DNS Branding / Vanity Name Servers / White-Label DNS

What is DNS Branding?

DNS Branding also called Vanity DNS is an option which allows our clients to use our DNS servers branded with their own domain names. For an example ns1.your-domain.com and ns2.your-domain.com, instead of ns1.cloudns.net and ns2.cloudns.net.

ClouDNS manages and provides its services with multiple server and IP addresses around the world. In order to provide best quality to our customers, we are making load balancing through different server groups. The server names and the IP addresses are different for each group and this is the reason that in this article we will use the following server names and IP addresses as an example:

Note: In your configuration, you need to use the server IP addresses listed in the pop-up window when you click on "available name servers" on your Dashboard page - DNS hosting section, right next to "create zone" button.

How to set it up?

To configure DNS Branding, you just need to follow these simple steps:

1) You must add Child Name Servers (Glue Records) to your-domain.com from your domain's registrar control panel. If your domain name is registered in ClouDNS, please click "Child name servers" button from the domain name management page. The Child name servers must be added in the following way:

Note: You should use the IP addresses listed in the pop-up window when you click on "available name servers" on your Dashboard page - DNS hosting section, right next to "create zone" button.

2) Add the same A records as the Child Name Servers into the DNS zone your-domain.com. In this article we will use an example with Master DNS zone, created in our control panel, but there is no problem to make the same configuration with Slave (Secondary) DNS zone at your own server. If you still don't have a Master DNS zone with the name of your-domain.com, you can register it from the "Add new" button in the table "DNS zones" in your Dashboard. When you are ready, open the DNS zone by clicking on its name in the table "DNS zones". You will be forwarded to the DNS Records page of your-domain.com. Here you need to add the following A records:

Note: You should use the IP addresses listed in the pop-up window when you click on "available name servers" on your Dashboard page - DNS hosting section, right next to "create zone" button. In this article we are using example IPs.

3) When you are ready with the A records, you need to change the NS records of the DNS Zone to the new server names. You can do this by editing the existing NS records or you can remove them and add new NS records with your new server names. When you complete this step, your NS records list should be like this:

4) Now your DNS branding configuration is ready to be applied at the domain registrar. You need to change the name servers from the panel of your domain provider to the new branded server names. If your domain name is registered through ClouDNS, go to your Dashboard and click on the domain name in the table "Domain names". From the button "Name servers", you will be forwarded to the name servers configuration page. Here you can change the domain name servers to your new branded server names:

When you complete step 4, your DNS branding configuration will be completed and everything should be applied on all DNS resolvers from 24 to 48 hours.

5) (optional) You can change the Primary NS in your SOA record. You can do this from the "SOA settings" button in your DNS zone. There is no problem if the Primary NS is not updated.
Once you have configured DNS branding with your-domain.com, you can use the branded server names for all DNS zones you are adding at ClouDNS. It is not required to make different DNS branding configuration for each domain name.