Issue with using external dns provider

[BlazedYe404]

Hello Direct Admin Community, I am currently experiencing an issue with using my domain registrars nameservers instead of hosting dns on my server itself.

- Operating System - Debian 12
- Direct Admin Version - 1.693 (Latest)
- (Default Named Service For DNS)

Nameservers were set during install (changed from the default .directadmin ones) , I also made sure the record in DNS Manager has an "NS" record & For the value is my registrars nameservers. (Both as the admin user and as the user with the domain. Seems theres no way to directly turn off dns and just use an external provider or maybe im missing it.

I have read the dns docs aswell and still no luck, as it seems thats just for hosting dns locally.
Thank you for your help!

 

[Active8]

Your post is not clear for me but in short :

1. DNS trough your registrar = DA is not controlling the DNS so any changes you make there has no effect
2. DNS managed by Directadmin (own DNS), you must provide the ip address for ns1 and ns2 that you have created in panel to your registrar, sometime that is mentioned as glue, ask your registrar for more info

 

[BlazedYe404]

Your post is not clear for me but in short :

1. DNS trough your registrar = DA is not controlling the DNS so any changes you make there has no effect
2. DNS managed by Directadmin (own DNS), you must provide the ip address for ns1 and ns2 that you have created in panel to your registrar, sometime that is mentioned as glue, ask your registrar for more info

Hello Active8, I apologize that my original post was not very clear. I am wanting to use an external provider (domain registrar) to handle DNS to avoid security implications. I was having issues with not being able to use external nameservers. (the external nameserver were were to my registrar provided ones but it still wants to run (my own) DNS Server instead, I see no way to disable dorect admin creating records and relying on my own DNS hosted on my server.

 

[Richard G]

I see no way to disable dorect admin creating records and relying on my own DNS hosted on my server.

That's not how it works. Directadmin always needs to create records to be able to work anyway, even locally.
So if you use an external DNS then point 1 in the answer of Active8 apply's to you.

In that case the records created by DA are user locally.
So if you point for a WWW A record from your external DNS to the ip of the DA server, then DA knows via it's own system, to which domain on your server it has to point so the correct website shows up.

Just leave DA using it's own things. The only thing you need to do, is to use the correct records in your external DNS like domain name, www, ftp, mail.
Everything you need extra, you need to create in both DA and the external DNS for it to work.

to handle DNS to avoid security implications.

I don't know which security implications you're afraid of, but it's ofcourse your choice which DNS you want to use.

 

[BlazedYe404]

That's not how it works. Directadmin always needs to create records to be able to work anyway, even locally.
So if you use an external DNS then point 1 in the answer of Active8 apply's to you.

In that case the records created by DA are user locally.
So if you point for a WWW A record from your external DNS to the ip of the DA server, then DA knows via it's own system, to which domain on your server it has to point so the correct website shows up.

Just leave DA using it's own things. The only thing you need to do, is to use the correct records in your external DNS like domain name, www, ftp, mail.
Everything you need extra, you need to create in both DA and the external DNS for it to work.


I don't know which security implications you're afraid of, but it's ofcourse your choice which DNS you want to use.

Hello Richard, Thank you for this information you provided me above, This really helped clear up my confusion on how DNS should be setup in DA. Beforehand i was thinking that i needed to completely disable direct admins DNS manager so it would use my external provider, This clears it up though.

What i was referring to when i mentioned being worried about "Security Implications", was that with me opening port 53 to the internet, its asking for nothing but trouble considering one misconfiguration and everything gets wrecked.

 

[BlazedYe404]

Thank you @Active8 & @Richard G

 

[Richard G]

that with me opening port 53 to the internet, its asking for nothing but trouble considering one misconfiguration and everything gets wrecked.

Port 53 is just DNS and is opened by default. You can't close it anyway, because the external DNS makes use of it to contact the local DNS.
I've run my own nameservers on Directadmin for many years and never had issues, especially since some years DA closes a security issue by default so nothing to worry about.
Normally no further manually configuration required. But I understand if you're unsure or insecure about it, no problem. Lots of people use external DNS.

 

[johannes]

Dont forget to copy manually the SPF and DKIM records, found in your local DA DNS, into your domainregistrar DNS, when you setup emailaccounts.