Nameserver Selection

This feature allows you to select which nameserver software you wish to use. If you do not wish to run nameservers on the server, you may also disable nameserver software here. Nameservers match domain names to IP addresses. When a visitor attempts to find a website hosted by your server, his computer will ask a nameserver for the IP address for the domain he wishes to view. The nameserver will, in turn, return the IP address for your web server, directing the visitor to the proper page.

You will need nameservers in order to propagate your server’s domain names. These nameservers, when properly configured, will communicate with other nameservers to spread the record of sites hosted on your server. The period during which this occurs is known as the propagation period — the time it takes for a new website’s IP information to spread accross the Internet. During this time, not everyone across the Internet will be able to access websites hosted on your server. It may take up to a week for the record of a website to spread (propagate) across the Internet.

For clustering to work properly on the machine, you must select one of the available nameserver software options, regardless of whether or not each site on your server have their nameserver records pointed to other servers in the cluster.

Both BIND and NSD can use the same zone (data) files, but use differently formatted configuration files.

BIND vs. NSD

Traditionally, WHM has installed BIND as its nameserver. BIND is more configurable and provides a caching nameserver, making it the appropriate choice for most servers. However, NSD provides DNS functionality while using less memory. For a comparison of these 2 nameservers, see the WHM Nameserver Selection screen.

To select a nameserver:

1. Select either BIND or NSD.
   • Note: Using NSD requires that external nameserver IPs be added to the resolv.conf file.
2. Click Save.

To disable the nameserver:

1. Select Disabled.
2. Click Save.

Remember: If you intend to host websites on your server, you will need to configure your nameservers. Without nameservers, visitors would not be able to reach sites hosted on your server when they enter a URL into a browser.