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

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:

Code:



; 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:

Code:



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.

Code:



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: pico /etc/host.conf[B]

This file should look like this:

[B]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.