Overview

A zone file is a small set of instructions for resolving the specified Internet domain name to the appropriate number form of an Internet Protocol (IP) address. These instructions reside in a file on the server that administers the site.

This article explains how to edit your zone file hosted on the (mt) Media Temple nameservers, NS1.MEDIATEMPLE.NET and NS2.MEDIATEMPLE.NET.

Requirements

For your changes to be effective, you must have NS1.MEDIATEMPLE.NET and NS2.MEDIATEMPLE.NET designated as your nameservers with your registrar. See (mt) Media Temple's DNS/Nameserver information for more (mt) Media Temple nameserver details.

It is also possible to edit your zone file here, in anticipation of an upcoming change, to using (mt) Media Temple's nameservers even if you don't currently use them for your domain.

Check your current nameservers at Whois.net.

Instructions

1. Sign into the AccountCenter.
2. Click on the domain whose zone file you want to edit.
3. Scroll down to the Domain Tools section.
4. Click the Edit DNS Zone File icon, see Figure 1:

   
   Figure 1.

5. Make your desired changes - see below for details. When you're done, click Save, see Figure 2.

   
   Figure 2.

Updating and adding records

1. Follow the steps in the earlier section to access your zone file.
2. Click directly in one of the text fields of an existing record to change it or to add a new record, click the + Add a record button, see Figure 3.

   
   Figure 3.

3. Enter your information for the new record. Figure 4 is a sample of the form:

   
   Figure 4.

   • Name: Enter a subdomain of your domain or leave the box blank if you would like to edit your top-level domain. Example: store if you would like store.gs-example.com. See Figure 5.

     
     Figure 5.

   • Type: Choose one from the dropdown menu. A for an IP, CNAME for a domain, MX for mail. See Figure 6.

     
     Figure 6.

   • Data: Enter an IP address or domain name. Domain names must end with a period. MX records must also have a number before the domain, separated by a single space. See Figure 7.
     • MX example: 10 mail.example.com.

     
     Figure 7.

4. Click the Save button to save your changes.

SRV records

SRV records are rather unique in that they require more fields of information than any other type of DNS record, including MX records. Since the AccountCenter does not have separate fields for each of the required parameters, please follow the following instructions to avoid any confusion. For more information about SRV records, please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_record.

1. Sign into the AccountCenter.
2. Scroll down to the Domain Tools section.
3. Click the Edit DNS Zone File icon, see Figure 8

   
   Figure 8.

4. Click the + Add a record button as in Figure 9.

   
   Figure 9.

5. On the left, type in your record. For example:

   _autodiscover._tcp.example.com

6. Click the drop-down and select SRV from the options.
7. On the right field, fill in each parameter leaving a space between each item.

   TIP:

   The formatting for the record is: <priority> <weight> <port> <resolve to address>

   For example:

   0 5 80 webmail.example.com

   
   Where 0 = priority, 5 = weight, 80 = port, webmail.example.com = resolve to address.

    

8. Click the Save to save your SRV record. See Figure 10 below as an example SRV record:

   
   Figure 10. A sample SRV record.

To perform a DNS lookup to ensure you've entered the record correctly, you can use the "dig" command to look it up:

dig any _autodiscover._tcp.example.com

You should see a reply with information similar to the following:

;; ANSWER SECTION:
_autodiscover._tcp.example.com. 43200 IN SRV 0 5 80 webmail.example.com.

Reset to (mt) Media Temple default

This will point your site and email to your (mt) Media Temple server - it's the standard DNS configuration with which your domain is added.

1. Follow the steps in the earlier section to access your zone file.
2. Click Reset zone to default and save.

   

Need a smooth DNS transition? Lower your TTL.

Before you make any other type of DNS change, it's a good idea to consider whether you will need to lower your TTL. For more information and detailed instructions, please see: How can I lower or raise the TTL for my domain?

Resources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_record