Practical guide
How to plan a domain and DNS change
Prepare records, ownership and verification before changing a live domain.
Record current DNS settings
- Record the registrar, authoritative DNS provider, nameservers and renewal owner.
- Export or copy every active record, including mail, verification and service-specific records.
- Identify records that are no longer understood before changing the zone.
Prepare the new DNS zone
Build and review the complete destination zone before changing nameservers. Keep host names fully qualified, preserve required verification records and avoid creating conflicting records for the same service.
Preserve email and security records
- Copy the provider-approved MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records exactly.
- Confirm whether DNSSEC is active and coordinate delegation changes with the registrar.
- Plan certificate validation and application callback changes that depend on the domain.
Change nameservers and verify records
Make one controlled change window, then verify the authoritative nameservers and critical web and mail records from independent resolvers. Retain the prior configuration until the new path is confirmed and rollback is no longer required.
Check your plan with practical tools.
Use a calculator or lookup to check your estimates, or read another guide.