DNS overview and plans

Yeap Cloud DNS answers authoritatively for your domains. Once a domain's nameservers point to the platform, recursive resolvers everywhere (ISP resolvers, public resolvers and so on) send their queries for that domain to our nameservers. The nameservers run in multiple regions. Changes you make in the console are synchronized automatically to every nameserver that serves the zone.

#What the service does

• Authoritative DNS hosting: each domain is one DNS zone. The common record types are supported: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SRV, CAA and PTR. Wildcard names (*) and internationalized domain names (such as 中国.com) also work. See Zones and records.
• Geo routing (lines): A, AAAA and CNAME records can return different answers by continent, country, province/region, city, ISP or a custom CIDR list. Queries that match no line get the default record. See Geo routing.
• DNSSEC: turn on DNSSEC signing for a zone in one click. The console shows the DS record to submit at your registrar. See DNSSEC.
• Bulk import and zone file download: paste or upload many records at once, and download the zone file for your records at any time.
• Query analytics: query statistics by zone and time range.

#Plans and billing model

You buy a DNS plan per zone. Each zone uses one DNS plan subscription, and a subscription can only be used for one zone at a time. A free plan takes effect right away. A paid plan takes effect once its invoice is paid.

At the time of writing there are four tiers. Prices and the full comparison are on the console's Plans page (/dns/plans).

Keep in mind:

• The record quota applies to each zone. The SOA record and root NS records that the system creates don't count. When a zone reaches its limit, adding a record fails. In a bulk import, each entry past the quota fails individually.
• Free and paid plans use different nameserver sets. The console shows the nameservers assigned to each zone.
• An account can have up to 50 DNS zones. Deleted zones don't count toward this.
• Your CIDR list quota is shown at the top of the CIDR lists page. It is the total of the allowances from all your active DNS plans.

#Buying a plan and using it on a zone

There are two ways to get a plan onto a zone:

• While adding a zone. In the zone wizard's plan step, plans you've already bought but not used are listed first under Purchased, unused. Click one to use it, or pick a new plan to buy.
• From the Plans page. Click a plan to buy it. A Bind to domain dialog opens: pick one of your zones, or click Add new domain to open the zone wizard with this plan already selected. For a paid plan, pay the invoice first. The dialog shows a Pay now button.

The My plans list at the top of the Plans page shows each plan you own and whether it is bound to a zone (Bound), unused (Unused) or waiting for payment (Payment pending).

#Changing a zone's plan

In the zone list, or in the plan panel on a zone's records page, click Change plan and pick one of your unused plans. If you don't have one, click Buy a new plan first.

• The change is refused if the zone doesn't fit the new plan, for example it has more records than the plan allows, or DNSSEC is on and the plan doesn't include DNSSEC. Delete records or turn DNSSEC off first.
• If the new plan uses a different nameserver set (for example free to paid), the dialog shows the new nameservers with copy buttons. Update them at your registrar. The old nameservers keep answering until the change is detected, so resolution isn't interrupted. The zone shows NS update pending until then. After you change them, the switch completes automatically within about 10 minutes, or right away when you click Check NS.
• The previous plan: a free plan is cancelled automatically. A paid plan stays active and unused, so you can bind it to another zone. Nothing is refunded or charged automatically.
• If the zone was suspended because its previous plan wasn't paid, binding an active paid plan brings it back online.

To move to a higher tier within the same subscription, use Upgrade plan on the zone's records page. The price difference is prorated.

#Query analytics

Open DNS → Query analytics to see the DNS query analytics page:

1. Use the drop-down at the top right to pick a zone. Leave it empty to see all of your zones.
2. Use the date-time range picker to set the start and end time. The default is the last 24 hours.
3. The page shows:
   • Summary cards: total queries, unique names, success rate and average response time.
   • Top queried names.
   • Query type distribution: the share of A, AAAA, MX and other types.
   • A world map and a table of the countries and regions queries come from.
   • Response code distribution: counts of NOERROR, NXDOMAIN and so on.

Each zone's records page also has an expandable statistics panel at the top, with the resolution trend for the last 7, 14 or 30 days.

#One-click record setup (DNS authorization)

Some Yeap Cloud services need DNS records. Today that means business email. You don't have to add the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records one by one:

1. In the business email domain list, open the domain's DNS settings and click Auto DNS.
2. The console opens the DNS authorization page. It lists every record the service needs, with type, host, value and priority, and marks each one Already exists or Missing.
3. If the domain's DNS is hosted on Yeap Cloud DNS, click Add all missing records. Records that already exist are skipped. When it finishes, the page shows how many records were added, skipped and failed, and starts the service's DNS verification.
4. If the domain's DNS is hosted somewhere else, the page says the domain's DNS isn't managed here. Add the listed records at your DNS provider yourself.

#Next steps

• Add your first zone and switch nameservers
• Set up geo and ISP routing
• Turn on DNSSEC for a zone