Your Plesk works in cooperation with a DNS server which enables you to run the DNS service on the same machine where you host websites. This server is BIND on Linux and Microsoft DNS on Windows.

How Plesk Creates DNS Zones

Setup of DNS zones for newly added domains is automated: When you add a domain name to the Customer Panel, a zone file is automatically generated for it and registered in the name server’s database, and the name server is instructed to act as the primary DNS server for the zone. Subscribers can manage DNS zones of their domains through the Customer Panel if their subscriptions provide the corresponding permissions. Additionally, subscribers can choose whether they want to use Plesk DNS server as the primary or a secondary DNS server, or switch off the DNS service for their domains. To learn how to manage DNS zones of domains within a subscription, refer to the section (Advanced) Configuring DNS for a Domain.

Plesk creates DNS zones for domains in accordance with the server-wide DNS template. The template defines the structure of DNS zones for all domains in Plesk. To learn how to edit the DNS template and apply its changes to existing zones, refer to the section Server-Wide DNS Template.

Switching Off the DNS Service for Hosted Domains

Plesk allows you to switch off the DNS service for all or certain domains hosted on your server. To learn how to do this, see the section Switching Off the DNS Service.

External DNS Servers

If you do not want to run the DNS service on your Plesk server, you can use an external DNS for domains hosted on your server. Learn more in the section Using External DNS Servers.

Using Plesk Without a DNS Server

You can exclude the DNS server component from your Plesk installation. To do this, use the custom type of installation (refer to the Deployment guide for details) and deselect the corresponding component (BIND DNS server support on Linux and Microsoft DNS server on Windows).

If you do this, Plesk does not provide the DNS service for websites hosted on it until you install a DNS server or connect an external DNS service. To learn what happens when the DNS service is not configured in your Plesk, see the section Plesk Without a DNS Server.

Next in this chapter, we will provide details on how to configure various aspects of the DNS service for domains hosted on your server.