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Perhaps I am totally over thinking this but I have a domain name and name servers that are working just fine. I want to transfer the one domain name that I have for my server which is also the name of the nameserver.

e.g.

mydomain.com

with nameservers

ns1.mydomain.com ns2.mydomain.com

I am transfering the mydomain.com from the current registrar to the one I use for all my other domains. The question is what do I have to update? Once the transfer is complete mydomain.com will have ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com as it's nameservers as it is today. I was wondering though how ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com are resolving if mydomain.com is pointing to ns1 and ns2. Am I over thinking this or am I missing something in the process here? I always just enter the nameserver names when I configure any domains on my server. Do I have to setup A records somewhere for ns1 and ns2 ?

Mech
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3 Answers3

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Key item: Since you are only changing your registrar and not the underlying IP addresses associated with your nameservers, this move is transparent.

Be sure to enter glue records (nameserver + IP) at your new registrar. If you are using a primary registrar, I typically see this information show up in the root servers within 5 minutes.

Use a tool like http://www.intodns.com/

To confirm things are working as they should.

If your nameserver IPs are changing, then you have other issues to handle, but for a registrar change with no underlying DNS record changes - it is transparent.

jeffatrackaid
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  • I think the glue record is the piece I was missing. I just looked that term up and that glue record now makes perfect sense. Thank you! – Mech Nov 18 '11 at 18:56
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You would want to point your servers to another name server I think, because once they move to registrar they would no longer be serving DNS correct? Just dumb records. I think it's probably safer to rename your domain.internal something though and point to internal dns. Depends on how you were serving DNS on the original servers though.

LowWalker
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  • I have no idea which is why I'm asking the question. The DNS server is not moving, only the registrar. – Mech Nov 18 '11 at 16:07
  • Well depending on if internally you need to hit those externals you still might need to add a DNS record, but you should be good :) – LowWalker Nov 18 '11 at 16:10
  • these are ALL external servers, none are internal. – Mech Nov 18 '11 at 16:15
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****EDIT:** It turns out I'm completely wrong. See the comments. I'd delete this, but I imagine other people might think the same thing I did in answering it, so I'll leave it as a cautionary tale.**

That's an interesting exercise in recursion.

If I understand your question correctly:

You want mydomain.com to have ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com as its nameservers?

That will not work. You can't have a nameserver in the same domainspace as the domain name.

It's a chicken/egg scenario. When you run a DNS lookup, eventually the nameservers are queried. If ns1.mydomain.com is the nameserver for mydomain.com, how do you ever get a lookup for ns1.mydomain.com? That is - something has to tell you what the IP address is for ns1.mydomain.com so that you can query it. If ns1.mydomain.com is where you have to go to get the IP address for ns1.mydomain.com, how does ns1.mydomain.com ever resolve in the first place?

Generally your nameservers need to be in different namespace than the domain they're hosting.

Driftpeasant
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    Circular dependencies are handled through glue records. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System#Circular_dependencies_and_glue_records It is quite common for domain.com and nameservers to share the same domain. – jeffatrackaid Nov 18 '11 at 16:32
  • I learn something new every day. Thanks for the update. I would not have thought that'd work. – Driftpeasant Nov 18 '11 at 16:49
  • +1 for being open enough to admit you were incorrect and leaving it for others to learn from. That's a lesson for all of us. – joeqwerty Nov 19 '11 at 05:01