Set up Custom Nameservers

Posted 23rd November, 2018

Nameservers are the entries added to a domain name that tell a browser where to find DNS entries. Every domain has at least two nameservers.

Usually these nameservers are defined by a web host, or by the domain registrar. However, for established sites, you may want to set up custom nameservers, sometimes called vanity nameservers.

These add no additional functionality, but anyone lookup up DNS will see your nameservers as ns1.yourdomain.com and ns2.yourdomain.com rather than ns1.yourhost.com and ns2.yourhost.com.

Setting up custom nameservers can be done as follows:

1. Make a note of the IP addresses of nameservers. These should ideally be separate IP addresses on two distinct servers.
2. Decide the subdomain you wish to use for your nameservers. We will assume ns1 and ns2, but they can be anything.
3. Add DNS glue records with your domain registrar. These allow delegation from the root. You will need to add the nameserver record and the IP address.
4. Add DNS A records for the two subdomains pointing to the same IP address.
5. Set NS records for your domain pointing to the new nameservers.

The nameservers are now ready to use, but some time should be left to allow for propagation and caching. We advise twenty four hours.