Plesk And DNS Management

[removed9808a]

I recently started to rent a Dedicated Server, running Fedora Core 3 with Plesk Reloaded 7.5.4.

I wanted to setup the server, so that the Domain I currently own would point to the server, however I had a great deal of difficultly doing this, and all the "Tutorials" and "Guides" I found were either unreadable, or rubbish.

So after much experimenting, and a lot of time, I finally managed to figure it out and it works a treat.

So to potentially save lots of people the same amount of time, i'm going to write my own guide here.

Now, you should have 2 IP Addresses, I managed to this with 1 before I got my second though, so hopefully it should work with 1 for you too (if you only have 1).

Now, obviously, where i put "mydomain.com", replace with your own Domain.

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Step 1:
Log into your Domains Control Panel, and look for something to the effect of "Create Name Server Host Records". This is often hidden, and is covered with warnings telling you not to touch unless you know what your doing.

Once in here, you'll be asked for a Server Hostname, and an IP Address for that Hostname.

The First Hostname should be called "ns1.mydomain.com" and the IP Address should be either of the 2 (or just the 1) IP address of your server. Repeat this step, and the second time round call the Hostname "ns2.mydomain.com" and use the 2nd IP address (or again, the first).

Now you should have 2 Server Hostnames, ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com.

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Step 2:
Next, you'll need to modify the Name Servers for your domain. You can do this easily with most Domain Registars. Change the Name Servers to ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com.

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Step 3:
Log into your Plesk Control Panel. Under the General tab, select "Clients" and then select "Add New Client Account". In here, setup an account with your own details. Once this is done, go into the Control Panel for your newly created Client Account, and select "Add New Domain".

Once in here, add the Domain, and setup hosting. Some people will notice that once they have added the Domain, and try to continue, they'll get a message saying that the domain name is currently registered to a different IP address. This is just because the Domain hasnt propegated yet.

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Step 4:
Go into the Control Panel of your Domain, and select the "DNS" option. Once in here, you'll see a whole collection of DNS records at the bottom of the page.

We'll start by removing the ones that we don't need. The ones we don't nee are:

Host: ns.mydomain.com Record type: A Value:123.123.123.123
Host: mydomain.com Record type: NS Value:ns.mydomain.com

Once these records are gone, you'll now need to add your own to replace them.

Under the "Add DNS Record" part of the page, Select "A" from the drop down list, and click "Add". Where is says "Enter domain name", put in "ns1" so it reads "ns1.mydomain.com" and where it says "Enter IP Address*" enter the IP Address that you used when you setup the ns1.mydomain.com Hostname in Step 1. Repeat this again for "ns2", and use the IP Address you used for ns2.mydomain.com in Step 1.

Now, go back to the Domain Control Panel, and again, under the "Add DNS Record" part of the page, select "NS" from the drop down list, and click "Add". Where it says "Enter domain name", leave this part empty. And where it sasys "Enter nameserver*", put into "ns1.mydomain.com", and click "OK". Repeat this again, but this time use "ns2.mydomain.com" instead.

Thats that part done, now, for the final step.

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Step 5:

Now, we'll setup the Template DNS Settings, so you don't have to repeat all this if you add another Domain.

Under the System tab in your Plesk Control Panel, select "Server". In here, under "Services" select the "DNS" button.

At the bottom of this page, remove the following ones:

Host: <domain> Record type: A Value:<ip>
Host: <domain> Record type: NS Value:ns.<domain>

Now, under the "Add DNS Record" part of the page, select "A" from the drop down list, and hit "Add DNS Record". Where it says "Enter domain name*", enter "ns1" so it reads "ns1.mydomain.com" and enter the IP Address that corresponds with Steps 1 and 4. Repeat this again, but enter "ns2" so it reads "ns2.mydomain.com" this time, and again, enter the IP Address that corresponds with Steps 1 and 4.

Now, under the "Add DNS Record" part of the page, select "NS" from the drop down list, and hit "Add DNS Record". Where it says "Enter domain name", leave this empty. And where it says "Enter nameserver*", put in "ns1.mydomain.com", and again, repeat this step and use "ns2.mydomain.com" the second time round.

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Note, that it can take up to, and in some cases more than 24 hours for a Domain Name to propagate, so don't expect it to be working instantly.

Thats your Server now fully configured to work with the DNS. If you want to add more Domains, simply add them, and in the Domain Registars Control Panel, edit the name servers to "ns1.mydomain.com" and "ns2.mydomain.com".

Thats it, thats all you need to do.

Hope this helps, any problems or questions with, feel free to ask.

Daniel.