The DNS Zone Editor is were you manage your domain's DNS records. While cPanel will create your default DNS zone file, there may be reasons that you need to update it from time to time. Here is how you access your DNS Zone Editor.
Note Older versions of cPanel would have Simple DNS Zone Editor and Advanced DNS Zone Editor. Theses have been combined in newer versions of cPanel. If you have the older versions, you can find guides for them below.
Sections
- Accessing the DNS Zone Editor
- Managing the Zone file for your domain
- Adding a new record
- Editing a DNS record
- Common Record types
- Other Record types
- Propagation
Accessing the DNS Zone Editor
First, you will need to access your cPanel account. If you do not know how to access your account, you can find out here.
Once logged into your cPanel, scroll down to the Domains section and click on the DNS Zone Editor.
You should see a list of all of your domains with several options to the right of each:
- + A record - add a new A (IP address) record
- + CNAME record - add a new CNAME (domain name) record
- + MX record - add a new MX (mail exchange) record
- Manage - manage all of your domain's DNS records
The easiest way to proceed is to click Manage next to the domain you need to update.
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Managing the Zone file for your domain
Once you are at the Manage page, you should see a list of all of the DNS records for that domain.
You can filter the records using the search box in the upper left-hand side, or by using the options below the search box:
- All
- A
- CNAME
- MX
- TXT
All records will need to have a Name and a TTL (Time To Live).
Name
The Name of the DNS record is a subdomain of the domain (except for the blank record). For example, www.example.com or mail.example.com.
When entering the Name, be sure to pay attention to the "." at the end of the name, as this will affect how the record is added. If there is no period at the end of the Name, the system will add the domain name to the end. If there is a period, it will not.
For example, if the DNS record we are looking to add is www.example.com
- "www" will be saved as www.example.com.
- "www." will be saved as www.
- "www.example.com" will be saved as www.example.com.example.com
- "www.example.com." will be saved as www.example.com
TTL (Time to Live)
The TTL is simply how long any DNS caching servers should hold onto the DNS record before asking for a new record. This setting in in seconds and defaults to 14400 (4 hours). In most cases, you will not need to change this, unless you are using a third party service that requests a different TTL.
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Adding a new record
If you need to add a new record, click on + Add Record on the right-hand side of the screen. You can also click on the drop-down menu to choose what type of record you want to add. What fields you need to fill in depends on the type of record you selected (see below). Click on Save Record once you are completed.
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Editing a DNS record
Once you find the record you need to update, click on Edit to the right of the record. You can now update the record with the new information. You can even change the type of record if needed. What fields are available depends on the record type (see below).
Once updated, click on Save Record to finish.
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Common Record types
There are several different types of DNS records that make up your zone file. Here are the most common record types that you will come across.
A records
An A record must point to an IP address. Every Zone file must have a blank A record to be considered valid (some DNS hosts refer to this as the @ record).
- Name: the name of the record (see above)
- TTL: time to live (see above)
- Type: A record
- Record: the IP address for the subdomain
CNAME records
A CNAME record points a subdomain to another domain or subdomain. For example, typically the www.example.com CNAME will point to example.com. This way, if the IP address for the website needs to be updated, you only need to update the blank record.
- Name: the name of the record (see above)
- TTL: time to live (see above)
- Type: CNAME record
- Record: the target fully qualified domain name
TXT records
A TXT record is simple a string of text that can be used in DNS lookups. These records are used in many verification processes (SSLs, domain ownership), as well as other services (SPF, DKIM).
- Name: the name of the record (see above)
- TTL: time to live (see above)
- Type: TXT record
- Record: any text string (if required for a third party service, they should provide the TXT record, SPF and DKIM TXT records are typically added by default)
MX records
MX (or Mail Exchange) records direct email traffic to your mail servers. Typically, there are several MX records for redundancy reasons. Each MX record is assigned a priority and the mail server will try to send mail to each in succession, starting from the lowest number, until the mail is received.
- Name: the name of the record (see above)
- TTL: time to live (see above)
- Type: MX record
- Record:
- Priority: any positive integer
- Destination: the target fully qualified domain name
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Other Record types
These are some of the less common record types that you may need to add to your Zone file for some third party services.
AAAA records
These records are essentially the same as an A record, except that is requires a IPv6 IP address. While not common these days, these records will become necessary in the future, as IPv6 becomes more commonplace.
- Name: the name of the record (see above)
- TTL: time to live (see above)
- Type: A record
- Record: the IPv6 address for the subdomain
CAA records
CAA records (Certificate Authority Authorization) is use to identify what SSL Certificate Authority can issue certificates for your domain. Most users will not need to specify a CAA record. If you do, you would need to obtain the information from your Certificate Authority.
SRV records
SRV records are special records used to provide information on specific ports and services on your domain. Any service requiring an SRV record should provide you with the required information.
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Propagation
Any time that your DNS zone file is altered, there is a delay before the DNS is updated on DNS servers around the globe. While We advise that you allow for 24 hours before the records are fully propagated worldwide, this process typically completes within four to six hours.
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If you have any questions, please be sure to reach out to our support staff by putting in a ticket.
