to notify existing customers about the new default templates, so that cPanel server admins can decide if they want to implement the new values into their customized templates (I think that is how it would work? ) Or perhaps during upcp it would analyze all DNS templates and at least log a message that there are values being used that do not meet RFC recommendations (this would be more work and perhaps not necessary)

I am interested in input on this from other cPanel admins.

- Scott

[crazyaboutlinux]

hhhmmmm nice thought +1

[Es Cendol]

Bumped old thread...

+1 and Agree, the DNS record must be configurable or updated

for SOA Expire I update it from default cpanel value to 2419200 (4 weeks) and it looks OK for many dns checker...

[Kent Brockman]

This would be interesting. Bumping to check for votes? You have my +1

[Legin76]

Another +1

[Astral God]

Completely agree!

+1

[NetMantis]

Fortunately cpanel let's you update the default template for both root and resellers so one of the very first things I do whenever setting up a brand new Cpanel server is go in and replace all the DNS templates.

That said, it would be very nice if Cpanel were actually already pre-shipped in the installed with those changes.

The following is the default values that I typical I have in most of the DNS templates I setup:

Refresh (7200)
Retry (900)
Expire (604800)
Minimum TTL (3600)

[pmc]

I updated templates for my server manually today and thought the same thing.

+1

[electric]

Personally, I think the existing (current) default values are ok.

The only "problem" is when a customer (typically a reseller or power user who thinks they know a lot) will plug their domain into something like intodns.com and then sees a bunch of WARNING WARNING ALERT ALERT "errors"... and then the customer contacts our support with a priority #1 ticket to tell us we misconfigured their DNS.

[sneader]

Personally, I think the existing (current) default values are ok.

The default values violate RFC standards. I respectfully disagree that they are OK.

- Scott

[electric]

The RFC standard, in this case, for some of the values, are too low or too high for a typical shared hosting DNS setup.

The average shared hosting customer does not need a SOA of 2 week. It just creates more work for the DNS server.

Just because it is RFC "standard" does not mean it is absolutely correct for every person's situation.

The only real reason why changing these would be to avoid confusion by a customer when they don't know what the values actually mean and they see some "test" (like intodns.com) tells them the value is "wrong".

Why should they make the SOA for their DNS to 2 weeks when they haven't even changed their DNS in 2 years?

[activa]

+1 for this feature .

also we need bach script to update all the existin dns zone in the server to the new value .

[LeadDogGraphics]

Im in on this +1

- - - Updated - - -

Im in on this +1

[spaceman]

+1 from me on this one

[LeadDogGraphics]

Ya know, it is such an easy update, why they just don't do it, Lord only knows.