How to Change My Nameserver

At Gandi you have the option of using Gandi’s LiveDNS (our internal nameservers) or external nameservers.

Warning

If you subscribe to our Premium DNS service, you must use Gandi’s LiveDNS nameservers. Changing the nameserver will deactivate the Premium DNS service for that domain.

Switching to External Nameservers

Warning

Before switching to an external nameserver, make sure any important DNS records are duplicated correctly on the new nameserver. Without the appropriate DNS records your website and services (such as email) may become unavailable until the records are corrected.

To switch to external nameservers follow these steps:

  1. After logging in, click “Domain” in the left navigation menu.

  2. Click the name of the domain name you want to edit.

  3. Click the “Namservers” tab.

  4. Click Change.”

  5. Click the “External” pill option.

  6. Type in the namservers into the fields.

  7. Click “Save.”

Tip

Please wait 12-24 hours for the DNS propagation to occur before testing.

Switching to LiveDNS

In order to manage your DNS records using the Gandi interface, and to take advantage of our Gandi LiveDNS API, you will need to use Gandi’s LiveDNS.

To avoid any interruption of your services during the switch to Gandi’s LiveDNS, you can reproduce your current DNS records as part of the switch. Once Gandi’s LiveDNS are active on the domain, we will add your DNS records to finish the configuration.

If you don’t have any custom DNS records to add, you can use Gandi’s LiveDNS default DNS records safely.

  1. After logging in, click “Domain” in the left navigation menu.

  2. Click the name of the domain name you want to edit.

  3. Click the “Namservers” tab.

  4. Click Change.”

  5. Click the “Gandi’s Live DNS” pill option.

  6. Click “Save.”

  7. Select whether you would like to use custom DNS records or use Gandi’s LiveDNS default DNS records.

  8. Click “Switch to LiveDNS.”

Tip

Please wait 12-24 hours for the DNS propagation to occur before testing.

Wildcard Change

Note that since the wildcard * works differently between our classic DNS and our LiveDNS, you will see that we make subdomains for you to not break your wildcard resolution. For example, if you had:

something in A 192.0.2.1
* in A 192.0.2.0

Then, after the import to live DNS you will see:

something in A 192.0.2.1
*.something in A 192.0.2.0
* in A 192.0.2.0

Extensions that Require a Zone Check

While most extensions have no requirements for nameservers, a few extensions will only allow you to list nameservers that meet their criteria. The registries that administer these extensions will perform a zone check on the nameservers you list to see if it matches their criteria. If a nameserver fails this check your domain may be placed on hold.

You can check to see if the namerserver you plan to use will pass the required check using the following links: