This document covers the following topics:

• Adding Domains for Third Level Hosting
• Adding Instant Alias Templates
• Adding custom DNS records

Adding Domains for Third Level Hosting

To add a domain for third level hosting, you need to create a DNS zone. You must have at least one DNS zone in your system. To add a DNS zone, do the following:

1. Select DNS Manager in the E.Manager menu:

   

2. Click the Add DNS Zone link:

   

3. Enter zone name and zone administrator e-mail and choose whether to allow third level domain hosting in this zone:

   

   • Name: the name of the DNS zone you are going to create. If this domain name is not yet registered, don't forget to register it with a domain registration company.
   • Admin e-mail: the e-mail address of this DNS zone administrator.
   • Allow third level domain hosting: allow the creation of lower level domains in this DNS zone.
   • Master/slave server: available only for service DNS zones - allows you to choose and appoint a master and a slave server. The information is backed up every hour.
4. After you submit the form, the new zone appears in the DNS Manager table:

   

5. Click the EDIT icon to go to the DNS zone management page. Here you can add DNS records and instant alias templates and DNS records to your DNS zone:

   

Adding Instant Alias Templates

Instant Alias Templates are used to generate Instant Aliases, temporary addresses providing immediate access to users' domains from the Internet. They are usually helpful when the DNS servers worldwide are being refreshed and the site is temporarily unavailable at the regular domain name.

Creating an instant alias template will automatically add one or more A-DNS records to your service zone. These records resolve all your logical servers.

To add an instant alias template, click the Add instant alias link. This will open the following form to fill out:

• Prefix: instant alias prefix that will appear on the left to the domain part in user's instant domain alias. Different prefixes should be set if you use different shared IP tags. Other than that, it is recommended to use one and the same prefix (e.g. u for all instant alias templates).
• Shared IP tag: a digital "mark" that helps separate sites within one plan on one logical server. All sites located on the same logical host under the same plan are usually assigned to the same shared IP. This feature allows to give a different shared IP to a group of sites of, say, explicit nature. This may become necessary as many corporate firewalls filter sites based on their IP, not the domain name.

  Normally, you are expected to have devoted one IP address for each shared IP tag. To use a shared IP tag, you need to have it defined for every logical host. Numbers 10 to 99 are acceptable. The default value of 2 is assigned when the field is submitted being empty.

After you have added an instant alias with a shared IP tag, you are taken back to the list of instant aliases. The new instant alias template has appeared in the list. This means the system has added all necessary DNS records to the DNS zone.

Adding Custom DNS Records

To add a custom DNS record, select the DNS zone by clicking the corresponding Edit icon:

You will be taken to the DNS records page:

The upper part of the table lists the existing DNS A records in the selected DNS zone.

The lower part of the table appears only when the DNS zone does not contain A records for some logical servers. It lists these logical servers with their IP's. To add a logical server to the DNS zone, click the Add button. You can add all these servers to the DNS zone by clicking the Add records to all listed logical servers link at the bottom of the table.

You can add one of the following types of DNS records:

• A records to map domain names and web server IP's.
• MX records to map domain names and their mail server IP's.
• CNAME records to map aliases with domain names.

To add a custom DNS record, go to the zone management page and select the record type from the drop-down list. Then click the Go button:

• Adding custom A records

An A record gives you the IP address of a domain. That way, users that try to go to www.mydomain.com will get to the right IP address.

To add a new DNS A record, you need to provide a set of parameters:



• Name: the string appended to the domain name to create a FQDN mapped to the IP. For example, if your domain name is besthosting.com, entering cp will make the fully qualified domain name cp.besthosting.com.
• TTL: seconds to elapse before the record is refreshed in the provider's DNS cache.
• Data: the IP address that fully qualified domain name will be mapped to. You can get this IP address with any ping utility.


• Adding custom MX records

Adding MX records is similar to adding A records:



In case of MX records, the Data field contains the preference and the mail domain name. If you leave the Name field blank, all mail will be redirected to this zone.

WARNING: Please pay attention to $ORIGIN when you add an MX record.

• Adding custom CNAME records

If you have selected CNAME record, the following page appears:



In the case of CNAME records, the values have the same format as in the A record with the exception of the Data field. In the Data field you have to enter the name of the server to which you are creating the alias record.

WARNING: Please pay attention to $ORIGIN when you add a CNAME record.

The DNS records you create appear on the zone management page: