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Vanity DNS

In this tutorial, we will learn how to configure Round Robin records within the DNS Made Easy interface to distribute your traffic evenly across multiple servers.

Load balancing / Round Robin configuration allows you to distribute your server load evenly among multiple servers. You would create multiple A records with the same name but with different associated IP’s.

For example, assume two different A records, example.com pointed to 1.2.3.4 and example.com pointed to 1.2.3.5. We would then have a www.example.com CNAME record that aliases to the root records of the domain. Load would be split evenly as 50% of the time, the queries would be sent to the server at 1.2.3.4 and 50% of the time queries would be sent to the server at 1.2.3.5.

USER ACTION
Step 1. Select the DNS Menu

 

USER ACTION WHAT YOU WILL SEE
Step 2. Select Managed DNS 4

 

USER ACTION WHAT YOU WILL SEE
Step 3. Select a domain from the either the “Recently Updated Domains” box, or start typing the domain name in the textbox on the “Select Domain” tab. 4

 

USER ACTION WHAT YOU WILL SEE
Step 4. Under “A Records” click the plus sign to add a new record. 4

 

USER ACTION WHAT YOU WILL SEE
Step 5. We will create an A record for the root record of the domain example.com with an IP address of 1.2.3.4 and a TTL of 1800 seconds. We will then create a second A record for the root record of example.com with an IP address of 1.2.3.5 and a TTL of 1800 seconds. 4
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In this tutorial, we will discuss how to configure Vanity Name Servers in your DNS Made Easy account.

Vanity DNS allows you to rebrand DNS Made Easy name servers using your own domain name. An overview of the steps to configure Vanity Name Servers are:

  1. Define the names of your name servers – Assign names to the name server IPs that were assigned to your domain(s) in DNS Made Easy.
  2. Create A records for those name servers in the appropriate domain. This assigns the names to the IPs.
  3. AT THE REGISTRAR – Register the name servers and IP addresses. This maps the A records with the name servers that you created in step #2.
  4. Create the Vanity DNS configuration in DNS Made Easy
  5. Assign / Apply the domain to use the Vanity Name Server configuration in the DNS Made Easy control panel.
  6. AT THE REGISTRAR – Tell the registrar to use the vanity name servers that you have created.

If you already have a Vanity Name Server configuration then you can apply it to your other domains that are using the same name servers by:

  1. Assign / Apply the domain to use the Vanity Name Server configuration in the DNS Made Easy control panel.
  2. AT THE REGISTRAR – Tell the registrar to use the vanity name servers that you have created.

Overview:

Vanity DNS allows you to re-brand authoritative name servers using your own domain name as the host name. The end result is that your own domain name becomes the host name for your name servers which map back to IP addresses of DNS Made Easy name servers.

Setting up a Vanity DNS solution is 100% free in DNS Made Easy. This option is most popular with our Managed DNS product, however you can re-brand secondary or mail servers using the same strategy.

DNS Made Easy provides a step-by-step tutorial for setting up Vanity DNS through some of these steps require actions to be taken within your domain registrar account. Your domain registrar is the company that you purchased your domain name from.
We will create Vanity DNS for the domain example.com by creating the name server host names ns0-ns5.example.com

 

USER ACTION WHAT YOU WILL SEE
STEP #1

  1. To start, obtain a list of the IP addresses associated with each DNS Made Easy name server assigned to your domain. NOTE: Domains need to share the same name servers to use the same vanity name servers. The domains example-domain.com and example.com share the same DNS Made Easy name servers (as seen in the DNS Made Easy control panel) so they can share the same Vanity DNS configuration. If they did NOT have the same DNS Made Easy name servers they could NOT share the same Vanity DNS configuration. To see which name servers are assigned to a domain, please view the tutorial located here.
  2. Choose a domain name to use as the host name for your Vanity name servers and define each host. You will then want to come up with names for your name servers. You can call them anything you want (larry.example.com, curly.example.com, moe.example.com, or ns1.example.com, ns2.example.com, etc..) We will use the example.com domain to create ns0-ns5.example.com as name servers for this example.
  3. The resulting name servers are:
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USER ACTION WHAT YOU WILL SEE
STEP #2

  1. Create A records for your Vanity name servers on your authoritative name server. This is usually completed within the DNS Made Easy control panel because your vanity DNS domain should be configured on a reliable DNS infrastructure. The IP addresses you set up should match the IP addresses that were registered within your registrar and the IP’s recorded in Step #1.
  2. In the case of this tutorial, we will create A records in the example.com domain because this is the domain we are using for our Vanity NS host names. If you require assistance creating A records please view our tutorial on creating A records.
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USER ACTION WHAT YOU WILL SEE
STEP #3. AT YOUR DOMAIN REGISTRAR

  1. THIS STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT. Register your vanity host names as Name Servers with your registrar. This is done at your domain registrar. Registering your name servers (also known as “registering your host”) requires each official name server host name to be registered with the respective top level name servers. Each registrar should do this for free. Contact your registrar’s support team if you have further questions regarding this step.
  2. During registration, you will assign your name servers the exact same IPs of the DNS Made Easy name servers that were assigned to you by DNS Made Easy. These are the IPs that you recorded in Step #1. Without completing this step, most registrars will not allow you to assign your vanity name servers to a domain.
  3. Our registration would be:
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USER ACTION WHAT YOU WILL SEE
STEP #4. Create a Vanity Name Server (Vanity NS) configuration in DNS Made Easy.
1. Select “Advanced – Vanity Nameservers” from the Main Menu		 4
2. Click the Plus Sign (+) to add a new configuration. 4
3. Give an Identifiable name for your new configuration.
4. Select the name server grouping your configuration should apply to from the drop down menu. This is the same group of name servers that the domain which will use this configuration is assigned to within DNS Made Easy. If you only have one listing then all of your domains in DNS Made Easy are using the same name servers. 4
5. Create your Vanity Name Server host names, one per line.
6. Click “Submit” 4

 

USER ACTION WHAT YOU WILL SEE
STEP #5. Assign / Apply the domain(s) to use the Vanity Name Server configuration in the DNS Made Easy control panel.

1. Select the DNS Menu
2. Select Managed DNS 4
3. Select a domain from the either the “Recently Updated Domains” box, or start typing the domain name in the textbox on the “Select Domain” tab. 4
4. Click the “Settings” Tab 4
5. Apply your vanity configuration from the “Vanity NS Config” drop down menu. 4
6. Click Save, this will update your System Defined NS records for the example.com domain.

 

USER ACTION
STEP #6. AT YOUR REGISTRAR

1. Tell your Register to assign your Vanity name servers as authoritative name servers for your domain. This is done at your domain registrar. This can only be done if registration was completed.

You already have Vanity NS configured and you want to use the name servers for another domain? No problem!
If you already have a Vanity Name Server configuration then you can apply it to your other domains that are using the same name servers by completing steps #5 and #6.