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DNS hosting: quick start

For your information

These instructions are for adding a domain to the new version of DNS hosting (actual) via the control panel. If you registered in the control panel after January 30, 2024, only DNS hosting (actual) is available to you.

We are gradually phasing out the legacy version according to the stages. If you are using DNS hosting (legacy), we recommend moving your domains to DNS hosting (actual) now to avoid website disruptions when DNS hosting (legacy) is shut down.

  1. Make sure that you have a domain name and access to the control panel of the domain registrar where it is registered. If you do not have a domain name yet, register one.

  2. Create a zone.

  3. Add resource records.

  4. Delegate the domain.

You can create a zone and add resource records using Terraform. To do this, if necessary, top up the balance with the minimum amount of 200 ₽ and register a domain name, then create a zone with resource records following the instructions in the Terraform documentation: Create a zone with resource records in DNS hosting (actual).

1. Register a domain name

To add a domain to hosting, you first need to register it—lease the domain name from a domain registrar. When the lease expires, you must renew the domain lease for the website on that domain to work without interruptions.

You can register a domain name in the .ru and .рф zones via the Domains service in Selectel.

2. Create a zone

A zone is a logical grouping of a domain's resource records and its subdomains. You can create any number of zones.

  1. Top up your balance with the minimum amount of 200 ₽ to get access to the service. DNS hosting is provided free of charge, this money will remain on your balance, and you can spend it on other services.

  2. In the control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select DNS hosting.

  3. Click Add zone.

  4. Enter the DNS zone name — the domain name with a dot, for example example.com..

  5. Make sure the Activate domain zone checkbox is selected. If the checkbox is not selected, the zone will be created with the DEACTIVATED status; for details, see Deactivate zone.

  6. Click Add. The zone will automatically create NS and SOA records with default values that cannot be edited:

    • NS — a.ns.selectel.ru., b.ns.selectel.ru., c.ns.selectel.ru., d.ns.selectel.ru.
    • SOA — a.ns.selectel.ru. support.selectel.ru. <zone_serial_number> 10800 3600 604800 60, where <zone_serial_number> is the serial number of the zone, which changes when the zone is updated and signals caching servers that records need to be cached again.

  7. If you cleared the checkbox in step 5, a deactivated zone with a disabled SOA record will be created. Records will not be served from Selectel DNS servers. The zone can be activated at any time.

3. Add resource records

  1. In the control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select DNS Hosting.

  2. Open the page of the zone you created earlier.

  3. Click Add. In DNS hosting (actual), resource records are stored in groups — one group contains all domain resource records of the same type. For example, the NS record group contains four records pointing to Selectel NS servers.

  4. Enter the name of the resource record group—this is the domain for which the group will be created. You can create a resource record group:

    • for the primary domain (zone name) — leave the field blank. For example, if you leave the field blank for the example.com. zone, a group named example.com. will be created.
    • for a subdomain — enter the first part of its name. For example, if you enter first for the example.com. zone, a group named first.example.com. will be created.

  5. Select the type of resource records in the group — A, AAAA, TXT, CNAME, DNAME, HTTPS, NS, MX, SOA, SRV, SSHFP, SVCB, or CAA.

  6. Enter the TTL or leave the default value. TTL is the time in seconds that a resource record in the NS server cache is considered up to date and does not require re-caching. The specified TTL applies to all resource records in the group.

  7. Enter the resource record value, for example, for an A record—the IP address that needs to be linked to the domain name.

  8. Optional: to add another resource record to the group, click Add and enter the record value.

  9. Optional: enter a comment—any additional information about the group. The comment will only be displayed in DNS hosting.

  10. Click Add.

4. Delegate the domain

To transfer management of domain resource records to Selectel's servers, the domain must be delegated—you must specify these servers in the domain's NS records.

  1. Go to the control panel of the domain registrar with which your domain is registered.

  2. In the NS records, replace the values with Selectel NS servers: a.ns.selectel.ru, b.ns.selectel.ru, c.ns.selectel.ru, d.ns.selectel.ru. Each server must be specified in a separate record.

  3. Wait for the added resource records to propagate to the DNS servers. Propagation can take up to 72 hours.

  4. Optional: check the resource records. If after 72 hours the resource records do not appear on the authoritative DNS hosting servers: a.ns.selectel.ru, b.ns.selectel.ru, c.ns.selectel.ru, d.ns.selectel.ru, submit a ticket.