Skip to main content
Delegate a zone (domain)
Last update:

Delegate a zone (domain)

A domain zone is a set of resource records of a domain. A domain zone is distributed from special servers in the DNS system — NS-servers, which are specified in the NS records of the domain.

When registering a domain, NS-servers of the registrar are specified for it. To manage the domain zone via DNS hosting, you need to delegate the domain, i.e. specify the NS servers of the hosting from the registrar.

If you're Delegate the primary domain to Selectel All of its subdomains will be delegated to Selectel by default.

You can manage your main domain zone and subdomain zones through different hosting services, for example:

Delegate main domain and subdomains to Selectel⁠

  1. В control panels go to DNS → Domain zones.

  2. Make sure that have created an area the primary domain and added resource records to it.

  3. To add resource records for a subdomain, create an area subdomain and add resource records to it. The main domain zone and subdomain zone must be created in the same . project. Once created, you will be able to move the subdomain zone to another project.

  4. Go to the control panel of the domain registrar where your primary domain is registered.

  5. In the NS entries, 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 listed in a separate entry.

    When the status of the zones in control panels will change to ДЕЛЕГИРОВАНАand the records will start being sent from the Selectel servers.

Delegate main domain to third-party hosting, subdomain to Selectel⁠

  1. Go to the control panel of the domain registrar where your primary domain is registered.

  2. Make sure that the NS servers of the third-party hosting service are specified for the primary domain.

  3. Create a subdomain zone in Selectel:

    3.1. В control panels go to DNS → Domain zones.

    3.2. Press Add a zone.

    3.3 Enter the subdomain name with a period at the end, e.g. first.example.com..

    3.4. Press Add. The subdomain 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 IS. a.ns.selectel.ru. support.selectel.ru. <zone_serial_number> 10800 3600 604800 60where <zone_serial_number> — zone serial number, which changes when the zone is updated and signals to the caching servers that records need to be cached again.

    3.5 Optional: move the subdomain zone to another project.

  4. Delegate subdomain:

    4.1. Go to the control panel of the third-party hosting where the main domain is delegated.

    4.2 In the primary domain zone, create four NS records, one for each of the Selectel NS servers:

    • record name — subdomain name, e.g. first.example.com;
    • the value of the record is one of Selectel's authoritative servers: a.ns.selectel.ru, b.ns.selectel.ru, c.ns.selectel.ru, d.ns.selectel.ru.

    When the status of a subdomain zone in control panels will change to ДЕЛЕГИРОВАНАand the records will start being sent from the Selectel servers.

Delegate main domain to Selectel, subdomain to a third-party hosting service⁠

  1. В control panels go to DNS → Domain zones.

  2. Make sure that have created an area the primary domain and added resource records to it.

  3. Delegate the primary domain to Selectel:

    3.1 Go to the control panel of the domain registrar where your primary domain is registered.

    3.2 In the domain 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 listed in a separate entry.

  4. Delegate the subdomain to a third-party hosting service:

    4.1. В control panels go to DNS → Domain zones.

    4.2 Open the zone page of the primary domain.

    4.3 Add a group of NS records by pressing Add and enter the data:

    • group name — subdomain name;
    • record type is NS;
    • record value — the name of the third-party hosting NS server.

    4.4 If you want to specify another NS server, click Add and insert the name of the NS server.

    4.5. Press Add.