Custom nameservers and multiple reseller accounts

[Adam315]

Perhaps this is out of the scope of WHM/cPanel but I thought I would ask.

OK, Let's say I have 3 cpanel reseller accounts, with 3 different providers. I would be using WHMCS to manage the distribution/signup of accounts.

each reseller has their own namerservers of course, so for example:

ns1.reseller1.com, ns2.reseller1.com
ns1.reseller2.net, ns2.reseller2.net
ns1.reseller3.org, ns2.reseller3.org

What I would like to do, if possible, is connect those 3/6 nameservers together, under my own private nameservers, for example

ns1.mynewhost.com, ns2.mynewhost.com

and then I would like the cpanel account instructions on all 3 resellers, to use just those 2 nameservers, instead of the reseller nameservers (which would still work, but "hidden"/not disclosed).

Is this possible?

can I "join" the nameservers?

 

[Jcats]

Unfortunately no, there would be no way for you to sync the DNS zones between the servers like a cluster which is what you need.

Even if you were to say purchase 2 small VPS and install cPanel DNS ONLY, you still couldn't sync them because you need root level access to WHM so you could add the clustered DNS servers into each cPanel server so they can sync up.

If you did go that route, you would literally need to manually adjust every DNS change by hand, there would be no automation.

What you are looking to do is only possible if you had root access to each server, so for now you would have to have 3 different sets of nameservers, each set per reseller account.

I would probably distinguish them some how to help lessen the confusion for your customers like if you have each reseller account at a different location you could do something like

chi01.reseller.com
chi02.reseller.com

ny01.reseller.com
ny02.reseller.com

ca01.reseller.com
ca02.reseller.com

etc etc

 

[Adam315]

Thanks!

Your suggestion is similar to how i currently have it planned, but in terms of vanity it is a little less desirable, but workable.

Why is this a root only option in WHM, security risks? a real shame.

 

[Jcats]

So I was just looking at the ACL lists and apparently you can grant a reseller access to DNS cluster however I don't honestly think your host will, I would give your hosts support a quick shout and see if they would. If all 3 hosts will grant you that ability then you actually could host your own DNS cluster, and link each WHM to that cluster, but will require your host granting you that ability as a reseller.

 

[Jcats]

Yeah nevermind, I just tested on one of our servers, it actually gives the reseller the ability to modify the cluster setup as the root user so that would be no bueno, I am afraid you are SOL without root access.

 

[cPanelLauren]

Hi @Adam315

Why is this a root only option in WHM, security risks? a real shame.

Any cPanel user can add an A record, as long as they're able to add DNS records (Zone Editor). The only records cPanel Users can't create through the Zone Editor are NS records this is because only the Administrator should have access to create Nameservers on the server.

Yeah nevermind, I just tested on one of our servers, it actually gives the reseller the ability to modify the cluster setup as the root user so that would be no bueno, I am afraid, you are SOL without root access.

As far as the UI for that goes, it's kind of an all or nothing thing, using the API token you can restrict the token to just allowing DNS cluster modification, but it still allows modifications of the cluster setup.