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DNS hosting: quick start
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DNS hosting: quick start

For your information

These are instructions for adding a domain to the new version of DNS hosting (actual) through 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 disabling legacy version (legacy) according to the steps. If you are using DNS hosting (legacy), we recommend that you migrate your domains to DNS hosting (actual) now to avoid disruption to your sites when DNS hosting (legacy) is turned off.

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

  2. Create a zone.

  3. Add resource records.

  4. Delegate the domain.

You can create a zone and add resource records via Terraform. To do this, top up the balance by a minimum amount if necessary 100 ₽ 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 your hosting, you must first register it — rent a domain name from a domain registrar. When the lease expires, the domain lease needs to be renewed so that the site on the domain works without interruption.

You can register a domain name in .ru and .rf zones through the Domains in Selectel service.

2. Create a zone⁠

A zone is a logical union of the resource records of a domain and its subdomains. You can create any number of zones.

  1. Replenish your balance to the minimum amount 100 ₽ to get access to the service. DNS hosting is free of charge, the 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, e.g. example.com...

  5. Click Add. The zone will automatically create NS and SOA records with default values:

    • 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 zone serial number, which changes when the zone is updated and signals the caching servers that records need to be cached again.

3. Add resource records⁠

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

  2. Open the zone page you created earlier.

  3. Click Add. In DNS hosting (actual), resource records are stored in groups — one group contains all the resource records of a domain with the same type. For example, a group of NS records contains four records that point 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 main domain (zone name) — leave the field empty. For example, if you leave the field empty for the example``.com zone, a group will be created with the name example.com.
    • for a subdomain — enter the first part of its name. For example, if you enter first for the example.com zone, a group will be created with the name first.example.com.

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

  6. Enter TTL or leave the default value. TTL is the time in seconds for which a resource entry in the NS server cache is considered up to date and does not need to be re-cached. The specified TTL applies to all resource entries in the group.

  7. Enter the value of the resource record, for example, for an A record, the IP address to be mapped to the domain name.

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

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

  10. Click Add.

4. Delegate domain⁠

In order to transfer control of domain resource records to Selectel 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 where your domain is registered.

  2. In the NS records, replace the values with Selectel's 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 entry.

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

  4. Optional: check resource records. If after 72 hours resource records have not appeared on authoritative DNS hosting servers: a.ns.selectel.ru, b.ns.selectel.ru, c.ns.selectel.ru, d.ns. selectel. ru, create a ticket.