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setup.md

Domain Parking

If you own multiple domains it may be worth looking into a service such as domain-park to ensure these domains remain secure while you’re not using them. Thankfully domain-park is an open source project and implements the following features.

  • Best practices for SPF, DKIM, DMARC and MX compliance for parked domains
  • Easy to deploy with no server configuration per domain
  • Ability to configure DMARC reports

If you do decide to run an instance (or two) of domain park you should aim for the following setup.

  • A domain you use for everything e.g. servers.fun
  • A domain you want to park e.g. urho.st
  • A VPS (or two) that have static (and public) IP addresses we can assign hostnames to
  • A DNS management panel such as Cloudflare DNS

Creating a VPS

If you’re looking for a solid VPS provider, checkout Hetzner. You can use our affiliate link https://link.setup.md/joinhetzner for €20 free credit and in return we’ll also get a little bit back from Hetzner.

If you’re using Hetzner you should be able to get away with deploying x2 CPX11 instances with the latest LTS build of Ubuntu (Debian works too) which should set you back €9/mo. It’s also recommended that you add an SSH key and avoid using password based authentication.

Setting up DNS (Active)

So the first thing we will do is configure the DNS, this is because these can take the longest to update in the background.

  • Login to your DNS provider and head to your DNS record section.
  • Select ‘Add’ and create an A Record enter one.ns and point it to one of your VPS IPs
    • Optional: If you have an IPv6 also add a AAA Record for the same hostname
  • Repeat this but replace one.ns with two.ns

Once you have configured these addresses your DNS panel should look something like this.

IMG

After a short while your records will have propagated and you should be able to check the A and AAA records for your hostname using a tool such as MXToolbox or the dig linux package.

Dig Commands

Terminal window
...


dig one.ns.servers.fun A
dig one.ns.servers.fun AAA # Not configured in example


dig two.ns.servers.fun A
dig two.ns.servers.fun AAA # Not configured in example


...

Providing you replace servers.fun with your own domain you should see a response with the IP addresses you entered into your panel above.

Setting up DNS (Parked)

On the domain you wish to park using your newly setup service you’ll need to change your nameservers. You can do this within your domain’s control panel (probably in a similar location to the DNS modification page).

You should ensure you fill out the nameservers as per the screenshot below. Once these have been added correctly, save changes and await up-to 48 hours for this to complete.

IMG

When using these nameservers you will not be able to host ANY content via the domain as domain-park does not allow for it. We have configured our nameservers to redirect to this page when accessing any of our IPs / Hostnames directly.

Deploying Domain-Park