Questions about Change Domain Request

[danielc_au]

Hello crocs,

I am aware of the form located at https://secure.hostgator.com/changedomain.php though I have a few questions first. I'm new to VPS/Dedicated hosts and would like to make sure my idea is valid first.

Consider the scenario: My current domain is http://sonus-online.net however it was "generated" as son.sonus-online.net (this is what appears in VZ container, and what is set as the linux hostname file). My site is not up yet and I decided on a name change, I've already registered the domain azuze.net for it.

So here are my questions. (a) can I request, in the form, that "the domain I want changed" is son.sonus-online.net, and that I want the new name to be host.azuze.net? (b) Will this rename the container in the VZ power panel? (c) Will this change my primary domain name AND (primary) nameserver to (host.)azuze.net and ns1.azuze.net?

One last question - Also, the sites are NOT open so I'm not worried about downtime at all, except for Mail @sonus-online.net. I assume incomming mail will be queued/delayed while the DNS/nameservers propagate and wait for me to re-create the sonus-online.net account...? What's the best way to approach this to ensure I don't loose any mail stuck in the pipes?

Basically, I want to remove all references to "Sonus Online" in my new plan and would like it to be Azuze. And if possible, the auto-generated azu.azuze.net is undesirable and I am worried about getting this as I would actually like to use host.azuze.net for authorized/protected services to internal clients and colleagues (a VPN connection and an XMPP server for example).

I probably should have thought about this more before purchasing the VPS



BTW I found (and did do) this already on my root host but I needed to set various files to read-only otherwise a server reboot resets them. And obviously it's best to do it properly

Thanks VERY much in advance for any tips/advice on the best way to approach this!

[quietFinn]

Originally Posted by danielc_au

I am aware of the form located at https://secure.hostgator.com/changedomain.php though I have a few questions first. I'm new to VPS/Dedicated hosts and would like to make sure my idea is valid first.

There is not such a thing as "primary domain" in a VPS/Dedicated server, so you do not use that form.
What you are doing is changing the hostname of the VPS.
Basically you can do that in WHM, but probably you must ask HG support to change something in the container so that it doesn't revert back after reboot.

Originally Posted by danielc_au

So here are my questions. (a) can I request, in the form, that "the domain I want changed" is son.sonus-online.net, and that I want the new name to be host.azuze.net? (b) Will this rename the container in the VZ power panel? (c) Will this change my primary domain name AND (primary) nameserver to (host.)azuze.net and ns1.azuze.net?

You can change the hostname in WHM-> Networking Setup-> Change Hostname. Also change it in WHM-> Server Configuration-> Basic cPanel/WHM setup.
Then in the DNS zone of azuze.net, you must create an A record , that points to the primary IP of your VPS.
Then contact HG support to change the hostname in the VPS container.

For the nameservers you must add A records for ns1 & ns2 in the DNS zone of azuze.net.
And don't forget to register the nameservers in the registrar of azuze.net!.
Then go to WHM-> Server Configuration-> Basic cPanel/WHM setup-> Nameservers and set the nameservers, ns1.azuze.net & ns2.azuze.net, and for each click "Assign IP address".

Notice that the domain azuze.net does not have to be hosted in your VPS. You just must be able to create the hostname A record (and the nameserver A records) in the DNS zone of azuze.net, wherever it's hosted.

[danielc_au]

quietFinn,

Thank you VERY much for the concise reply. Especially the last Notice {...} paragraph, I had previously assumed that such things are "mutually locked" (so to speak) between the Domain and Webhost. All in all, I appreciate the quick lesson!

So it would be best I assume, to make all these changes in WHM/Bash myself, then afterwards open a ticket to request the necessary adjustments to the Parallels container to reflect the new settings.

Too easy! Thanks again

[danielc_au]

Thought i'd follow up incase anybody else comes across this thread.

I had problems changing from (son.)sonus-online.net to (host.)azuze.net in the WHM frontend, mainly with the IP assignments. It would either result in errors or simply stop responding. I googled around and it's a known issue, just something that happens in WHM. So I did all the editing manually via root console:

hostname host.azuze.net
- Standard redhat command

nano /etc/sysconfig/network
nano /etc/hosts
nano /etc/nameserverips
- Changed (and/or confirmed) the name changes in these files

chattr +i /etc/sysconfig/network
chattr +i /etc/hosts
chattr +i /etc/nameserverips
- Set them to read-only incase it resets itself before Parallels is updated (hopefully good enough for the next short period of waiting)


Then I followed your advice quietFinn to make sure everything in WHM was correct and it seemed so, including the nameserver IP's. I registered the IP's to the new ns#.azuze.net nameserver records on my domain registrar (for only the azure.net domain) and changed the DNS Servers for it and all my OTHER hosted domains on the azuze server to mach these new nameservers ns#.azuze.net.

I wonder though - Is it possible to register multiple nameservers to the same IP? I.e. ns1.azuze.net and ns1.sonus-online.net registered both registered (on each domain)? It is logical if this is impossible, but I can't find any info on it (not sure what to search for really though). I can't really think of any advantage to it though if it is possible, apart from an aesthetic one
EDIT/UPDATE: I read that it might/sometimes works, depending on the registrar, however it can cause routing issues and should be avoided.

Well hopefully that's all that has to do. Now, I wait for nameserver propogation and hopefully I won't miss a days worth of E-Mail and it'll eventually get into Thunderbird! After all seems well and propagated, and I don't get any NAMED or other related E-Mail alerts; I'll contact HostGator staff to ask if the changes to Parallels/VZ can be made.

I'll let you know of the end result when it happens. Thanks again!

[quietFinn]

Originally Posted by danielc_au

Thought i'd follow up incase anybody else comes across this thread.

I had problems changing from (son.)sonus-online.net to (host.)azuze.net in the WHM frontend, mainly with the IP assignments. It would either result in errors or simply stop responding.

You mean to assign the nameserver IPs?
There is a setting in WHM that is often causing troubles, you should do:
WHM -> Server Configuration -> Tweak Settings and check Disable whois lookups for the nameserver IP manager.

Originally Posted by danielc_au

I wonder though - Is it possible to register multiple nameservers to the same IP? I.e. ns1.azuze.net and ns1.sonus-online.net registered both registered (on each domain)?

Yes it's possible and very common, usually one reseller's "private nameservers" are using the same IPs as other resellers in the same server.

[danielc_au]

Whois lookups are already disabled. The problem was, I would press X to remove the IP assignment, it would go to the screen "Removing IP" and just hang there. It's all right though, sorted it out. Another I forgot was to refresh the self-signed certificates

The nameserver one is a good point, thanks for the tip. NEver thought about it from a reseller point of view.

Everything seems fine, however the "IP address usage" screen still shows son.sonus-online.net - can this be safely ignored?

And is it possible to add a user for the main domain (i.e. use the IP directly) or do I need to create a seperate account for azuze.net too since it's already reserved for host.azuze.net? Hope that makes sense

Everything else is checked out OK. Thanks!

[quietFinn]

Originally Posted by danielc_au

Everything seems fine, however the "IP address usage" screen still shows son.sonus-online.net - can this be safely ignored?

Probably there is a DNS Zone for son.sonus-online.net, and you should remove that.

Originally Posted by danielc_au

And is it possible to add a user for the main domain (i.e. use the IP directly) or do I need to create a seperate account for azuze.net too since it's already reserved for host.azuze.net? Hope that makes sense

I'm not sure if I understand....

As I already mentioned there must somewhere be a DNS Zone for the domain azuze.net (and that somewhere is where the nameservers of that domain are pointing to of course), and in that DNS Zone you have the A records for the hostname & the nameservers. If you want to host the domain azuze.net in your VPS the usual way is to create an account for it, which would also create the DNS Zone for it.

But I don't undestand what you mean by "add a user for the main domain"...

[danielc_au]

Originally Posted by quietFinn

Probably there is a DNS Zone for son.sonus-online.net, and you should remove that.

Yeah I noticed the zones and deleted them. I'm sure it'll fix itself as the front-end cache updates, or it's just a visual thing (possibly a hard-coded string when WHM was installed). If it persists I'll ask at the cPanel forums.

Originally Posted by quietFinn

If you want to host the domain azuze.net in your VPS the usual way is to create an account for it, which would also create the DNS Zone for it.

Great, that sums it up. Basically I was wondering, well host.azuze.net is from /root/public_html but I was curious if it's possible to specify azure.net could point to /something/public_html instead of /home/user/public_html for example but this is probably low-level httpd or something and doesn't really have a point come to think of it


Well that answers everything. Thanks yet again quietFinn, couldn't be happier with the support!