Knowledgebase

Overview:

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

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.
• _updatetime — 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.

Record Type

• SOA (Start of Authority record) - Contains authoritative information. Authoritative information includes the following information:
  • 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 that the record remains valid after clients refresh the zone data.
  • The minimum TTL.
• NS (Nameserver record) - Identifies a domain’s authoritative DNS servers.
• A (IPv4 address record) - Matches a domain name to an IPv4 address.
• AAAA (IPv6 address record) - Matches a domain name to an IPv6 address.
• MX (Mail Exchange record) - Identifies the servers that handle mail for a domain. A preference number for each MX record determines in which order other mail servers use a domain’s mail servers.
  Note:

  A lower preference number indicates a higher priority. A preference number of 0 indicates the highest priority.
• CNAME (Canonical name record) - Matches a domain name to an alias.
• CAA (Certificate Authority (CA) Authentication) - Controls which CAs can issue SSL certificates for a domain.
  Important:

  • We strongly recommend that you add CAA records in this interface or via the following WHM API 1 functions:

    • addzonerecord
    • editzonerecord

  The system stores these records in the RFC 3597 format. You can only add CAA records directly to your DNS zone file if you use the BIND nameserver.

  • MyDNS does not support CAA records.

  • If no CAA records exist for a domain, all CAs can issue certificates for that domain. If conflicting CAA records already exist, remove the existing CAA records or add one for the desired CA.

  • For example, a CAA record for Sectigo would resemble the following example, where example.com represents the domain name:

    example.com. 86400 IN CAA 0 issue "sectigoca.com"
    

    For more information about a CA’s requirements, read their documentation.

Add entries

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

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 (WHM >> Home >> DNS Functions >> Edit Zone Templates).

Configure email routing

To configure how your server routes mail for the selected domain, perform the following steps:

1. Select one of the following options under Configure Email Routing:

   • Automatically Detect Configuration — The system uses the following criteria to configure the email routing settings:
   • Local Mail Exchanger — The lowest numbered mail exchanger points to an IP address on this server.
   • Backup Mail Exchanger — The lowest numbered mail exchanger points to an IP address not on this server.

   • Remote Mail Exchanger — No mail exchangers point to an IP address on this server.

     Note:

     If the configured Mail Exchange (MX) records do not resolve, automatic detection will not occur.

      

   • Local Mail Exchanger — The server always accepts mail for this domain. The system will deliver mail to the local mailbox.

     Note:

     Choose this option if your server uses smart hosts or another gateway service to filter mail.

      

   • Backup Mail Exchanger — The server functions as a backup mail exchanger. The system will hold mail for this domain until a lower number mail exchanger becomes available.

     Note:

     You must configure the primary MX record to point to the appropriate exchanger.

      

   • Remote Mail Exchanger — The server will not accept mail for this domain. The system sends all mail for this domain to the lowest numbered mail exchanger.

     Note:

     You must configure the primary MX record to point to the appropriate exchanger.

      

2. Click Change.