Creating SOA records

[indika.piyasena]

Hi

I'm trying to register a domain that I created via the Plesk 7.5.4 interface. When I do, I receive a message from the co.za administrators that "there is no pre-existing SOA record for mydomain.co.za."

In Plesk, under the DNS settings for mydomain, there is no option to create SOA records. Does this imply that I may need root privaleges to the Plesk server to create these records?

Thanks in advance,
Indika

 

[Pavluha]

Please check and create A record as minimum for your domain

 

[indika.piyasena]

SOA records

Hi Pavluha, thanks for your response.

I believe that I have all the necessary A records. Here is a list of the DNS records that I have:

DNS zone for the domain mydomain.co.za is a master DNS server
Host Record type Value
mydomain.co.za. NS ns1.mydomain.co.za.
mydomain.co.za. NS ns2.mydomain.co.za.
mydomain.co.za. A 69.10.154.196
webmail.mydomain.co.za. A 69.10.154.196
mail.mydomain.co.za. A 69.10.154.196
ns1.mydomain.co.za. A 69.10.154.196
ns2.mydomain.co.za. A 69.10.154.197
ns.mydomain.co.za. A 69.10.154.196
ftp.mydomain.co.za. CNAME mydomain.co.za.
www.mydomain.co.za. CNAME mydomain.co.za.
mydomain.co.za. MX (10) mail.mydomain.co.za.
69.10.154.196 / 24 PTR mydomain.co.za.
69.10.154.196 / 24 PTR ns1.mydomain.co.za.
69.10.154.197 / 24 PTR ns2.mydomain.co.za.

Can I still create SOA records somewhere?
When I try to register, I get the error message "There is no pre-existing SOA record for mydomain.co.za.". I have a hunch that it is because reverse DNS is not enabled.

Is there some administrator function on the Plesk interface that will enable reverse DNS?

Regards,
Indika

 

[faris]

I don't quite understand the terminology that is being used nor why things are happening like this, but maybe my best guess will help you?

When you register a domain - any domain, anywhere - you need to tell the registrar which nameservers the domain should use.

In your case, in plesk, you have specified:

ns1.mydomain.co.za and ns2.mydomain.co.za

But mydomain.co.za does not exist yet - you have not registered it yet, so it is impossible to use this as a nameserver.

I'm presuming that during the registration process you enter ns1.mydomain.co.za and ns2.mydomain.co.za as the nameservers you want to use? If so then this is the problem.

There are a number of options open to you if this is the issue (just ignore me if it is not).

1) When registering the domain, use whatever default namservers your registrar offers you. Then, once the domain is registered, use the "Create namserver host record" (or similar) option provided by your registrar to create ns1.mydomain.co.za (and ns2), specifying the two IP addresses as listed in the DNS record you created in Plesk. Note: This is quite confusing, but basically you have to create a namserver through your registrar - you can't just create records in Plesk. ns1 and ns2 must be "officially" created first. After you have done all this and waited a good 48 hours you should then be able to change the nameservers settings for your domain in your registrar's control panel to ns1.mydomain.co.za and ns2.mydomain.co.za

2) Maybe this is the simplest option: Register mydomain.com through any registrar, again use the default namservers provided by the registrar, and then create namserver host records ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com. Wait 48 hours for this to propagate. Then go back to your .co.za registrar and register mydomain.co.za again and specify ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com as the nameserver.

Anyway, like I said, if I've totally misunderstood what you are saying and what your problem is please forgive me and just ignore this message!

Faris.

 

[indika.piyasena]

Thanks for your interest in my problem. It's quite a mission to solve given the dns propagation delays. So I'll tackle it one step at a time.

I have access to a web server via a Plesk interface. It has an IP number 1.2.3.4 and a name h1-2-3-4.n-01.net. On this server, I can create a domain called mydomain.co.za and add DNS records to the domain. Some of the records I have are:
ns1.mydomain.co.za. A 1.2.3.4
ns2.mydomain.co.za. A 1.2.3.5
1.2.3.4 / 24 PTR ns1.mydomain.co.za.
1.2.3.5 / 24 PTR ns2.mydomain.co.za.

So now I assume that the nameserver ns1.mydomain.co.za exists on the server h1-2-3-4.n-01.net.

Then I try to register the domain via the coza bot. It requires a FQDN of the nameserver and the ip address of it. So I provide:
Primary server FQDN: ns1.mydomain.co.za
Primary server IP address: 1.2.3.4
Secondary server FQDN: ns2.mydomain.co.za
Secondary server IP address: 1.2.3.5

However, it fails with the message:
***BEGIN ERROR MESSAGE***
There is no pre-existing SOA record for mydomain.co.za.

CHECKING: Nameserver Pair 6a, 6b: ns1.mydomain.co.za, 1.2.3.4
INFO: Name "h1-2-3-4.n-01.net" -
ERROR: Nameserver Pair 6a, 6b:, Reverse check. ns1.arounduct.co.za not in h1-2-3-4.n-01.net

! Nameserver Pair 6a, 6b:, Reverse check. You specified 1.2.3.4 would give ns1.mydomain.co.za, DNS returned h1-2-3-4.n-01.net
***END ERROR MESSAGE***
Which makes sense because the IP 1.2.3.4 points to the server h1-2-3-4.n-01.net. And the server h1-2-3-4.n-01.net hosts multiple domains!

So I have a hunch that although I have PTR records associated with mydomain.co.za on the 1.2.3.4 server, it is insufficient because reverse dns is not enabled. Can this be enabled with Plesk administrator privaleges?

Regarding the solution suggest by Faris: unfortunately the coza bot requires that I have fully functional nameservers before it will register the domain, and it gives no default nameservers.

I'm so confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Indika

 

[faris]

Hi Indika,

From what you say I'm now almost 100% sure that I was right about the problem.

You see when you try to register the domain in coza, and enter ns1 and ns2 and the IP addresses, coza checks to see if those namservers actually exist.

Now this is the crucial thing -- they do NOT exist, so coza throws up the error you describe.

In order to create a nameserver you must first register a domain, then once it is registered you must then use the registrar's "create nameserver hos recordst" (or similar words) facility to create namservers (you don't do this though Plesk). So if you register mydomain.com, you can then create namservers based on mydomain.com (e.g. ns1.mydomain.com pointing to one IP on your server, and ns2.mydomain.com pointing to another IP on your server).

It seems clear that coza does not support the creation of namservers, nor does it allow you to register a domain and use default namservers.

So the only solution is to register a domain using a "normal" registrar (e.g. www.c1-domain.com WARNING: this is my domain name reseller account so I will benefit financially if you use it - please feel free to use any registrar - I'm only mentioning mine as a suggestion) to register a non-co.za domain (anything "normal" will do, but I suggest you stick to .com, .net or .org) and then create namservers through that domain.

Then, after you have done that and given it 24 to 48 hours, you can then go back to coza and register mydomain.co.za through coza, entering ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com and the appropriate IPs (or whatever you chose if it was not .com or not mydomain) and all will be well.

Also, you will eventually need reverse dns records for the IPs of your server in order to be able to send email to certain places (e.g. AOL). This is something your ISP or co-lo or server provider can do for you - again it is not something you can do in Plesk. But this is not realted to nameservers etc.

Faris.

 

[indika.piyasena]

Hello Faris,

I'm glad that your confident regarding the solution. I wanted to grab the domain name while it was available, so I got one of the local web hosting companies to register it for me.

So now the primary fqdn is: ns01.webafrica.co.za at 69.93.1.30. My nameservers ns1.around.co.za and ns2.around.co.za exist by checking at www.nwtools.com.

So I need to get webafrica to update the registration information to:
fqdn: ns1.around.co.za
ip: myip

Or do I have to register a non-coza domain?
Very strange that I need to employ round-about method to register a domain with coza?

Thanks a lot Farris.
Regards,
Indika