Manage a DNS zone

What is a DNS zone

The DNS zone is the domain you delegate to Gcore authoritative NS servers. The following values can be used as the DNS zone: 

• a second-level domain (testdomain.com),
• a third-level domain (store.testdomain.com, blog.testdomain.com, etc.),
• or a higher-level domain (sales.store.testdomain.com).

When the DNS zone creation is completed, you can set the DNS records of your domain in non-advanced and advanced modes.

Manage a DNS zone

Create a DNS zone

1. Go to the DNS section and click the Add zone button. 

2. Enter a domain name for the DNS zone and click Confirm.

3. Review existing DNS records, and edit, delete, or add new records if necessary. Click Confirm. 

4. Go to your domain registrar account, replace the current name servers with the Gcore name servers (ns1.gcorelabs.net and ns2.gcdn.services), and click Confirm.

The created DNS zone will be displayed in the All zones section. 

Edit a DNS zone

1. In the All zones section, click the three dots icon next to the desired DNS zone and select Settings.

The pop-up opens. Configure it according to the guide below and click Save changes. Configurations will be applied to the SOA record of this zone. 

• Domain name. This parameter cannot be edited. Create a new zone with the required domain name following the instructions above.
• Negative TTL. This parameter is the time, in seconds, for which a negative response is cached. For example, a recursive DNS server requests an A-record for your domain, but that record does not exist on the authoritative NS servers. Even if you add the A record after, the DNS servers will still return a negative answer for the time specified in the "Negative TTL" field. 
• Primary DNS (available only for Enterprise tariff). In this parameter, you can specify the primary NS server that contains the information about all domain records.
• Contact (available starting from the Pro tariff). In this parameter, you can specify the administrator's email address responsible for managing the DNS zone.

Export a DNS zone in BIND format

Gcore DNS API supports the BIND zone format for the DNS zone configuration. To export a zone in BIND, click the three dots icon next to the desired DNS zone in the All zones section and then click Export zone.

The file will be downloaded to your PC as a text file with the .zone extension, e.g., test.dnsexample.com.zone.

The downloaded file will contain information about the zone, including the domain name, TTL, RRset, time intervals (refresh, update, and expiry), and the authoritative NS server. For example:

      Copy
      
    $ORIGIN test.dnsexample.com.
$TTL 300
@ IN SOA ns1.gcorelabs.net. support.gcore.com. (
  1690969313 ; serial number
  5400 ; refresh
  3600 ; update retry
  1209600 ; expiry
  300 ; minimum
)
$TTL 3600
@ IN NS ns1.gcorelabs.net.
@ IN NS ns2.gcdn.services.
$TTL 600
@ IN A 1.2.3.4
@ IN A 4.5.6.7
* IN CNAME sample.domains.com.
* IN CNAME sample-2.domains.com.

Delete a DNS zone

1. In the All zones section, click the three dots icon next to the desired DNS zone and select Delete zone.

2. Confirm the deletion in the pop-up window.