Child Name Servers are Name Servers which are registered with the Registry under your domain name. You have to register Name servers with the Registry, before you can use them as Name Servers for registering domain names. Child Name Servers can be registered only by the owner of the domain name under which they are registered. For example, a Child Name Server ns2.xyz.com can only be registered by the Owner of xyz.com.
Registering and Managing Child Name Servers
- Login to your Control Panel, search for the domain name and proceed to the Order Details view.
- Click the Child Name Servers link. Here, you may:
Add a Child Name Server
Enter the Host Name of the Child Name Server you wish to add in the Host Name box, key in its IP Address (IPv4 or IPv6) and click on Submit. Examples
- For yourdomainname.com, you may use the Host Name as ns1 and an IPv4 IP Address as 111.222.333.444.
- yourdomainname.biz could have the Host Name as dns1 and an IPv6 IP Address as 2001:0db8:0:0:0:0:1428:57ab.
IMPORTANT
- Generally, a domain name can have any number of Child Name Servers associated with it.
- An IPv6 Address may be entered in either of the following formats:
2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:0000:20.40.87.171
2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:0000:1428:57ab
2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000::1428:57ab
2001:0db8:0:0:0:0:1428:57ab
2001:0db8:0:0::1428:57ab
2001:0db8::1428:57ab
2001:db8::1428:57ab
- IPv6 Addresses are not supported for .WS and .NAME domain name extensions.
- Registering a Child Name Server as mentioned above is just the first step. The Child Name Server needs to be registered at the Registry to only serve as a non-authoritative Record should your Child Name Server not be resolvable in some extreme condition.
This Name Server would start working only after you have added an Address (A) Record for IPv4 or AAAA Record for IPv6 or Canonical (CNAME) Record for this Name Server within the Zone for the domain name (of this Child Name Server) at your own DNS Server, thus binding the NS to the IP Address.
Examplesi. If you are running your own DNS Servers, then you would need to add a Zone for the domain name yourdomainname.com and create an A Record like
ns1.yourdomainname.com. 38400 IN A 111.222.333.444
Similarly, you may add an AAAA Record as
ns1.yourdomainname.com. 38400 IN AAAA 2001:0db8:0:0:0:0:1428:57ab
ii. If you wish to simply point your Name Servers to other Name Servers, then you may do so either way:
- you may either add a CNAME Record to your Service Provider's Name Server, after buying Managed DNS service through them -
ns1.yourdomainname.com. 38400 IN CNAME ns1.serviceprovider.com,
or
- you may add an A/AAAA Record to your Service Provider's Name Server IP Address (depending upon whether your Service Provider has an IPv4 or IPv6), after buying Managed DNS service through them -
ns1.yourdomainname.com. 38400 IN A 777.888.999.000
ns1.yourdomainname.com. 38400 IN AAAA 2001:0db8:0:0:0:0:1428:57ab- Generally, each Child Name Server can have upto 13 unique IP Addresses associated with it. For example, you can Registrar a Child Name Server with the Host Name "ns1" and associate upto 13 unique IP Addresses with this Host Name.
In case of CentralNic (.EU.COM, .GB.COM, .AE.ORG, .KR.COM, .US.COM, .QC.COM, .DE.COM, .GB.NET, .NO.COM, .HU.COM, .JPN.COM, .UY.COM, .ZA.COM, .BR.COM, .CN.COM, .SA.COM, .SE.COM, .SE.NET, .UK.COM, .UK.NET and .RU.COM.) domain names, each Child Name Server can have only a single unique IP Address associated with it.- In case of .EU domain names, all Child Name Servers that you create/add, are automatically associated with that .EU domain name as a Name Server. Due to this limitation, you will only be able to add upto 9 Child Name Servers for .EU domain names (Note: The maximum number of Name Servers that can be associated with any .EU domain name is 9). If you have already added other Name Servers (not Child Name Servers of this .EU domain name), then the number of Child Name Servers that you can create would reduce by that many.
Example
i. yourdomainname.eu
Child Name Servers created - ns1.yourdomainname.eu and ns2.yourdomainname.eu
Thus, Name Servers automatically added for this domain name - ns1.yourdomainname.eu and ns2.yourdomainname.eu
ii. yourotherdomainname.eu
Name Servers used - ns1.hostingprovider.com, ns2.hostingprovider.com
Child Name Servers created - ns1.yourotherdomainname.eu, ns2.yourotherdomainname.eu
Thus, Name Servers automatically added for this domain name - ns1.yourotherdomainname.eu, ns2.yourotherdomainname.eu
So in all 4 Name Servers will be associated with yourotherdomainname.eu - ns1.hostingprovider.com, ns2.hostingprovider.com, ns1.yourotherdomainname.eu, ns2.yourotherdomainname.eu
This means that now for the domain name yourotherdomainname.eu, you can only add upto 5 other Child Name Servers or Name Servers since every time you create a Child Name Server, it gets automatically associated with the .EU domain name as a Name Server.
Apart from the above, in case of .EU domain names, each Child Name Server can have upto 9 unique IP Addresses associated with it. For example, you can Registrar a Child Name Server with the Host Name "ns1" for yourdomainname.eu and associate upto 9 unique IP Addresses with this Host Name.- In case of .UK domain names, all Child Name Servers that you create/add, are automatically associated with that .UK domain name as a Name Server. Due to this limitation, you will only be able to add upto 10 Child Name Servers for .UK domain names (Note: The maximum number of Name Servers that can be associated with any .UK domain name is 10). If you have already added other Name Servers (not Child Name Servers of this .UK domain name), then the number of Child Name Servers that you can create would reduce by that many.
Example
i. yourdomainname.uk
Child Name Servers created - ns1.yourdomainname.uk and ns2.yourdomainname.uk
Thus, Name Servers automatically added for this domain name - ns1.yourdomainname.uk and ns2.yourdomainname.uk
ii. yourotherdomainname.uk
Name Servers used - ns1.hostingprovider.com, ns2.hostingprovider.com
Child Name Servers created - ns1.yourotherdomainname.uk, ns2.yourotherdomainname.uk
Thus, Name Servers automatically added for this domain name - ns1.yourotherdomainname.uk, ns2.yourotherdomainname.uk
So in all 4 Name Servers will be associated with yourotherdomainname.uk - ns1.hostingprovider.com, ns2.hostingprovider.com, ns1.yourotherdomainname.uk, ns2.yourotherdomainname.uk
This means that now for the domain name yourotherdomainname.uk, you can only add upto 6 other Child Name Servers or Name Servers since every time you create a Child Name Server, it gets automatically associated with the .UK domain name as a Name Server.
Moreover, in case of .UK domain names, each Child Name Server can have only a single unique IP Address associated with it. For example, you can Registrar a Child Name Server with the Host Name "ns1" for yourdomainname.uk and associate only a single unique IP Address with this Host Name.
Modifying a Child Name Server
- Modifying the Hostname - Make the modifications in the Host Name textbox and click on the Modify Host Name button.
- Modifying the IP Address - Make the modifications in the IP Address textbox and click on the Modify IP Address button.
Deleting a Child Name Server, Click on the Red Cross button to delete individual Child Name Servers.
IMPORTANT
You may get an error while deleting a Child Name Server if this is being used by another domain name of the same extension as a Name Server.
For Example,
If the Child Name Server ns1.yourdomainname.com is being used by xyz.com as its Name Server, then you will not be able to delete ns1.yourdomainname.com until xyz.com modifies its Name Server (to some other Name Server).
However, if xyz.info was using ns1.yourdomainname.com as its Name Server, then you would not face any issue while deleting your Child Name Server - ns1.yourdomainname.com.