Manage DNS
The DNS Templates tool allows you to add and remove the DNS records for your domain names, individually or in bulk, for domains which have been delegated to the Fabulous DNS Hosting servers:
myns1.fabulous.com
myns2.fabulous.com
You can apply a template to a domain via the "Manage" > "Domains" page.
What is a DNS Template?
A Template is a container for a group of DNS resource records, and most record types can be configured, including A, CNAME, MX, TEXT, NS and PTR types. For a template to be considered valid, it must contain at least one record as an empty template will invalidate any domains resolving from it. Individual records may be added, edited or removed, or the template removed entirely.
If you do not see the 'Manage DNS' item the 'Manage' area and wish it enabled, please contact your account manager: support@fabulous.com
How do I Create a Template?
To create a template, please follow these steps:
- Go to the 'Manage DNS' page in the 'Manage' area of your account.
- Click on the 'Add Template' button at the bottom of the page, a pop-up window will launch
- Enter the new Template Name in the input box, as well as 1 new complete record. You can use the example in the pop-up as a guide.
- Click 'Add' to create the template and add the record, or 'Close' to abort.
- Continue to 'Add' or 'Remove' items from the template
- When you're finished creating the template, click Close. The parent window will have updated with your new template in the 'Available Templates' list.
How do I Delete a Template?
If a template exists in the 'Available Templates' list, it can be edited or deleted via the 'Edit' and 'Delete' buttons respectively. Editing a domain will launch the same pop-up window as 'Create template', however you will not need to specify a template name, and there will be no record examples.
When deleting a template, there may be a chance that it will affect the DNS of active domains. Where this is the case, you will be prompted with a warning dialog detailing the number of domains affected, and have an opportunity to abort the process.
What are the different types of Records?
Template Name: This is the label that you choose to give your template. It can be anything from "Tony's Server" to "Fab01" and is used to identify that set of records.
Host (NAME): Is the name of the record itself, such as 'www' or 'mail'
| A | A host record |
|---|---|
| CNAME | An alias for an existing host |
| MX | Domain Mail Exchanger |
| TEXT | Text strings or SPF records |
| NS | Name Server |
| PTR | Pointers to other resources, such as in-addr.arpa domains |
Destination (RDATA): Describes the destination of the host, depending upon the Type. Minor constraints exist with A and CNAME types, namely:
- an 'A' record destination must be a host IP address
- a 'CNAME' record destination must be a named alias or fully qualified host name, with a trailing period
What is an A Record?
You can use a A record whenever you have to assign a specific IP to a domain name or to a subdomain.
Suppose you have the yourdomain.com domain and want to assign 10.10.0.1 IP address to your web server, then you should create an A record with "www.yourdomain.com" as a Fully Qualified Domain Name and "10.10.0.1" in the value field. From now on, all the requests for www.yourdomain.com will be sent to a server with that IP. It is useful to use an A record when you have subdomains residing on various systems. If not a CNAME is better.
Tip: you might use a "*.yourdomain.com" A record to allow ANYTHING.yourdomain.com to be resolved to your IP, though a wildcard CNAME record is often better than a wildcard A record.
What is a CNAME Record?
Canonical name records are aliases for A records. For each CNAME record, you can choose an alias and a host.
You should use a CNAME record whenever you want associate a new subdomain to an already existing A record; i.e. you can make "www.yourdomain.com" to "yourdomain.com", which should already have been assigned an IP with an A record. This allows you to have as many subdomains as you wish without having to specify the IP for every record. Use a CNAME if you have more services pointing to the same IP. This way you will have to update only one record in the convenience of a change of IP address.
Example of a CNAME record: "images.yourdomain.com CNAME www.yourdomain.com" where 'www.yourdomain.com' is an A record listing an IP address, and 'images.yourdomain.com' points to 'www.yourdomain.com'.
It will NOT allow you to foward a domain to a specific web page.
What is an MX Record?
Mail Exchange records direct email to servers for a domain, and are listed in order of priority. If mail can't be delivered using the first priority record, the second priority record is used, and so on.
MX Preference : Is a numerical order preference which only applies to, and is always required for, MX record types. Lower order records are the most preferred.
What is an NS Record?
Name server records determine which servers will communicate DNS information for a domain. Two NS records must be defined for each domain. eg. The Fabulous Default nameservers for parking are:
ns1.fabulous.com
ns2.fabulous.com
Generally, you will have a primary and a secondary name server record - NS records are updated with Fabulous and will take 24-72 hours to take effect.
Commonly Technical Questions
Q: I have created a template, why isn't it being applied to my domains?
A: The DNS Template tool only creates the templates.
To use the templates, they need to be applied to your domains via:
Manage > Domains > DNS button, or
Manage > Domains > Bulk DNS tool
Q: How do I stop the domain name from appending to my destination address?
A: Simply add a period '.' to the end of your destination host name, this is the record delimiter.
For example:
examplehost CNAME examplehost.myotherdomain.com.
Q: How do I point the domain name itself to a web site or mail exchanger, if I don't want to use a named host such as 'www' or 'mail'?
A: The host/destination record '@' denotes a domain name origin for A, CNAME, MX and TEXT record types.
For example, to point mail to an external host :
@ MX 10 mail.externaldomain.com.
Similarly, if 'www.mydomain.com' and 'mydomain.com' were both to resolve to the same website on IP 123.123.123.123:
www CNAME @
@ A 123.123.123.123
Q: My DNS is currently hosted elsewhere and I'd like to use Fabulous DNS Hosting instead, do you support Zone Transfers?
A: Sorry, at this stage we do not support Zone Transfers into the templating system.
Q: How do I configure a sub-domain?
A: Sub-domains can be configured with the template tool, via the 'NS' record type, however noting that if the template is applied to domains in bulk then those domains will also inheret the sub-domain.