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I'm missing something basic here.

I have some domains that my company originally registered with a hosting provider, and we have a cpanel login with those domains listed.

We also have those domains on our own IIS server, from where we manage the DNS records.

We aren't using the hosting provider at all, other than for those domains, and my company wants to shut down the account.

Do we need to transfer those domains over to somewhere before shutting down that account? We already have them on our own DNS server so do we need them to be sitting in a cpanel somewhere? What function does the cpanel provide in this system?

There are more zone records on the cpanel than there are in our IIS setup, are both systems handling requests? Ie, if a recrd is not found on one system, does the other system pick up the slack? How does it dice pears?

confuz

Abraham Brookes
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  • For starters, do `dig ns example.com` to figure out which nameservers are currently responsible for the domain. – ceejayoz Jul 07 '19 at 23:55
  • ok none of the domains returned the nameservers of the hosting provider, all but one returned our IIS server, one returned some other thirdparty - dnsmadeeasy.com – Abraham Brookes Jul 08 '19 at 00:06
  • Try "dig a example.com" instead to find the A records associated with the domain. See if any of the records that you said only exist in cpanel come up. – kelvintechie Jul 08 '19 at 00:07

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DNS is fun, isn't it?

I'll answer the last part of your question first, since it's the easiest to answer. When a DNS client looks to resolve your address, it will start the process of DNS recursion. The goal of this recursion is to end up with the NS record of the DNS nameserver that serves the domain. With your set up, multiple NS records will be returned - the one serving your IIS set up and the NS registered in cpanel.

If you'd like to see what the DNS recursion process returns for NS records, follow the recommendation of one of the commenters and perform the dig command with a specific parameter of "ns" (to specify ns query) and the domain name of your website.

From there, one of the NS records will be tried first (usually - it'll be the one that the DNS client receives first) and it'll be queried for the specific A record or whatever other record(s) it's looking for. If that NS can't come back with anything, it'll try the second NS. That's why if two records differ between DNS servers that both serve a specific zone, the first record that it can query for and get returned to it will be the one used by the system.

Now to the other part of your question - Yes, you should transfer your domain registration to another service (i.e. Google Domains) before you close your web hosting account. Most hosting providers, from my knowledge, won't even allow you to close your account with outstanding domain registrations. The function that cpanel provides in your system is to be a catalyst for web management of your website assets. You don't NEED cpanel, unless your hosting provider (which, I presume will be your own IIS set up) requires it.

I hope my answer serves to help you. Feel free to comment with any other concerns/corrections.

kelvintechie
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  • Is cpanel the interface I need to assign nameservers to domains? Is that what a registrar does? I get how to manage the domain redirection once it has a nameserver assigned, but where is the level at which I assign the nameserver? As I understand it, that is cpanel. – Abraham Brookes Jul 08 '19 at 01:43
  • Yup. All cpanel is is a GUI-based configuration utility. You can install it on any web stack that meets its requirements. So in a sense, you're right in that you would assign nameservers at the cpanel level because it would make that configuration change directly on the infrastructure. – kelvintechie Jul 08 '19 at 21:19