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I'm trying to figure out if the hostname I have set for my cloud-based web server is conflicting with my public-facing website in any way.

I've researched the topic and found suggestions for proper naming conventions (See here: 1 and 2), but no definitive answer on name conflicts.

Here's my specific situation and questions:

  • My current hostname structure: server.example.com
  • The name of my main consumer-facing e-commerce website is also called example.com
  • I host multiple public-facing websites on server.example.com

Question #1: Should I use a different domain for my hostname?

Example: server.newexample.com

Question #2: What potential issues can happen (if any) if your hostname domain is the same as your consumer-facing website?

Thanks in advance for the assistance.

CoastalPro
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  • Can you better explain why you are asking? Do you have any reason to think there is an issue? I'm not clearly understanding your request. – Appleoddity Oct 16 '17 at 01:58
  • @Appleoddity There isn't anything specific that happened to lead me to believe that there is a conflict. Noticing that my web server's hostname was similar to my main website's domain was a passive observation that led me to question if it could potentially be an issue. Essentially, I wanted to be proactive and address the issue, if there was/could be one. My request is simple: Are there any potential issues that could happen with my main public-facing website sharing the same domain as my web server? Hope this help clarify. – CoastalPro Oct 16 '17 at 04:14
  • I guess my main question is - are you specifically saying that the website in question is hosted on the server in question? – Appleoddity Oct 16 '17 at 04:16
  • @Appleoddity Yes. The main website for my business is (www.example.com) hosted on my cloud VPS that has a hostname of server.example.com. I also plan on adding more websites to the same VPS. – CoastalPro Oct 17 '17 at 06:03

1 Answers1

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Your cloud-based webserver would only conflict with your public facing website if your DNS records aren't properly set for each subdomain.

Based on your description, your DNS records should reflect:

  • IPV4 / IPV6 A records for the subdomains server.example.com and server1.example.com
  • IPV4 / IPV6 A records for the wildcard to point to primary public facing website; depending on your domain registration service, these may show as *, *.example.com, or even have a separate entry for www.example.com

Worth noting- a similar issue for this exists when an internal network at an institution/business has the same domain as the main website. (this is known as a split domain- see https://www.techopedia.com/definition/1346/split-domain-name-system-split-dns) In these instances, the internal network needs a custom DNS entry on their network to map to the outside world/public facing website, usually with the www prefix.

Anson W Han
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  • Where in WHM can I see the contents of the DNS records to confirm they're properly set? Also, should each website IP address resolve to its respective domain? Each website on my VPS has its own unique IP. – CoastalPro Oct 17 '17 at 06:11
  • This YouTube video shows you where in WHM you can manage/check DNS zones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQZZkCgkCXA – Anson W Han Oct 18 '17 at 04:16