A Beginner's Guide to Name Servers Part-1 (Setting up nameservers in WHM/Cpanel)

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Setting up nameservers in WHM/Cpanel

1. Log into WHM

2. Goto Server Setup =>> Edit Setup

Make sure your primary IP is correct under Main Shared Virtual Host IP

Make sure your Hostname is correct under Hostname (server1.xyz.com)

Under Primary Nameserver enter your primary nameserver (ns1.xyz.com), click on Assign Ip Address, then click on Add A entry for this nameserver

Under Secondary Nameserver enter your secondary nameserver (ns2.xyz.com), click on Assign Ip Address, then click on Add A entry for this nameserver

Note: You can add a third and fourth name server if you wish, however this is not necessary. All name servers will be automatically assigned to any accounts you setup later. You will have to manually disable extra nameservers from each account.

Scroll to the bottom and click Save.


Goto DNS Functions =>> Edit a DNS Zone

Choose the primary domain for the server and click Edit

The beginning of your Zone File should look something like this:

; Zone File for ip-2-ip.net

 
  $TTL 14400
 
  
@     14440     IN SOA     ns1.xyz.com.     admin.xyz.com

In SOA add your primary ns (ns1.xyz.com.) and contact email (admin.xyz.com.). Put a period at the end of your nameserver, and use a period in place of @ in your contact email and add a period at the end too.)


In most cases you should have the following Record Types:

xyz.com.            14440    IN  NS      ns1.xyz.com. 

xyz.com.            14440    IN  NS      ns2.xyz.com.

xyz.com.            14440    IN  A       123.123.123.12 (primary IP Address)

localhost.xyz.com.  14440    IN  A       127.0.0.1

xyz.com.            14440    IN  MX      0          xyz.com.

mail                14440    IN  CNAME   xyz.com.

www                 14440    IN  CNAME   xyz.com.

ftp                 14440    IN  A       123.123.123.13

ns1                 14440    IN  A       123.123.123.12

ns2                 14440    IN  A       123.123.123.13

server1             14440    IN  A       123.123.123.12 (primary IP Address)

If you do not have A records for your Nameservers add them now. If you use Managed DNS for your domain name, also add A records to your domain name with your DNS.

If you made changes to your zone file, scroll down to the bottom and click on Save


Goto DNS Functions =>> Perform a DNS Cleanup


Now log out of WHM and SSH to your server and login as root.

Note: You can download Putty by Clicking Here. It's a clean running application that will not require installation on Windows-boxes.

Once logged in...

At command prompt type: pico /etc/nameserverips

Make sure all of your nameservers are listed

123.123.123.12=ns1.xyz.com
123.123.123.13=ns2.xyz.com
123.123.123.14=0
123.123.123.15=0
123.123.123.16=0

Remove any nameservers that do not belong.

If you make changes to the file, then press the following keys on your keyboard Ctrl o and then Enter to save the file, then Ctrl x to exit.


At command prompt type: pico /etc/resolv.conf

There should only be three records in the resolv.conf file... localhost, primary nameserver, secondary nameserver.

nameserver 127.0.0.1
nameserver 123.123.123.12
nameserver 123.123.123.13

Remove anything else and then save and exit.


At the prompt type: pico /etc/wwwacct.conf

Make sure all of the information is correct. Remove anything that does not belong, save, then exit.

ADDR 123.123.123.12
CONTACTEMAIL admin@xyz.com
CONTACTPAGER
DEFMOD x
ETHDEV
FTPTYPE proftpd
HOMEDIR /home
HOMEMATCH home
HOST server1.xyz.com
LOGSTYLE combined
MINUID
NS ns1.xyz.com
NS2 ns2.xyz.com
ns3
SCRIPTALIAS y
ns4



At the prompt type: pico /etc/named.conf

Scroll down to the bottom of the file to the zone records.

zone "xyz.com" {
        type master;
        file "/var/named/xyz.com.db";
};

Make sure all domain zone records are correct. Remove any zone records that are old or do not belong there. If you make any changes, save and then exit.


At the prompt type: [B]pico /etc/host.conf[B]

This file should look like this:

order hosts,bind


At the prompt type: pico /etc/host

This file should look like this:

-------------------------------------------

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
123.123.123.12 server1.xyz.com server1
127.0.0.1 localhost

-------------------------------------------


Now your done and your nameservers will work like a pro.

[Radio_Head]

I don't have

pico /etc/host

is it required ?

[dgbaker]

It should have read

pico /etc/hosts <-- note the s

Just a typo by the looks of it.

[Radio_Head]

It should have read

pico /etc/hosts <-- note the s

Just a typo by the looks of it.

Thank you !, I have it .
Also if I find strange things inside it , for example togheter with
123.123.123.12 server1.xyz.com server1 I had r-fx r-fx.net (?)

Just a question ...

when I modify /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf it's enough a bind restart
or do I need to restart server ?

Thank you!

[sawbuck]

when I modify /etc/hosts and /etc/resolv.conf it's enough a bind restart
or do I need to restart server ?

/etc/resolv.conf - Bind restart
/etc/hosts - Server reboot

[photonstudios]

Hi,

Everything seems fine in my files except for these two: (they are empty), what should I do?

pico /etc/named.conf

pico /etc/host.conf[B]

Also, when I try to point one of my domains to my hosting using the dns settings that I've setup it says:

Field Validation Error

Please correct the following issue(s):

Unavailable error in field Host name1
Unavailable error in field Host name2

Please Help!

Thanks,

Walter.

[mr.wonderful]

Why would you have

ns1 14440 IN A 123.123.123.12

ns2 14440 IN A 123.123.123.13


In your example? Unless these are subdomains they shouldnt be in the zone file.

[sawbuck]

Have you tried running /scripts/fixnamed?

[damainman]

Have you tried running /scripts/fixnamed?

What exactly does the above script do, and is there a chance it might harm or break anything?

[JP-HOST]

With resolv.conf setup as mentioned above I now get a security warning at the top of WebHost Manager:

Security Warning, your resolver configuration contains 127.0.0.1 (localhost). For security reasons, we recommend that you use a non-local dns resolver. Click here to change your configuration.

Can someone update this so it will be correct? What is resolv.conf supposed to look like now that it is not supposed to have the localhost address in it?

[prepress70]

I am seeing the same error message:

Security Warning, your resolver configuration contains 127.0.0.1 (localhost). For security reasons, we recommend that you use a non-local dns resolver. Click here to change your configuration.

Anyone have suggestions?

Thanks

[000000000]

Security Warning, your resolver configuration contains 127.0.0.1 (localhost). For security reasons, we recommend that you use a non-local dns resolver. Click here to change your configuration.

This securety issue was released after the initial post. Remove "nameserver 127.0.0.1" from /etc/resolv.conf.

[ekhwan]

This guide is just wonderful. Thanks a lot. Where can I find Part 2?

Thanks.

[Vinayak]

Ok what do this Zone Template Editor do, do these Zone Template are the templates to setup new domains on a machine. I am asking this because I just got a new machine where when setting up a new domain every time I have to manually correct its zone otherwise the domain will not show up on the net.

Following are the zone tempaltes on my new machine:

Zone Template: simple

; cPanel %cpversion%
; Zone file for %domain%
$TTL %ttl%
@ %nsttl% IN SOA %nameserver%. %rpemail%. (
%serial% ; serial, todays date+todays
86400 ; refresh, seconds
7200 ; retry, seconds
3600000 ; expire, seconds
86400 ) ; minimum, seconds

%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver%.
%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver2%.
%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver3%.
%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver4%.

%nameserverentry%. IN A %nameservera%
%nameserverentry2%. IN A %nameservera2%
%nameserverentry3%. IN A %nameservera3%
%nameserverentry4%. IN A %nameservera4%

%domain%. IN A %ip%

localhost.%domain%. IN A 127.0.0.1

%domain%. IN MX 0 %domain%.

Zone Template: standard

; cPanel %cpversion%
; Zone file for %domain%
$TTL %ttl%
@ %nsttl% IN SOA %nameserver%. %rpemail%. (
%serial% ; serial, todays date+todays
3600 ; refresh, seconds
3600 ; retry, seconds
1209600 ; expire, seconds
43200 ) ; minimum, seconds

%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver%.
%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver2%.
%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver3%.
%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver4%.

%nameserverentry%. IN A %nameservera%
%nameserverentry2%. IN A %nameservera2%
%nameserverentry3%. IN A %nameservera3%
%nameserverentry4%. IN A %nameservera4%

%domain%. IN A %ip%

localhost.%domain%. IN A 127.0.0.1

%domain%. IN MX 0 %domain%.

mail IN CNAME %domain%.
www IN CNAME %domain%.
ftp IN CNAME %domain%.

Zone Template: standardvirtualftp

; cPanel %cpversion%
; Zone file for %domain%
$TTL %ttl%
@ %nsttl% IN SOA %nameserver%. %rpemail%. (
%serial% ; serial, todays date+todays
86400 ; refresh, seconds
7200 ; retry, seconds
3600000 ; expire, seconds
86400 ) ; minimum, seconds

%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver%.
%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver2%.
%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver3%.
%domain%. %nsttl% IN NS %nameserver4%.

%nameserverentry%. IN A %nameservera%
%nameserverentry2%. IN A %nameservera2%
%nameserverentry3%. IN A %nameservera3%
%nameserverentry4%. IN A %nameservera4%

%domain%. IN A %ip%

localhost.%domain%. IN A 127.0.0.1

%domain%. IN MX 0 %domain%.

mail IN CNAME %domain%.
www IN CNAME %domain%.
ftp IN A %ftpip%

These:

%nameserverentry%. IN A %nameservera%
%nameserverentry2%. IN A %nameservera2%
%nameserverentry3%. IN A %nameservera3%
%nameserverentry4%. IN A %nameservera4%

are the entries that I have to clean up from each zone to make a domain visible on the net.

So can any one here post the correct Zone Templates?

Thanks in advance.

[tjfulopp]

Hi,

I am sweating blood trying to get my primary domain and its nameservers work... see what dnsreport.com says about fulopp.org (a timeout occurred getting the NS records from your nameservers), it's hopeless! Internally, I can ping all domains, named starts all right, I did a DNS cleanup a million times, no help. I really don't see what's wrong... do you, anybody?

Strange, it seems I can also ping ns1.fulopp.org and ns2.fulopp.org but I cannot ping fulopp.org directly! Why???

Vinsar, do you mean I should delete something from the zone to get it to work?

Here's the zone (I just changed e-mail):

; Modified by Web Host Manager
; Zone File for fulopp.org
$TTL 14400
@ 86400 IN SOA ns1.fulopp.org. my.maildomain.com. ( 2006082210
86400
7200
3600000
86400
)

fulopp.org. 86400 IN NS ns1.fulopp.org.
fulopp.org. 86400 IN NS ns2.fulopp.org.

fulopp.org. 14400 IN A 216.237.127.250

localhost.fulopp.org. 14400 IN A 127.0.0.1

fulopp.org. 14400 IN MX 0 fulopp.org.

mail 14400 IN CNAME fulopp.org.
www 14400 IN CNAME fulopp.org.
ftp 14400 IN A 216.237.127.250
ns1 14400 IN A 216.237.127.250
ns2 14400 IN A 216.237.127.251
mainframe 14400 IN A 216.237.127.250