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Configuring NS1 as the primary DNS provider

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Customers with multiple DNS providers can use NS1 as the primary provider—configuring other DNS servers as secondaries regularly updated with zone data from NS1. Follow the instructions below to configure NS1 as a primary DNS provider.

  1. Determine the IP addresses of your secondary DNS servers.

  2. Log in to the NS1 portal (via https://my.nsone.net).

  3. Click DNS in the main navigation to view a list of all DNS zones associated with your account.

    zones_page__new_.png

  4. Click a zone to view zone details, and then click the Zone Transfers tab. Select the checkbox for Allow Outgoing Transfers.

    zone_transfer_outgoing.png

  5. Click Add Another IP address to add a new secondary server to the list of allowed hosts, specifying:
    • The IP address of the host. (Required)
      Note: NS1 supports zone transfers (SOA and AXFR queries) from hosts specified in this list.
    • The Port of the host to send NOTIFY messages. (Optional)
    • Whether or not NS1 should send DNS NOTIFY messages to the host upon zone changes.
      Note: See below for more information about allowing transfers to servers within an IP subnet.
  6. Repeat the previous step for each secondary server you would like to associate with this zone.

  7. Click Save Zone Transfers to confirm the changes.

  8. Verify the transfers are enabled correctly using the dig command below from the secondary server: 
    $ dig +tcp @xfr01.nsone.net myzone.com axfr
 
; <<>> DiG 9.8.1-P1 <<>> +tcp @xfr01.nsone.net myzone.com axfr
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
myzone.com.           60      IN      SOA     dns1.p01.nsone.net. hostmaster.myzone.com. 1408116477 43200 7200 1209600 3600
irc.myzone.com.       60      IN      A       2.20.29.16
mail.myzone.com.      60      IN      CNAME   ghs.googlehosted.com.
myzone.com.           60      IN      MX      10 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
myzone.com.           60      IN      MX      20 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
myzone.com.           60      IN      MX      20 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM.
myzone.com.           60      IN      MX      30 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
myzone.com.           60      IN      MX      30 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM.
*.myzone.com.         60      IN      CNAME   myzone.com.
myzone.com.           3600    IN      A       17.6.14.25
myzone.com.           60      IN      SOA     dns1.p01.nsone.net. hostmaster.myzone.com. 1408116477 43200 7200 1209600 3600
;; Query time: 62 msec
;; SERVER: 192.135.223.10#53(192.135.223.10)
;; WHEN: Fri Aug 15 19:24:55 2014
;; XFR size: 11 records (messages 1, bytes 453)

After configuring the zone transfers in the NS1 platform, you must configure the secondary servers to use xfr01.nsone.net (192.135.223.10) as the zone's primary server. If using BIND, you can add the following snippet to the configuration file:

zone "myzone.com" IN {     type slave;     file "/var/lib/bind/myzone.com.db";     masters { 192.135.223.10; }; };
NOTE
When transferring zones from NS1, an important consideration is that the AXFR protocol does not support much of NS1's advanced functionality or configurations—including ALIAS records, Filter Chain configurations, answer metadata, and other details.

Note about zone transfers to IP subnets

The NS1 platform supports inbound zone transfer requests from an IP subnet. To configure this, you must enter a CIDR notation (ex. 192.0.2.0/24) in the address field instead of a single IP address. Note that doing so automatically disables notification options. To notify individual servers within the subnet, enter their IP addresses as additional, individual secondary servers.

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