Setting up for a sub domain of an external domain?

Hiya, I've just signed up for DH with the intention of running some services from here, as I should be able to better maintain it with shell access and the one-click gizmo.

I currently run example.com from my old web host. When I know where to point it, I will get the admins there to add a CNAME so that gallery.example.com points to a DreamHost server. Transfering DNS service for example.com is not an option.

So I go to the control panel and try to add a domain gallery.example.com, creating a new user of galleryexamplecom to go with it. After submitting he form, it tells me that it doesn't have permission to add the domain.

Does anyone know how to do this please?

I will take responsibility for the external DNS server and the CNAME record. (I can't expect DreamHost to maintain a DNS server they don't control.)

Many thanks, Bill P. Godfrey.

The trick, I believe, is to go ahead and add example.com as a domain at DreamHost even though you are not hosting it there (it will not make any difference because DNS is not pointing to DreamHost nameservers).

Then, add the subdomain.example.com, and DreamHost will build the apache instance and add it to their nameservers.

You can later remove example.com from DreamHost hosting if you want, or not ... it really won't make any difference as long as DNS is still pointed to where example.com really lives. wink

--rlparker

Okay, so DreamHost DNS will think it's authoriative for example.com, but that won't matter as the real NS records will still point to the old DNS server?

Will the other DreamHost services continue to use the real NS records? I ask as my DreamHost registered email is @example.com and I wouldn't want their internal servers to see the wrong MX that it thinks is correct.

That's an avoidable problem if I know beforehand. I'll just change the email to a different domain that DreamHost doesn't know about.

Many thanks.

In reply to:
Okay, so DreamHost DNS will think it's authoriative for example.com, but that won't matter as the real NS records will still point to the old DNS server?

Well, I don't know about the "thinking it's authoritative" part (DH will just add DNS entries to their nameservers), but the rest of it sounds right - it won't matter because the real NS records (as set at your registrar for the domain) will still point to where you have them pointed. Having the entries in DreamHost's nameserver shouldn't make any difference, as they won't be used as long as the domain is pointed to other nameservers.

In reply to:
Will the other DreamHost services continue to use the real NS records? I ask as my DreamHost registered email is @example.com and I wouldn't want their internal servers to see the wrong MX that it thinks is correct.

I'm not sure how that would actually work out - but you can change the MX records at DreamHost anyway, so if it *did* "bork" them, you should be able to fix them.

In reply to:
That's an avoidable problem if I know beforehand. I'll just change the email to a different domain that DreamHost doesn't know about.

That would seem to be a "safer" approach, if you are not willilng to risk having to redo the MX entries.

--rlparker

In reply to:
Well, I don't know about the "thinking it's authoritative" part (DH will just add DNS entries to their nameservers), but the rest of it sounds right - it won't matter because the real NS records (as set at your registrar for the domain) will still point to where you have them pointed. Having the entries in DreamHost's nameserver shouldn't make any difference, as they won't be used as long as the domain is pointed to other nameservers.

It'll actually be better if the OP removes hosting for that domain (but leaving the subdomain alone, of course). That way, there won't be any messy NS records for the domain - this is both for neatness and for cURL to the domain from DH.

I think I read some post here on the forums that said that you could actually remove the domain entirely and the subdomain would stick around. I haven't verified this because I'm afraid of borking my subdomain hosting.

What are 50DISK50, 3DOM50, and 1IP1DOM50?
They're Dreamhost coupons!

In reply to:
I think I read some post here on the forums that said that you could actually remove the domain entirely and the subdomain would stick around. I haven't verified this because I'm afraid of borking my subdomain hosting.

I'll give it a try. I've just added example.com and then added gallery.example.com to it. I'll see what happens. If I mess it all up, I'm still in the 90 day period.

(time passes)

Well, example.com is now "unknown", but gallery.example.com is still "Fully Hosted". I'll see if its still that way tomorrow.

In reply to:
Well, example.com is now "unknown", but gallery.example.com is still "Fully Hosted". I'll see if its still that way tomorrow.

Interesting. Which "Delete" button did you click on? The one under the "Web Hosting" column or the one under "Actions"?

And which column does it display "unknown" under? The domains for which I've done this all display "unknown" under the "Registration" column because, of course, I've registered them elsewhere rather than Dreamhost. :)

What are 50DISK50, 3DOM50, and 1IP1DOM50?
They're Dreamhost coupons!

Setting up for a sub domain of an external domain?