Setting Up DNS Using Webmin

After you created your Virtual Host with our previous article, you need to setup your DNS to tell the world where your website is hosted so it can be accessible from any browser.

In this tutorial you will see "yourdomain.tld" many times. Replace that with the domain you are setting up.

(Depending on your Distro, you may need to change the Module Configuration, which you can find at the top left of the window entitled "Module Config"... Right under the "Webmin" icon.)

Log into Webmin, and update it (if it needs it). 

Go to Servers, and then click on "BIND DNS Server". If you can't see it then it needs to be installed.

Start BIND by clicking at the top right option on your browser:

Creating a Master Zone.

1) Click on "Create master zone"
2) Enter the domain without the www into the "Domain name / network" box.
3) For the master server, type in the domain name as well. 
4) You can check the "Create NS record" box if you'd like.
5) Enter your email address in the appropriate box.
6) Type in the IP address of the server (The external IP address provided by your ISP).
7) Click "Create"

You will then be redirected to the zone page for that domain you just created. (If you weren't, click on the zone for that domain).

Creating A records (Address Records).

1) Click on "Address"
2) Leave the name field blank, and type in the IP address.
3) Click Save.
(The following is dependent on what you want to run the server for.)
4) Type in www for the name, and type in the IP address.
5) Click Save.
6) Type in mail for the name, and type in the IP address.
7) Click Save.
8) Type in ftp for the name, and type in the IP address.
9) Click Save.
10) Type in ns1 for the name, and type in the IP address.
11) Click Save.
12) Type in ns2 for the name, and type in the IP address.
13) Click Save.
14) At the bottom, click "Return to Record Types"

Creating NS records (Name Servers).

1) Click on Name Server
2) For the zone name, type in the domain name (Put a . at the end; for example:
yourdomain.tld.
(Notice the ending period... DO Not Forget that)
3) For the name server, type in ns1.yourdomain.tld.
(Also notice the period)
4) Click Save.
5) Type in ns2.yourdomain.tld.
6) Click Save.
7) Click "Return to Record Types"

Creating an MX Record (Mail Exchange Record).

1) Click Mail Server (If you want a mail server).
(Make sure you put the period at the end; mail.yourdomain.tld.
2) For the name, type in the domain.
3) For the mail server, type in mail.yourdomain.tld.
4) Set the priority to what you like... 10 is usually default. This is more of a concern if you are hosting a lot of domains.
5) Click "Return to Record Types"

This is the bulk of setting up DNS through Webmin. After you are done making any changes, make sure you restart Bind (named). Give it up to 72 hours to propogate... usually less than an hour.

Let's go now to the final step in our next article which is where we create a user for you to login to your FTP server and upload your site.

Thank you for reading.

Serverpronto.