How to use the Zone Editor within cPanel to manage your DNS records

DNS converts domain names into computer-readable IP addresses. DNS zone files configure domain names to the correct IP addresses. This feature allows you to create and edit these zone files.

cPanel >> Home >> Domains >> Zone Editor

Overview

DNS (Domain Name Service) converts human-readable domain names (for example, example.com) to computer-readable IP addresses (for example, 192.0.32.10). DNS uses zone files that reside on your server to map domain names to IP addresses.

Several different types of records reside in a domain’s zone file. This feature allows you to create, edit, and delete the following records:

• A

• AAAA

• CAA (Certificate Authority Authorization Record)

• CNAME (Canonical Name Record)

• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance)

• MX (Mail Exchanger)

• SRV (Service Record)

• TXT (Text Record)

Note:

To access all available zone record types, your systems administrator must enable the Advanced Zone Editor feature in WHM’s Feature Manager interface (WHM >> Home >> Packages >> Feature Manager).

Domains

This interface displays your account’s domains. For each domain in the list, you can perform some actions directly. Click the text to perform that action.

Text	Action
A Record	Add an A record for this domain.
CNAME Record	Add a CNAME record for this domain.
MX Record	Add an MX record for this domain.
DNSSEC Record	Enable or disable DNSSEC for this domain.
Manage	Add or edit additional records for this domain.

To refresh the list of domains, click the gear icon () and select Refresh List.

Manage Zone

This interface displays the zone records for the selected domain. To filter the list of zone records, enter a name in the text box, or select one of the record type filters.

Add a record

To add a record, perform the following steps:

1. If this account owns more than one domain, click Manage next to the domain that you wish to modify.

2. Click the arrow next to Add Record to select a record type:

   • Add A Record — This record maps hostnames to IP addresses. A records allow DNS servers to identify and locate your website and its various services on the Internet. Without appropriate A records, your visitors cannot access your website, FTP site, or email accounts.

     Note:

     cPanel configures your DNS records so that visitors can resolve your website and its services, such as FTP and email. Only add A records when you add a service that cPanel & WHM or your service provider does not provide.

   • Add AAAA Record — This record maps hostnames to IPv6 addresses.

   • Add CAA Record — This record allows you to specify which certificate authority (CA) will issue an SSL certificate for a domain. Click to view the CAA parameters

     Note:

     If no CAA records exist for a domain, all CAs can issue certificates for that domain. If conflicting CAA records already exist, remove the existing CAA records or add one for the desired CA. For example, a CAA record for Comodo would resemble the following example, where example.com represents the domain name:

     example.com. 86400 IN CAA 0 issue "comodoca.com"

     For more information about a CA’s requirements, read their documentation.

   • Add CNAME Record — This record creates an alias for another domain name, which DNS looks up. This is useful, for example, if you point multiple CNAME records to a single A record in order to simplify DNS maintenance.

     Note:

     You cannot point a CNAME record to an IP address.

   • Add DMARC Record — This record allows you to validate an email message’s sender and filter spam email messages on your domain. If you select this option, the system creates a TXT record with a default DMARC record. The system also displays a form that allows you to specify the domain’s DMARC policy (None, Quarantine, or Reject), as well as the following optional parameters: Click to view the DMARC parameters
3. • Add MX Record — This record allows you to route a domain’s incoming mail to a specific server. Changes that you make to a domain’s MX (Mail Exchanger) control where the system delivers email for a domain.

   • Add SRV Record — This record provides information about available services on specific ports on your server.

     Note:

     The SRV record must point at a hostname with an A (or AAAA) record. You cannot point an SRV record at a CNAME record.

   • Add TXT Record — This record contains text information for various services to read. For example, TXT records can specify data for the SPF, DKIM, or DMARC email authentication systems. Click the links below to view examples of each TXT record:

     Note:

     The TXT record text box accepts invalid data and does not issue a warning. SPF Records DKIM Records DMARC Records

     Note:

     On servers that run CentOS 7, you may see a named warning about the absence of SPF resource records on DNS.

     • This warning is not relevant on CentOS 7 servers, because RFC 7208 deprecated SPF records. CentOS 7 servers use TXT records instead of SPF records.
     • Red Hat 7.1 and CentOS 7.1 both contain bind-9.9.4-23.el7, which is an updated version of BIND that complies with RFC 7208. To resolve this issue, update your operating system to a version that contains the updated version of BIND. For more information, read the the Red Hat Bugzilla case about SPF record errors.
4. Enter the appropriate information for the record type that you selected.

5. Click Add Record.

Edit a record

To edit a record, perform the following steps:

1. If this account owns more than one domain, click Manage next to the domain you want to modify.

2. Click Edit next to the record that you wish to edit.

3. Change the information in the text boxes as necessary.

4. Click Edit Record to save your changes, or click Cancel to discard them.

Delete a record

To delete a record, perform the following steps:

1. If this account owns more than one domain, click Manage next to the domain you want to modify.

2. Click Delete next to the record that you wish to remove.

3. Click Delete i n the confirmation dialog box .

Reset zone files

Warning:

This feature erases any modifications that you made to your zone records. The system attempts to save the domain’s TXT entries. We recommend that you record any changes that you wish to save before you use this feature.

To reset your DNS zone files to the defaults that your hosting provider specifies, perform the following steps:

1. If this account owns more than one domain, click Manage next to the domain that you wish to reset.

2. Click the gear icon () and select Reset Zone.
3. Read the warning about the consequences.

4. Click Continue to reset your zone, or Cancel to return to the Manage Zone interface.

DNSSEC

Important:

This feature only appears if your system administrator disables DNS clustering and installs PowerDNS in either of the following interfaces:

• WHM’s Initial Setup Assistant .
• WHM’s Nameserver Selection interface (WHM >> Home >> Service Configuration >> Nameserver Selection).

DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) add a layer of security to your domains’ DNS records. DNSSEC uses digital signatures and cryptographic keys to validate that DNS responses are authentic. These digital signatures protect clients from various forms of attack, such as Spoofing or a Man-in-the-Middle attack.

Important:

• DNSSEC keys remain on a server after you terminate an account. If you restore an account on the same server from which you deleted it, the account’s DNSSEC keys remain valid.

• If you transfer the account to another server, you must reconfigure DNSSEC for the domains and update the domain server records on the registrar. The system does not include DNSSEC keys in an account’s backup file.

Click here for transfer instructions

Enable DNSSEC

To enable DNSSEC for a domain, perform the following steps:

1. If this account owns more than one domain, click DNSSEC next to the domain you want to modify.

2. Click Enable. The system will generate a new DNSSEC key, and a new line will appear that contains the following information:

   Column	Description
   Key Tag	An integer value that identifies the domain’s DNSSEC record.
   Algorithm	The record’s encrypted signature.
   Digest Type	The algorithm type that constructs the digest. Select the digest type that your registrar supports.
   Digest	An alpha-numeric string that the algorithm generates.

Important:

After you generate the domain’s DNSSEC key, you must configure a Domain Server (DS) record with your domain registrar. Click the links below for DS record instructions with some of the most popular domain registrars. GoDaddy Namecheap OpenSRS

Disable DNSSEC

To disable DNSSEC for a domain, perform the following steps:

1. If this account owns more than one domain, click DNSSEC next to the domain you want to modify.

2. Click Disable.

Important:

After you disable DNSSEC, you must delete the DS record with your domain registrar. Click the links below for DS record instructions with some of the most popular domain registrars. GoDaddy Namecheap OpenSRS