Knowledge Base

Vanity DNS allows you to re-brand authoritative name servers using your own domain name as the host name. The end result is that your own domain name becomes the hostname for your nameservers which map back to IP addresses of DNS Made Easy name servers.

Setting up a Vanity DNS solution is 100% free in DNS Made Easy. This option is only configurable with our Managed DNS product. 

We will create Vanity DNS for the domain example.com by creating the name server host names ns10-ns15.example.com 

Side Note: We also assign other name servers, which are ns0-ns4 for primary name servers. The set will depend on the name servers that have been assigned to your domain. 
 

You will need to complete all of these steps: 

Some of these steps require actions to be taken within your domain registrar account. Your domain registrar is the company that you purchased your domain name from.

1. Configure Vanity Name Servers within our Control Panel

• To start, obtain a list of the IP addresses associated with each DNS Made Easy name server assigned to your domain. NOTE: Domains need to share the same name servers to use the same vanity name servers. The domains example-domain.com and example.com share the same DNS Made Easy name servers (as seen in the DNS Made Easy control panel) so they can share the same Vanity DNS configuration. If they did NOT have the same DNS Made Easy name servers they could NOT share the same Vanity DNS configuration. To see which name servers are assigned to a domain, please view the tutorial located here. Choose a domain name to use as the hostname for your Vanity name servers and define each host. You will then want to come up with names for your name servers. You can call them anything you want (chris.example.com, curly.example.com, mountain.example.com, or ns10.example.com, ns15.example.com, etc..) We will use the example.com domain to create ns10-ns15.example.com as name servers for this example.
• Create A records for your Vanity name servers on your authoritative name server. This is usually completed within the DNS Made Easy control panel because your vanity DNS domain should be configured on a reliable DNS infrastructure. The IP addresses you set up should match the IP addresses that were registered within your registrar and the IP’s recorded in Step #1. In the case of this tutorial, we will create A records in the example.com domain because this is the domain we are using for our Vanity NS hostnames. If you require assistance creating A records please view our tutorial on creating A records.
  
• Select Advanced, then Click on Vanity Nameservers
  
• Click the Plus Sign (+) to add a new configuration.
  
• A) Give an Identifiable name for your new configuration.
• B) Set the Vanity Nameserver Configurations to Default 
• C) Select the name server grouping your configuration should apply to from the drop-down menu. This is the same group of name servers that the domain which will use this configuration is assigned to within DNS Made Easy. If you only have one listing then all of your domains in DNS Made Easy are using the same name servers.
• D) Create your Vanity Name Server hostnames, one per line.
• E) Click Submit
  

2. Navigate to Managed DNS

At the top of the Control Panel, Click the DNS Menu and select Managed DNS from the drop down. Assign / Apply the domain to use the Vanity Name Server configuration in the DNS Made Easy control panel.

3. Select your Domain

Select a domain from the either the “Recently Updated Domains” box, or start typing the domain name in the textbox on the “Select Domain” tab.

• Click the Settings tab
  
• Click on the Vanity NS Config box and select the name you gave the vanity name server configuration in step 1. 
• Click Save, this will update your System Defined NS records for the example.com domain.
  

4. Apply Vanity Name Servers at the Registrar

• Register the name servers and IP addresses within your registrar’s interface. This maps the A records with the name servers that you created in step 1. Each registrar has a different configuration for this so you will need to get instruction from them on where exactly this is done in their interface.
• Tell your registrar to assign your Vanity Name Servers as authoritative name servers for your domain. This is done at your domain registrar. This can only be done if registration was completed. You already have Vanity NS configured and you want to use the name servers for another domain? No problem!
  If you already have a Vanity Name Server configuration then you can apply it to your other domains that are using the same name servers by completing step 2.