Alibaba Cloud DNS:Upgrade, downgrade, bind, or unbind instances

Upgrade an instance

Upgrade a free Public Authoritative DNS Resolution instance to a paid Public Authoritative DNS Resolution instance: By default, after you register a domain name with Alibaba Cloud or add a domain name that is registered with a third-party domain name registrar in the Alibaba Cloud DNS console, Alibaba Cloud DNS assigns you a pair of free Domain Name System (DNS) servers. However, no Service level agreement (SLA) compliance is guaranteed for the free edition. Therefore, the domain name may not be resolved, and no after-sales services are provided. To ensure the availability of DNS resolution on their domain names, most users upgrade free instances to paid instances.

Upgrade a paid instance: If your paid instance cannot meet your business requirements, you can upgrade the instance to an edition with higher specifications. An instance of an edition with higher specifications can be bound to more domain names and provide more enhanced DNS protection. For more information about the differences between editions, see Editions.

Procedure

1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud DNS console.

2. On the Authoritative Domain Names tab of the Authoritative DNS Resolution page, find the desired domain name and choose More > Upgrade in the Actions column.

3. On the buy page, select the desired features, click Buy Now, and then complete the payment.

   Important

   Scenario 1: If you upgrade a free instance to a paid instance, the names of the assigned DNS servers will be modified.

   • If the domain names bound to the instance are registered with Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba Cloud DNS automatically modifies the names of the DNS servers after the instance is upgraded. However, if the update prohibition lock is enabled for the domain names, you must disable the update prohibition lock for the domain names before you can modify the DNS server names. For more information, see Change DNS servers.

   • If the domain names bound to the instance are registered with third-party domain name registrars, you need to modify the names of the DNS servers at the third-party domain name registrars.

   • You can upgrade the instance without affecting DNS records.

   • Do not add DNS records that are only supported by paid editions within 48 hours after you upgrade the instance. Otherwise, the DNS records may not take effect in some regions for a short period of time because valid DNS records are still cached on the free DNS servers in these regions.

   Scenario 2: If you upgrade a paid instance to a paid instance with higher specifications, DNS resolution is not affected even though the names of DNS servers assigned by Alibaba Cloud DNS are modified. The cause is that the paid DNS server cluster remains vip(1-8).alidns.com. You can modify the names of the DNS servers to the newest DNS server names assigned by Alibaba Cloud DNS at the domain name registrars. This does not affect DNS resolution.

Unbind a domain name from an instance

If you no longer need to use a paid instance, you can unbind the paid instance from domain names. Then, a free instance is bound to the domain names by default. If you unbind a domain name from a paid instance, the DNS records only supported by the paid instance may be suspended. This will interrupt your business. Make sure that you have made required preparations before you unbind the domain name from the paid instance.

Preparations

Check whether the update prohibition lock is enabled for the domain name

If the update prohibition lock is enabled, disable it. For more information, see Enable the update prohibition lock.

Check whether DNSSEC is enabled for the domain name

If Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is enabled, you must first delete the delegation signer (DS) record of the domain name at the domain name registrar and then disable DNSSEC in the Alibaba Cloud DNS console. For more information, see DNSSEC.

Check DNS records

Change the configurations of DNS records that are only supported by the paid instance to the configurations that are supported by the free instance. This prevents some DNS records from being suspended after the domain name is unbound from the paid instance. For more information about differences between editions, see Editions.

1. Check hostnames

   In DNS records supported by a free instance, a hostname can have up to 10 levels. Otherwise, modify the hostname until the hostname has 10 or fewer levels.

2. Check DNS request sources

   Only the following DNS request sources are supported by a free instance: the default line, China Unicom, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Edu, lines outside the Chinese mainland, Baidu, Bing, and Google. Therefore, if you select a line except the preceding lines in a DNS record, change the DNS request source to the line that is supported by a free instance.

3. Check the TTL period

   The minimum time-to-live (TTL) period of a cached DNS record supported by a free instance is 10 minutes. Check whether the TTL period configured in the DNS records is less than 10 minutes. If so, change the TTL period to 10 minutes.

4. Check weight settings

   Check whether over 10 DNS records are added for the domain name when the weight settings are enabled. A domain name bound to a free instance can be mapped to up to 10 IP addresses for load balancing when the record type, hostname, and resolution line are the same. Otherwise, the excess DNS records are suspended and cannot be displayed on the Weight Settings tab.

5. Check whether DNS data backup is enabled

   Check whether DNS data backup is enabled. If this feature is enabled, the feature is disabled after the domain name is unbound from the free instance. However, the backup files that are created within the last three days are temporarily retained. The backup files are deleted after three days.

6. Check URL forwarding configurations

   You can add up to two URL forwarding records for the domain name that is bound to a free instance. If more than two records are added, remove excess records. Otherwise, the resolution on the domain name will be suspended.

Procedure

1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud DNS console.

2. On the Authoritative DNS Resolution page, click the Editions tab. On the Editions tab, find the instance that you want to manage and click Bind Domain Name in the Actions column.

3. In the Bind Domain Name section, find the desired domain name and click Unbind Domain Name in the Actions column.

4. After you unbind the domain name from the instance, modify the names of the DNS servers assigned for the domain name to the names of free DNS servers at the domain name registrar.

   Warning

   • If the domain name is registered with Alibaba Cloud, the system automatically assigns free DNS servers to the domain name after the update prohibition lock is disabled for the domain name and the domain name is unbound from the paid instance. After a few minutes, the names of the free DNS servers assigned for the domain name are automatically displayed on the DNS Settings page.

   • After DNS servers are changed, do not add or modify the DNS records added for the domain name within 48 hours. DNS requests for the domain name are still sent to the paid DNS servers because the TTL period of the cached NS records for the domain name does not expire during this period. If you modify the DNS records, the modified DNS records are not synchronized to the paid DNS servers.

Bind a domain name to another instance

If you have multiple paid instances of different editions, you can change the instance bound to a domain name to another instance.

Preparations

After you change the paid instance bound to a domain name to another paid instance, the DNS server cluster assigned to the domain name remains the same. Therefore, whether the update prohibition lock or DNSSEC is enabled for the domain name does not affect the resolution on the domain name.

Check DNS records

If you change the paid instance bound to the domain name to a paid instance with higher specifications, the resolution on the domain name is not affected. If you change the paid instance bound to the domain name to a paid instance with lower specifications, check whether the configurations of the DNS records added for the domain name are affected. For more information, see the Unbind a domain name from an instance section of this topic. For more information about the differences between editions, see Editions.

If the DNS records are not affected or you have made an adjustment before you change the instance, the resolution on the domain name is not affected.

Procedure

Scenario 1: You have not purchased an instance to be bound to the domain name

1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud DNS console.

2. On the Authoritative DNS Resolution page, click the Editions tab and click Buy Now.

3. On the buy page, select the edition of the instance that you want to purchase, enter the domain name that you want to bind to the instance in the Domain Name First Bound section, and then click Buy Now. Then, complete the payment.

4. The domain name is automatically unbound from the original instance and bound to the new instance.

Scenario 2: You have purchased an instance to be bound to the domain name

1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud DNS console.

2. On the Authoritative DNS Resolution page, click the Editions tab. On the Editions tab, find the instance that you want to manage and click Bind Domain Name in the Actions column.

3. In the Basic Information section of the Bind Domain Name page, enter the domain name that you want to bind to the instance and click Bind Domain Name.

4. The domain name is automatically unbound from the original instance and bound to the new instance.

Degrade an instance

If you want to change the instance bound to a domain name to an instance with lower specifications, you can unbind the domain name from the original instance and then bind the domain name to an instance with lower specifications because you cannot degrade an instance in the Alibaba Cloud DNS console.

You can use the preceding method if you want to downgrade the DNS protection level and decrease the number of bound domain names.

You cannot degrade an instance in the Alibaba Cloud DNS console. You can change the instance bound to a domain name to an instance with lower specifications. For more information, see the Bind a domain name to another instance section of this topic.

After you bind the domain name to another instance, you can unsubscribe from the original instance.