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Possible Duplicate:
Testing nameserver configuration using it

I'm thinking of changing from my hosting provider nameservers to Route53 (Amazon's distributed nameserver) for several reasons.

I'm currently setting all records like they are on my current host page (I can see my DNS settings but I cannot change them). Since I'm not used to working with Route53's hosted zones, is there a way I can test the new nameserver resolution settings before updating the domain to point to the new nameserver?

For example, I'm not sure if the last dot in CNAME records is necessary or not...

Community
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CodeShining
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3 Answers3

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Use dig

dig mydomainname.example @mynewnameserver.example
Patrick Mevzek
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Ben Lessani
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You can easily do that using nslookup, the process is next:
1) Enter nslookup
2) Run server $YourDNSServerName where $YourDNSServerName is the one of the DNS servers responsible for your zone at Route53 like nslookup ns-131.awsdns-16.com
3) From there just enter your records and see the responses.

Logic Wreck
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  • Thanks, it works!! Can you please help me to understand what should i set for these records? @ IN MX 1 aspmx.l.google.com. @ IN MX 5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com. @ IN MX 5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com. @ IN MX 10 aspmx2.googlemail.com. @ IN MX 10 aspmx3.googlemail.com. I should leave the domain blank, am I right? – CodeShining Sep 05 '12 at 17:34
  • yes if you're setting MX records for the domain, the domain should be blank. – Logic Wreck Sep 05 '12 at 17:38
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    Use dig and not nslookup for any serious DNS debugging. nslookup has many known flaws and has been depreciated. http://veggiechinese.net./nslookup_sucks.txt – 3dinfluence Sep 05 '12 at 23:11
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Set up your name server and then configure a test machine to use it for DNS. I'm not sure what client system you're using, but since I'm on a Windows box, at the moment, a screenshot of where you'd put that new nameserver value on a Windows machine.

DNS settings

Apply those DNS settings to a number of machines for testing purposes, use as normal, and ensure nothing's broken.

HopelessN00b
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    This will not work. This screen allows you to enter the **recursive** nameservers you want to use. This is certainly not the way to test new **authoritative** nameservers (a lot of things will start to break as you will get DNS replies for only a very small subset of names, or even none at all). – Patrick Mevzek Sep 04 '18 at 21:06