Managing DNS with Plesk

How to add or edit a DNS record in Plesk

Managing DNS definitely sounds like a difficult task, but don’t worry! Once you’re able to get through the highly technical sounding terminology, it’s actually pretty straightforward. I often say that DNS is a bit like an onion: There’s many layers to it, and it’s very likely that you’ll cry if you try to get through them all. We’ll get you through the trickier layers with this guide 🙂

DNS at its simplest is a list of records that specify domain name X (and optionally some of its subdomains) points to an IP address, like: 1.2.3.4. You’ll likely encounter records of type A the most; their primary use is to point your domain to where its website is hosted. Each domain could have just a couple or many DNS records.

We’ll leave the bulk of how DNS works for another time. This guide will help you recognize the different types of records, what they’re used for and how to configure your DNS records in Plesk. This includes updating, adding, or removing DNS records for your domain in Plesk.

Important: due to the manner in which the global DNS system works, any changes made to your domain’s DNS records can take up to 48 hours to complete, though often the changes are visible within just a few hours. Please be patient! You can check the global progress here.

How to find your DNS settings

If your domain is registered with us and you have explicitly chosen the option to “Manage my DNS records manually,” then your DNS hosting is managed within our Client Centre and not within Plesk and you should use this guide to managing your DNS records instead. If you’re not sure, check the settings for the domain in our Client Centre: if the option “Manage my DNS records manually” is selected, click the above link to proceed.

First, we’ll need to log in to Plesk, after which we’ll be taken to the Websites and Domains screen. Click on “DNS Settings” for the domain you wish to edit. If you don’t see DNS Settings, look for a “Hosting & DNS” tab, click that, then you’ll see the DNS Settings button.

Screen Shot 2016-07-15 at 12.30.59 PM

Now you have several options; you can add, edit, or remove a DNS record, or even turn off the DNS service (Disable) or switch it to slave mode (Master/Slave), as seen below.

If you only see NS records in the list and no others, it’s because your DNS is disabled. The first button on the left will be “Enable” — click this if you wish to manage your DNS within Plesk (to manage your DNS within Plesk, you must have your name servers set at the registrar to match those for your hosting plan as shown in the Client Centre).

Screen Shot 2016-07-15 at 12.31.13 PM

If a guide has told you to add or create a DNS record, read these tips:

  1. When adding or editing a DNS record in Plesk, the Host field automatically uses the domain name; in the screenshot above that’s websaversdemo.com. You only need to fill in the Host field if you’re adding a record for a subdomain. For example, with xyz.websaversdemo.com, you would enter simply ‘xyz’ because Plesk will automatically add the .websaversdemo.com to it. An example of this in the screenshot above is ftp.websaversdemo.com where ‘ftp’ is the entered subdomain/host. If you’re not adding a subdomain record leave the Host field blank.
  2. The ‘Add a Subdomain’ button in Plesk sets up local web and email hosting for the subdomain of your choice. If you do not need a hosting environment for that subdomain, do not use that button and instead add the DNS record under the parent domain (you can create subdomain records there too). For example, if you want to set up shop.yourdomain.com to point to an external cart or store, go to the DNS settings for yourdomain.com and create the DNS records required by the store provider.
  3. Add or Edit Existing? Always check to see if a record exists already with the same type (ex: A, TXT, CNAME, MX, etc) and subdomain. If it does exist already, you very likely need to edit the existing record and not create a new one.

Identifying Common DNS Records

If you’re not sure which records you should be editing, this list will help you to understand and find the correct records for each type of hosting service:

  • DNS Records for Website Host: This is what is called your root DNS record which controls where visitors are sent when they’re accessing your domain like mydomain.com. This is a record of type where the Host column shows only your domain (with a period after it; they all have that) and not a subdomain like mail or ns1 or ftp. There is also typically a CNAME record for www.mydomain.com which points to mydomain.com. Warning: keep an eye out for when *other* records (like mail records) are CNAME’s that point to your root record, as that means changing your root record will change them too.
  • DNS Records for Inbound Mail: This is controlled by MX records that have two components. 1) A record of type MX with no subdomain in the Host column and which points to another record in the list like mail.mydomain.com. Be sure to also check the mail.mydomain.com record to ensure it’s pointing to the right place. For example, if it’s a CNAME for your root record and you’ll be changing your root record, then this is something you’ll want to alter before you make the root record change.
  • DNS Records for Mail IMAP/POP/SMTP Connections: This differs in other configurations, but for Plesk typically mail.mydomain.com is used for this purpose as it’s the same server as your Inbound Mail (MX) server. Ultimately this isn’t that important since we direct you to use our server hostname when connecting with your mail apps.

Removing a DNS Record

To remove a record, simply check the box beside the ones you wish to remove and click the Remove button. After doing so, you will be presented with the option to finalize your changes — make sure you do this or the alterations will not take effect.

Adding or Editing a DNS Record

To edit a DNS record, simply click on it and you will see a page similar to the one below.

To add a new DNS entry, click the “Add Record” button and you’ll be taken to the following page:

Screen Shot 2016-07-15 at 12.31.24 PM

There is a “Record type” drop-down which allows you to select the type of DNS entry to add.

If you’re adding or editing a ‘root’ DNS record (on other DNS management systems this is often shown as ‘@’ or just your domain), in Plesk this means to simply leave the Domain name (subdomain) field blank.

As described above, if you only see “NS” or “Name Server” in the list of record types, your DNS is disabled and you must go back and click the button to enable your DNS. See above under the “How to find your DNS settings in Plesk” heading for more info.

Select the type of record below to see the individual processes in more detail:

A records

AAAA records

CNAME records

MX records

PTR record

TXT record (also SPF Record)

SRV records

Troubleshooting

Problem: When adding a subdomain record Plesk says “This record will conflict with the glue record for the zone.” This occurs when you have added the subdomain to Plesk for hosting purposes, but all you really need to do is create a single DNS record for the subdomain. When you go to add the new record, it conflicts with the existing records that Plesk has created for you.

Solution: This subdomain will show up like any other domain under Websites and Domains: remove it from there. Then go to the DNS settings for the parent domain and add your record.


This article was originally published in July 2016 and receives frequent updates.

About Allen Pooley

Allen is a self professed geek and technology lover. He's always playing with one of his various websites, and loves helping customers with theirs. He can often be found with a coffee (light roast, please) in his hand and a smile on his face... or trapped under a pile of yarn.

4 Comments

  1. Tegan Gray on May 20, 2020 at 3:51 am

    Great thanks for sharing. Here is one tip, as an alternative to whatsmydns.net, you can rely on https://dnschecker.org/ for more detailed propagation results, with over 100+ public servers available to check the live propagation results. More to that, you can also add your custom DNS server.

    • Jordan Schelew on May 25, 2020 at 10:34 am

      Thanks Tegan; we have used both before with great success. I’ve approved this comment so others can benefit from this info as well 🙂

  2. Glyn on January 20, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    Nice article which solved a simple, but critical and infuriating problem.

    I was trying to add a couple of SRV records for Office 365 Business at my host using Plesk.

    I couldn’t use the Office 365 automatic DNS management because I use subdomains and you have to manage your own DNS settings to be able to do so.

    Microsoft ask you to add two records, _sip and _sipfederationtls. However, Plesk adds the underscores automatically so you end up with __sip and __sipfederationtls, so the answer is use sip and sipfederationtls and all is well.

    That was one of those can’t see the wood for the trees, I’m a dev not a sys admin, desk-head-banging periods.

    Your article helped me see what was staring me in the face.

    Thanks.

    • Allen Pooley on January 22, 2018 at 2:19 pm

      Believe me, I understand that pain! Glad the article could help 🙂

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