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As I am by no means a server expert, so I wanted to learn the basics by starting my own small VPS on Digital Ocean and host some simple websites to try things out.

In the tutorials of DO it says that to link domains to my VPS I have to change the default NS records of my domain to the nameservers of Digital Ocean.

Now that is something I can't grasp....

Because I learned that A records point domains to servers (or my VPS in this case). So I don't understand how changing the NS records will point my domain name to another server without having to chance the A record to that server?

Shoot me if I'm wrong, but the only logical explanation that I could come up with is that there are also DNS records set up on the Digital Ocean nameservers that handle all DNS related business to my domain (like A and MX records) and that changing the NS records of my domain to the Digital Ocean name servers would tell the DNS system that it shouldn't use the DNS records that are stated here but to use the ones my NS record points to, so to use the records on the Digital Ocean nameservers.

So to me, it more or less seems to me that changing the NS records to other nameservers actually is some sort of "DNS redirect" to say that these records shouldn't be used, but use the ones on the nameservers that my NS records point to.

Maybe I'm wrong on this thinking, but I could nowhere find a DNS guide that actually explains how things work, how to use DNS and what one can do with it... Only ones that say what everything is.

Thanks in advance for helping me out!

Luuk

Luuk Van Dongen
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  • You pretty much figured it out correctly. – Dusan Bajic Jun 04 '14 at 10:10
  • Keep in mind that NS records are required for normal use, even though you don't usually touch them. An "A" DNS query (until it is cached) typically goes through a series of DNS servers linked through their NS record, and only in the final DNS server (the authoritative on for that query) it responds with the A. – LatinSuD Jun 04 '14 at 10:15
  • Thanks guys! So if I'm correct when I request www.foobar.com, my computer will start looking up the ip for foobar.com starting at the .com nameservers which says to look it up on my registrars NS servers and on their nameservers it now says don't use these records but use the one that are on the name server the NS records point to. So now it will look on the Digital Ocean nameservers and there it says for foobar.com use 132.123.123.123 or something? – Luuk Van Dongen Jun 04 '14 at 10:56
  • Is Digital Ocean doing DNS now? That's new. – Michael Hampton Jun 04 '14 at 12:00
  • I don't know exactly what you mean by "Doing DNS" but they state that you should change the NS records of your domain to the addresses of their nameservers. – Luuk Van Dongen Jun 04 '14 at 12:50
  • Sounds like you got it. To put it another way very simply, NS records tell the world where the DNS records for your domain name are managed. – SamErde Jun 04 '14 at 14:59
  • So in short, if I chance the ns records to the other servers I'ts just saying these are the servers that should be queried for all DNS information of a certain domain? If so, will all the records also be transferred to the new NS servers and will the records on the old server be removed, or are they still queried for other (a/mx) records? – Luuk Van Dongen Jun 04 '14 at 18:49

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You're absolutely right. In the simplest explanation, changing an NS record on a domain server (let's call her A) for a subdomain tells any clients looking for information about that subdomain to talk to the IP address at that NS Record. You can google:

NS Records

DNS Forwarding

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