Setting Up a Subdomain with an External Nameserver in BIND: A Comprehensive Guide

As a Google SEOer, understanding the intricacies of DNS management is crucial to delivering the best user experience and ensuring your website is properly indexed. One common issue encountered by many web administrators is setting up a subdomain that is managed by an external nameserver in the BIND environment. This article will guide you through the process, addressing the challenge you've faced and providing step-by-step instructions to successfully achieve your setup.

Understanding the Issue

Your concern is a common one: trying to set up a subdomain where the nameservers are managed by an external service, such as DigitalOcean, but you are unable to resolve the subdomain or its subdomains directly from your local BIND server. When you attempt to set your NS records to an external service, you encounter an issue where you can't resolve the names of your subdomains or the subdomain itself.

Why Can't I Set Multiple Name Servers for a Domain?

One key point to understand is that you cannot have more than one set of name servers for a domain. Once you have delegated your domain's nameservers to an external service like DigitalOcean, any attempt to manage these nameservers locally will not work. This is because the domain's authoritative DNS records are now maintained by the external service, and your local BIND server is not aware of or able to manage these records.

Managing Your DNS with DigitalOcean

To resolve your issue and successfully set up your subdomain with an external nameserver, you need to manage all DNS records for this subdomain through the DigitalOcean DNS management interface. Here’s how you can do it:

Step 1: Transfer DNS Management to DigitalOcean

First, you need to instruct your domain registrar to transfer the management of your domain's DNS records to DigitalOcean. This involves changing the NS records associated with your domain to point to DigitalOcean's nameservers.

You can do this through your domain registrar's control panel or by contacting their support team for assistance.

Step 2: Create Your Subdomain in DigitalOcean

Log in to your DigitalOcean account and navigate to the DNS management interface.

Create the A or CNAME record for your subdomain, depending on your specific needs. For example, if you want to point the subdomain to an IP address, create an A record. If you want to point it to another domain, create a CNAME record.

Ensure that the TTL (Time to Live) is set appropriately for swift propagation of your DNS changes.

Step 3: Propagate Your Changes

Once you’ve created the necessary DNS records in DigitalOcean, wait for the changes to propagate. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate fully, but changes should usually take effect within a few hours.

Use a DNS checker tool to monitor the propagation of your changes. Tools like can help you verify that the records have been updated.

Conclusion

Setting up a subdomain with an external nameserver in the BIND environment can be achieved by transferring DNS management to the external service and creating the necessary DNS records through their interface. By following these steps, you can successfully set up your subdomain and avoid the issues you encountered when attempting to manage the nameservers locally.

Remember that once the NS records are transferred to the external service, your local BIND server should no longer be used for DNS management of that subdomain. Instead, all DNS management should be done through the DigitalOcean DNS management interface.

Keywords

BIND, Subdomain, External Nameserver