Name Server Returns "error: zone domain.tld/IN/internal: has no NS records" Error

Symptoms

When querying against the authoritative name servers (IPs) for a given domain (domain.tld) you are presented with these errors in the name server's error log:

01-Jan-XXXX 00:00:00 general: error: zone domain.tld/IN/external: has no NS records
01-Jan-XXXX 00:00:00 general: error: zone domain.tld/IN/external: not loaded due to errors.

Description

This means that the domain's zone file is missing the required NS records for the domain. You can confirm that by running this command against the zone file of the domain, replacing $domain.tld with the domain you wish to check against:

/usr/sbin/named-checkzone $domain.tld /var/named/$domain.tld.db

zone $domain.tld/IN: has no NS records
zone $domain.tld/IN: not loaded due to errors.

Workaround

You need to update the zone file with the proper NS records. This can be done from either the graphical user interface (the WHM/cPanel interface ) or from the command line. For WHM/cPanel, you can visit these sections: 

How to edit a DNS record in the DNS Zone Manager

How to modify DNS Records in cPanel (Zone Editor)

Your NS records on the DNS Zone should match what is set up at the domain's registrar. As an example, an NS record looks like this:

domain.tld. 86400 IN NS ns1.nameserverdomain.tld.
domain.tld. 86400 IN NS ns2.nameserverdomain.tld.