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My domain registrar has a top level SOA record for my domain which is unchangeable and two NS records pointing to the default nameservers for the registrar. If I want to update my nameservers do I just need to update the NS records or does the SOA need to change i.e. does this part of the SOA record need to change nameserver1.nameserver.com;origin ?

Thanks

Rob
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2 Answers2

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From how I read that, I think you may be confusing the delegation information administered through the registrar with some DNS hosting service provided by the same company.

If you are switching to an entirely different set of nameservers it is important that you update the delegation information, not the data inside your zone hosted at their DNS service.


Regarding the SOA record, I assume you are referring to the MNAME field specifically.
This field will indeed be expected to point to the new master, however this will only be relevant for the SOA record in the zone at your new nameservers.

Håkan Lindqvist
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  • Appreciate how you tried to explain, but I am confused. Could not understand when `SOA` requires to change and when it should not? If required to change then which part of it should just be changed. Example would be nicer to understand. I am trying to point my Godaddy domain to my AWS hosted VPC. I have NameServers from AWS, which I updated on Godaddy NameServers. But I wonder, that on Godaddy and AWS there are `SOA` record fields provided as well. So I wonder that I should leave those as it is, or should update one on Godaddy by AWS `SOA` record. – Nah Jul 18 '18 at 14:18
  • @MuhammadHannan The SOA exists only on the nameservers that are authoritative for your domain, so those are typically handled by a single company, not two. You may again still be confusing the job of a domain name registrar and the job of a DNS provider. – Patrick Mevzek Aug 17 '20 at 01:01
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My domain registrar has a top level SOA record for my domain

No, it does not, in general. Your domain name registrar is your gateway to the registry sponsoring the specific TLD or suffix where your domain name is registered.

As such, your domain name registrar has nothing to do with your nameservers. When you create a domain through it, or later update it, you provide the name of the nameservers to use (and sometimes their IP addresses too), and the registrar forwards that information to the registry. THIS IS ALL.

Then the registry publish your nameservers as NS records for your domain name on the registry authoritative nameserveer. THIS IS ALL. There is no SOA records there.

Of course, IF the registrar is ALSO your DNS provider then it controls and manage the nameservers for you.

The DNS provider you use (be it the registrar or any other third party) tells you which nameservers names to use. It manages the content of the zone. The zone related to your domain has NS records, one SOA record and other records.

If you change DNS providers, you change the nameservers listed as authoritative nameservers. This will as a consequence change the SOA record but just because the new set of authoritative nameservers will serve a new zone, with new and different records, and among all of them a new SOA record.

Patrick Mevzek
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