Getting started with IBM Cloud DNS Services

Before you begin

To use DNS Services, you must have at least one virtual server instance in a VPC in the IBM Cloud. If you do not have one, learn how to get started with Virtual Private Cloud.

While the private DNS resolvers are required to resolve private DNS names, they also resolve public DNS names if the request is for a name that is not defined to be in a private DNS zone.

Step 1: Create a DNS Services instance

1. Open the IBM Cloud catalog page and select Networking.
2. Click the DNS Services tile.
3. In the Create tab, select a pricing plan and optionally update the default the service name and resource group.
4. Click Create.

Step 2: Add a DNS zone

1. From the resource page, select the DNS Services instance.
2. Click the Create zone button on the DNS Zones page.
3. Enter a fully qualified domain name for the zone and optionally add a label and description. The domain name can have a maximum of 5 levels. You can define subdomains within the zone later.
4. Click Create zone.
5. If the zone creation is successful, you are directed to the zone details page.

Step 3: Add DNS resource records

1. Select the zone from the table on the DNS Zones page.
2. Select the DNS records tab.
3. Click Add record.
4. In the panel that appears, select the type of DNS record you are adding from the Type menu.
5. Input the required data for the type of DNS record selected.
6. Click Add record.

Step 4: Add a VPC as a permitted network to the DNS zone

1. Select the zone from the table on the DNS Zones page.
2. Select the Permitted networks tab.
3. Click Add network.
4. Select the region from the Region drop-down menu to see the list of networks in that region.
5. Select the network from the list and click Add network.

Resources in the VPC can resolve records associated with the DNS zone (see Step 3 to add records to the DNS zone). The DHCP server returns the DNS servers (161.26.0.7 and 161.26.0.8) provided by DNS Services in its responses. If you have DHCP disabled on a server in the VPC, it is your responsibility to configure the DNS server IP addresses statically on that server, according to your operating system's documentation.

Step 5: Verify that DNS name resolution works from the VPC

Test whether the zone resolution works using a dig from the virtal server instance on your VPC. The following command should yield a resolution as the result.

dig www.example.com

Next Steps

Follow the steps in these detailed guides to use the API for:

• Creating a DNS zone
• Managing permitted networks
• Import a DNS zone file
• Managing DNS records