Subdomain name server delegation

RSDS

• August 07, 2025 21:07
• Edited

Hi folks,

 

We’re in the latter stage of having a module developed for WHMCS that would allow us to offer subdomains for registration and there’s one small thing that seems to be holding it back from completion.

 

So that a new registration has a holding page we have a single account on a VPS where the new subdomain is added. If the client just registers the subdomain all works perfectly (the holding page is in place, the subdomain is added to the parent domain’s zone, and a dedicated zone is created so that the client can adjust the DNS from the WHMCS client area), the problem comes in when the client purchases web hosting to go with their new subdomain. The NS records pointing to the hosting name servers are included in the parent zone and the dedicated zone, and obviously the hosting account has its own zone which is synced with the hosting name servers (this being the zone we want the rest of the internet to use).

 

For the life of me I can’t get to the zone on the hosting name servers when querying the subdomain from dnschecker.org. I’ve even tried changing the Mname in the SOA record to one of the hosting name servers.

 

A step by step might make this easier to follow (I'm using dummy hostnames in this post, just in case it isn't totally obvious).

• The subdomain is sub.domain.com
• The zone for domain.com is being served from NS1.HOLDINGPAGES.NET and NS2.HOLDINGPAGES.NET
• The zone for domain.com delegates NS records for this subdomain to NS1.HOSTINGSERVER.NET, NS2.HOSTINGSERVER.NET, NS3.HOSTINGSERVER.NET, and NS4.HOSTINGSERVER.NET
• The child zone for sub.domain.com (also on the NS1.HOLDINGPAGES.NET and NS2.HOLDINGPAGES.NET name server) also delegates NS records for this subdomain to NS1.HOSTINGSERVER.NET, NS2.HOSTINGSERVER.NET, NS3.HOSTINGSERVER.NET, and NS4.HOSTINGSERVER.NET
• The DNS Lookup tool results on dnschecker.org returns the contents of the child zone being served from NS1.HOLDINGPAGES.NET and NS2.HOLDINGPAGES.NET
• We want the zone that exists for sub.domain.com to be served from NS1.HOSTINGSERVER.NET, NS2.HOSTINGSERVER.NET, NS3.HOSTINGSERVER.NET, and NS4.HOSTINGSERVER.NET

We have another subdomain (sub2.domain.com) in place doing something similar but without the child zone, and it’s working as expected.

 

The whole point of having that dedicated zone on the VPS is just in case the client switches back to it and wants to just use the DNS from there instead of having a hosting account for it.

 

Is there something silly that I’m missing? I usually find it’s something daft that’s the problem and it’s staring me right in the face but I can’t see it.

 

Cheers,

RS

• 

  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • August 08, 2025 16:00

  Hey there!  This might be one we need to see in action through a ticket, as there's a lot of hypothetical names and placeholders to deal with.

  If you perform a "dig sub.domain.com @NS1.HOSTINGSERVER.NET" does that return the expected IP address?

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• 

  RSDS

  • August 08, 2025 16:53

  Hi Rex,

  Yep, the correct IP address is returned.

  I did try to open a ticket but that pesky thing where I've purchased my licenses through the data centre meant my ticket was declined. Is this something you can assist with?

  Cheers,
  RS

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• 

  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • August 08, 2025 17:06

  Your datacenter would be the first point of contact for that license type, and they'd escalate the issue to is if they can't resolve it.

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• 

  RSDS

  • August 08, 2025 19:09

  Yeah, the services we have are all unmanaged, so unless it's hardware specific or an operating system needs to be installed, we're pretty much on our own (which is absolutely fine for the most part, we're not completely useless), and when the cPanel policy on who gets support changed we were suddenly really on our own 😆

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  RSDS

  • August 08, 2025 19:10

  Do you have a procedure I can follow in future that might encourage them to escalate an issue they wouldn't ordinarily offer assistance with?

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• 

  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • August 08, 2025 19:18

  There shouldn't *need* to be one - your hosting provider is supposed to support the license so they should know this system.

  You always do have the option of purchasing the license directly from us!

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• 

  RSDS

  • August 08, 2025 19:25

  I'll put the issue in front of them. If they bounce me out with the "you're unmanaged" line I'll let you know 😆

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