Managing zone file

How to edit your zone file

A zone file is a text-based file stored on nameservers. It contains your domain name configuration: where your website points to, which servers your emails go through, etc.

You have the option to add/edit/delete DNS records when editing your zone file.

You need precise information to manipulate DNS records. The only reason you might be required to change your DNS settings is if Netim, or a service provider, gives your specific instructions to do so.

Important ⚠

You can only edit your zone file through Netim Direct if your website uses our nameservers. If it doesn’t, you have to go through your DNS provider to edit your zone file.
It will take a few hours after a change has been made for your zone file information to be propagated through the internet.

Here’s how to edit your DNS records in your zone file from your Netim Direct client interface:

Log in to your Netim Direct account
Click on “My Domains” in the “Domain Names” section of the left-hand menu
Click on the name of the domain you wish to modify
In the “Domain name configuration” window, click the on the “Zone file” button

The following DNS record types are supported:

A: used to point a domain or subdomain to an IPv4 address.
AAAA: used to point a domain or subdomain to an IPv6 address.

Note 💡

Wildcards are authorised on type A and AAAA registrations.

CAA (Certification Authority Authorisation): used to specify which certificate authorities (CA) are authorised to issue SSL/TLS certificates for a domain. This is defined as a text string.
CNAME (Canonical Name): used to point a subdomain to a FQDN (Full Qualified Domain Name), which points to one or more IP addresse(s). It is not a redirection: the subdomain points to the same IP address as the specified name. ⚠ It is not possible to add a CNAME record to a domain or subdomain that already has another record, whatever its type.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure): used to describe HTTPS services associated with a name, such as destination server, priorities, or encryption settings (e.g. to optimise connections). It is a specialised type of the SVCB DNS record.
MX (Mail Exchange): used to specify the mail server(s) for the domain name. Each record must indicate a priority value (a number): the lower the number, the higher the priority.
NS (Name Server): specifies the authoritative name servers for the domain zone. These records allow to delegate management of part of the zone to third-party DNS servers.
SRV (Service): used to define a host and port for services such as Voice over IP (VoIP), instant messaging, etc., including port specification.
SSHFP (Secure SHell (Key) FingerPrint): used to store the fingerprints of public SSH keys associated with a domain, allowing the authenticity of an SSH server to be verified without a prior key exchange.
SVCB (SerViCe Binding): used to describe a service and its associated parameters (priority, target name, options, encryption, etc.). It is a generic entry, not tied to any specific service.
TLSA (TLS Authentication): used with the DANE protocol (DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities). It allows a certificate or public key to be associated with a domain name to secure TLS connections, by specifying which certificate should be accepted.
TXT (Text): used to associate one or more text strings with a domain name. Commonly used for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, or when a service provider needs to verify domain ownership.

Zone templates

A zone template contains zone file settings: it’s a list of DNS records you can save and use to configure your domain names.

As an example, you could create the following zone template:

@ IN NS ns1.netim.com
@ IN NS ns2.netim.com
@ IN NS ns3.netim.com
@ IN MX 10 mx1.netim.com
@ IN MX 10 mx2.netim.com
@ IN A 185.26.105.244
www IN CNAME netim.com

And then save it. Once saved, it can be easily applied to another domain.

Once the zone template has been applied, you’ll end up for the following DNS zone for the “example.fr” domain:

example.fr IN NS ns1.netim.com
example.fr IN NS ns2.netim.com
example.fr IN NS ns3.netim.com
example.fr IN MX 10 mx1.netim.com
example.fr IN MX 10 mx2.netim.com
example.fr IN A 185.26.105.244
www.example.fr IN CNAME netim.com

Reset your zone file

When you reset your DNS zone file, the values will be reset to default for all records in your file. This can be useful when too many changes have been made. You will then find your domain name as it was when you first installed it on our nameservers (which would be the equivalent of a factory reset for your smartphone for example).

To reset your zone file, proceed as follows:

Log in to your Netim Direct account
In the left-hand menu, click on “Domains” then “My domains”
Select the domain name for which you wish to perform the operation
In the “My domain configuration” window, click on the “Zone file” button
Then click on the “Reset the zone” button
Confirm the operation by clicking on “Reset”