Moving Domain

[Ryan Zimmerman]

Firstly, thank you for this great service!

 

I have one domain hosted with you (on Stevie), ryanzim.com. This is actually a static site, so I would like to move it to GitHub Pages but keep a subdomain hosted here. I would also like to migrate DNS for the bare domain to my registrar's DNS servers.

 

There are some email forwarders configured for the bare domain; I would be setting up the appropriate records at the new DNS server.

 

What would be the best way to do this migration without causing much downtime for my site (or missing any emails)?

 

Thanks in advance.

[wolstech]

If you skip moving the DNS to your registrar, you can just use the advanced DNS editor to change the A record for ryanzim.com to the other host's IP.

 

However, if you really want to use different DNS, I think the following should work.

• First create a subdomain of ryanzim.com in cpanel. This subdomain will become your Heliohost-hosted subdomain. Wait until it's no longer queued and you can see your content/directory listing.
  
• Create an A record for the subdomain created above on your new DNS server. Point it to 216.218.192.170
  
• Create an MX record for ryanzim.com on your new DNS server. Point it to the subdomain you created above (you're not supposed to use IPs in MX records, so you can do this to point the MX to Stevie). Optionally create a TXT record for SPF configuration.
  
• Create the appropriate A or CNAME record for ryanzim.com on your new DNS server to point it to Github Pages.
  
• Point ryanzim.com to the new DNS server at your registrar and allow changes to propagate.
  

Configurations using non-Heliohost DNS are NOT officially supported and have not been tested. As a result, I cannot guarantee that this configuration will work for you. I currently host a single subdomain myself without issue, however I do not have any email services set up on that domain.

[Ryan Zimmerman]

Sorry so long in getting back here.

 

That would be one way to do it; however, I was thinking of using a NS record for the subdomain that would point to HelioHost's DNS servers. How would I do that?

 

Sorry, should have made that clearer in the OP.

[wolstech]

Verify that you can actually put NS records on a subdomain (known as subdomain delegation). Most DNS providers and registrars don't let you do that, hence my assumption this wasn't the case. It's also worth noting that even if you can do this, you will still need to manually add MX records to the root domain's DNS or the email forwarding won't work.

 

Also, can you post the DNS configuration Github Pages requires for a domain?

 

Check to see if you can even add the NS record to a subdomain, and let us know what Github requires. Once we know that, I can look into it further.

[Ryan Zimmerman]

My DNS server supports subdomain delegation. Also thought I should clarify, I only have email forwarders on the bare domain, not on the subdomain. The DNS provider supports email forwarding, so HelioHost's nameservers wouldn't be handling any email.

 

Github Pages requires a CNAME on the www subdomain and an A record or URL forwarding (ryanzim.com to www.ryanzim.com) on the bare domain.

[wolstech]

If you don't plan to use our email forwarding anymore (you say your DNS provider can do it for you), you have two choices. I've personally tested the second (using A records and my Johnny account/IP), though the first should also work (and will be simpler since you already have the root domain added).

1. Create a new subdomain in cPanel here, then add an A record for your subdomain pointed to 216.218.192.170, or NS records pointed to ns1.heliohost.org and ns2.heliohost.org. Done.
   
2. Change your main domain to the subdomain that will be hosted here, then add an A record for your subdomain pointed to 216.218.192.170, or NS records pointed to ns1.heliohost.org and ns2.heliohost.org. Done.
   

• This second option will break your HelioHost email forwarding, so be sure you've got MX records sending your mail elsewhere first!
  

After that, you just add the CNAME and A for Github to your root domain at your DNS provider and you're good.

[Ryan Zimmerman]

OK, thanks. I thought that's what I'd do (option 2), but I didn't want to try it and then find out halfway through that it doesn't work.