Question

What is the difference between shadow DNS zones and live zones in RCP?

Answer

A DNS server can contain only one record for a given domain name. It is technically impossible to have, for example, two DNS records for example.com on the same nameserver. A zone which is being served by Openprovider DNS servers and made available by the nameserver group that's called a live zone. When you have the corresponding domain in your account or no other DNS zone exist for this domain yet, your zone will be automatically a live zone.

However, there's also an option to create a shadow zone for a domain which is not yet in one's account. A shadow zone is simply a DNS resource which we store in our database, but is not yet active on our nameservers.

Creating, updating and deleting zones are done the same way for both live and shadow zones. Shadow zones become live as soon as one registers or transfers in the corresponding domain. In most cases, an active zone will become a shadow zone soon after the corresponding domain has left your control.

When another reseller creates a zone for a domain in your account, his or her zone will be created as a shadow zone and a message will appear in the DNS zone. This zone will not be active, until the domain name is transferred into this account.

In case the domain name is not registered with Openprovider and multiple zones exist for the domain name, then the first created zone will be the active zone and can be used when the domain has the Openprovider nameservers assigned to it.

Please be aware of the terms and conditions when using the Openprovider nameservers without the domain being in the domain portfolio.

How to activate a shadow zone?

In case there is a message in your control panel that the zone is a shadow zone, simply transfer in the domain name to your account, and your zone will be automatically activated.

This cannot be manually switched by support department.