Set up private nameservers for reseller hosting
Give your clients nameservers on your own domain, such as ns1.yourbrand.in, so nothing in their DNS points back to us. It takes three matching changes: glue records at your registrar, A records in your zone and the nameserver setting in WHM.
Before you start
- A domain for your brand, for example yourbrand.in, and the login for the registrar where it is registered.
- The two reseller IP addresses from your reseller plan's welcome email.
- Your WHM login, and access to wherever the DNS for yourbrand.in is managed today.
How private nameservers work
When someone visits a client's site, their resolver asks the registry for that extension where the domain's DNS lives. With private nameservers the answer is ns1.yourbrand.in. That creates a loop: to reach ns1.yourbrand.in, the resolver needs its IP address, and that address is published inside yourbrand.in itself.
Glue records break the loop. Unlike the zone records covered in DNS records explained, they are IP addresses stored at the registry next to your domain, so resolvers can reach your nameservers without asking them first. That is why the setup touches four places, and why the values must match in each:
| Piece | Where you set it | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Child nameservers (glue) | Registrar of yourbrand.in | ns1 → IP 1, ns2 → IP 2 |
| A records | The DNS zone of yourbrand.in | The same two IPs |
| Default nameservers | WHM › Basic WebHost Manager Setup | ns1/ns2.yourbrand.in |
| Client domains | Each client's registrar | ns1/ns2.yourbrand.in |
Use the same two IPs everywhere. If the glue at the registry and the A records in your zone disagree, some resolvers follow one and some the other. The result is a fault that comes and goes, which is the hardest kind to diagnose.
Step 1: Find your two reseller IPs
Every reseller plan comes with two IP addresses for nameservers. They are in the welcome email we send when WHM is ready, and in the client area under Servicesyour reseller plan.
Can't find the email? Open a ticket and we'll send the IPs again. We never need your password to look them up.
Step 2: Register child nameservers at your registrar
-
Open the host or glue settings for your brand domain
Sign in at the registrar of yourbrand.in and open the domain. The setting is usually called Child Nameservers, Register Nameservers, Host Names, Personal Nameservers or Glue Records. It is a different screen from the one where you change a domain's nameservers.
-
Create ns1 and ns2 with your two IPs
Add one host per IP. Some registrars want just the prefix (
ns1), others the full name (ns1.yourbrand.in). Use IPv4 addresses only, without spaces or a trailing dot.Host namens2.yourbrand.inIP address203.0.113.11ns1.yourbrand.in Registered203.0.113.10ns2.yourbrand.in Adding203.0.113.11Add hostCancelLabels vary between registrars. The two names and two IPs are what matter. -
Save and let the registry publish them
Most registries publish new glue within minutes, some within a few hours. You can carry on with the next steps while you wait.
Is yourbrand.in registered with us? In the client area open Domainsyourbrand.inPrivate Nameservers, register each name with its IP, and save.
Step 3: Add A records for ns1 and ns2
Glue tells the registry where your nameservers are. Your own zone must say the same thing to anyone who asks your DNS directly. Add the records wherever the DNS for yourbrand.in is hosted today:
- Hosted as an account in your WHM: WHMDNS FunctionsEdit DNS Zone, or cPanelDomainsZone Editor inside that account.
- DNS at your registrar or Cloudflare: add them there. On Cloudflare, set both to DNS only (grey cloud); nameserver hosts can't be proxied.
; in the zone for yourbrand.in
ns1 14400 IN A 203.0.113.10
ns2 14400 IN A 203.0.113.11Step 4: Set the nameservers in WHM
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Open the nameserver settings
Log in to WHM and go to WHMServer ConfigurationBasic WebHost Manager Setup, then scroll to Nameservers. You can also type "basic" into the search box at the top left of WHM.
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Enter your names and save
Put
ns1.yourbrand.inin the first field andns2.yourbrand.inin the second. Leave the third and fourth empty, then click Save Changes.NameserversUsed for new accountsNameserver 1ns1.yourbrand.inNameserver 2ns2.yourbrand.inNameserver 3Nameserver 4Save ChangesThe setting is written into the DNS zone of every account you create from now on. -
Update accounts you created earlier
Zones made before the change still list the old NS records. Edit them in WHMDNS FunctionsEdit DNS Zone, or open a ticket and we'll update every zone on your reseller account in one go.
No Nameservers section in your WHM? Some reseller accounts don't have the privilege for it. Don't work around it by editing zones one by one: ask us in a ticket and we'll set the defaults on your account.
Step 5: Point your clients' domains at them
At each client's registrar, replace the nameservers with ns1.yourbrand.in and ns2.yourbrand.in, exactly as described in Point your domain to VirtualCloud. Create the client's cPanel account first, so its zone already exists when the first query arrives; Create packages and cPanel accounts in WHM walks through it.
Your own yourbrand.in can use the private nameservers as well, once the glue is live and the domain has a zone on your reseller account.
Check that your nameservers work
Our DNS lookup tool shows what two public resolvers return, and the WHOIS lookup shows which nameservers a client domain is set to at its registry. From a terminal, run these three checks in order:
# 1. Does each nameserver name resolve to the right IP?
dig +short A ns1.yourbrand.in @1.1.1.1
dig +short A ns2.yourbrand.in @8.8.8.8
# 2. Does the server answer for a client domain when asked directly?
dig +short A clientdomain.in @ns1.yourbrand.in
# 3. Which nameservers does the registry hand out for that client?
dig +short NS clientdomain.inOn Windows, nslookup ns1.yourbrand.in 1.1.1.1 and nslookup -type=NS clientdomain.in 8.8.8.8 do the same job.
Glue usually shows up within an hour. A client domain that switches nameservers can take up to 48 hours to reach everyone, because registries hand out NS records with long cache times; the .com servers, for example, use two days.
Done when all three agree. Check 1 returns your two IPs, check 2 returns the client's site IP and check 3 lists your two names. From then on, nothing in your clients' DNS mentions VirtualCloud.
Private nameserver troubleshooting
A client's registrar won't accept ns1.yourbrand.in
The child nameservers aren't registered yet, or were registered under a different spelling. Register them on yourbrand.in first and wait an hour. If the client's domain uses a different extension (a .com client with .in nameservers), some registrars ask for the IP again as an "external host"; enter the same IP.
ns1 resolves to an old or wrong IP
The glue at the registrar and the A record in your zone disagree, or a resolver still holds the old answer. Correct both to the same IP, then allow for the TTL to expire (14400 seconds is four hours) before checking again.
My own brand domain stopped resolving
You probably switched yourbrand.in to its own nameservers before it had a zone on your reseller account. Add it as an account in WHM so the zone exists, or switch its nameservers back until everything else checks out.
The nameserver answers REFUSED or SERVFAIL for a client domain
There is no zone for that domain on the server yet: the account hasn't been created, or it was created under a different domain or spelling. Create or correct the account in WHM, then repeat check 2 above.
A DNS checker warns that both nameservers are on the same network
That is a notice, not an error. Both of your IPs belong to the server your reseller plan runs on, which is how branded nameservers work on reseller hosting. Resolution isn't affected.
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Tickets and email are answered 24/7 in English and Hindi. Include your brand domain, the two IPs you used and one client domain that isn't resolving.