Score:0

Server

How to host my own DNS server for my own domain

Rupert Rawnsley

8/30/24, 10:12 AM

I have a domain that is something like mydomain.com and I want to manage the DNS for it myself using my own DNS servers (on a completely different domain - EDIT): ns1.myowndns.com, ns2.myowndns.com, etc... When I try to update the nameserver records with my registrar it rejects these domains. It seems that the .com TLD registrar (and possibly all TLDs?) only accept "well known" DNS servers, possibly from an IP address whitelist.

I happen to be trying to do this in AWS Route53, but it seems like the root problem is more fundamental than the limits of a particular registrar. The actual error reports are obtuse, but this support article seems to be suggest the reason why it might be failing.

I am not trying to implement a "vanity" DNS name using the same domain I want to resolve, so I don't think glue records are relevant. In any case, they only allow you to point at the IP address of an existing DNS server using a different domain name.

I need a custom DNS server because it will be translating domain names into IP addresses dynamically rather than from a static list.

Am I missing something obvious? I feel like this is pretty basic Internet plumbing albeit uncommon in today's service-rich environment.

0 + 16

domain-name-system

amazon-route53

Greg Askew

8/30/24, 10:47 AM

Do you want Route 53 name servers to be primary or secondary? GoDaddy for example, allows you to do either/both. https://www.godaddy.com/help/what-is-secondary-dns-797

Rupert Rawnsley

8/30/24, 10:58 AM

@GregAskew neither - I want to run my own name servers (using bind9)

Greg Askew

8/30/24, 11:16 AM

Fair enough. I would presume most Route 53 probably fall into the other categories (all, primary, or secondary).

Mucker

8/30/24, 12:16 PM

Ignore my previous comment (if you saw it), I made a mistake. You could try using your IP addresses instead of DNS names of the name servers? I've never seen that limitation before what you describe, so I am wondering if it is some kind of security feature for unknown name servers. Using the IP addresses might bypass that. Worth a shot anyway

Rupert Rawnsley

8/30/24, 12:19 PM

@Mucker I edited the question to make it crystal clear. IP address was worth a shot, but it was rejected by the Route53 interface :-(

raj

8/30/24, 12:27 PM

Are your nameservers `ns1.myowndns.com` etc. actually running and serving the domain `mydomain.com` right now? Some registrars won't accept the DNS servers until the DNS servers are already functional and serving the domain in question.

Mucker

8/30/24, 12:34 PM

@rupert that's a shame. I would just move the domain away then to a better registrar who do not lock you into this, probably with the sole intent to force you to buy that service with them!

Drifter104

8/30/24, 12:45 PM

Silly question but you aren't trying to edit the route53 dns records for your domain are you. You are trying to update the name servers within the domain right. In route53 there is the hosted zone which is auto created when you register a domain, but there is also the the "domain" management. That is where you want to edit the name servers

Rupert Rawnsley

8/30/24, 12:45 PM

@raj they are running and responding to requests for the target domain, but they aren't configured to respond for arbitrary domains. If they are testing, perhaps they might test for that? It's worth eliminating at least, but the rejections come through so quickly I doubt it's anything but a database lookup.

Rupert Rawnsley

8/30/24, 12:47 PM

@Drifter104 definately not a silly question because that's what I was doing yesterday :-) Changes to the MX record in the hosted zone work fine, but it fails in the "Registered domains" console.

Drifter104

8/30/24, 12:49 PM

Odd I just looked at route53 and was able to add a completely made-up nameserver and it worked fine.

Rupert Rawnsley

8/30/24, 12:56 PM

@Drifter104 click the "Check Status" button and check your emails. It goes through fine, but there is an instant fail and when I refresh it hasn't actually changed.

Drifter104

8/30/24, 1:00 PM

I get the email saying it has been requested and the status shows that is successful and they are showing in the Registered domain page too

Rupert Rawnsley

8/30/24, 1:02 PM

@Drifter104 Huh. What domain did you enter out of interest?

Drifter104

8/30/24, 1:26 PM

Ah ok - so it works fine on other tld domains but not .com domains. I didn't spot that initially in the question. My bad

Rupert Rawnsley

8/30/24, 1:55 PM

@Drifter104 actually that will do for now. I can just as easily use a different TLD for this application. Thank you for your help!

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: How to host my own DNS server for my own domain

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.