DNS
Site DNS Tab
The DNS tab shows the live DNS records for the domain attached to a site, so you can check what a name currently resolves to without leaving the site you are working on. It is a read-only view: edits happen in the full DNS editor, one click away.
Where the DNS Tab Lives
Open Websites, click the site, open the Domain menu in the site tab strip, and choose DNS. The page is headed DNS and subtitled with the domain it is showing records for.
Its neighbour, Domains, controls which domains are attached to the site rather than what their records say. See Site Domains Tab.
Only For Domains On Kapsule DNS
If the site's domain is registered or transferred to Kapsule, its records appear here. If it is not, the page says so directly: DNS records are only available for domains registered or transferred to Kapsule, and offers a Register a Domain button.
That is a statement about where the domain's DNS is hosted, not a limitation of the site. A site can serve a domain whose DNS lives at another provider perfectly well; KPanel simply cannot show you records it does not hold. To bring the records here, move the domain: see Transferring a Domain To Kapsule and Nameservers.
Reading the Records Table
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Type | The record type, as a pill: A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT and so on |
| Name | The hostname the record applies to |
| Content | The value the record points at |
| TTL | How long resolvers may cache the answer |
| Proxied | Whether the record is served through our edge network |
A TTL shown as Auto means the platform picks a sensible value for you rather than a fixed number of seconds. Anything else is shown in seconds.
Proxied set to Yes means requests for that name go through our edge before reaching your server, which is what hides the origin address and lets edge caching work. No means the record answers with your server address directly, which is what you want for records that are not web traffic, such as MX and most TXT records.
If the table is empty, the page says No DNS records found. For a domain that has just been registered that usually resolves itself within a few minutes.
What Good Looks Like For a Hosted Site
For a typical site on Kapsule you should expect to see, at minimum:
- An A record for the root of the domain pointing at the site's server.
- An A or CNAME record for
www. - MX records, if the domain receives email.
- A TXT record holding your SPF policy.
If any of those are missing and something is not working, the specific pages are DNS Basics, MX Records, CNAME Records and SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
Kapsule deliberately does not overwrite your own mail records. If you are running email at another provider, the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records you have set are left alone. Nothing on this page will quietly replace them.
Editing Records
Click Full DNS Editor in the top right. That takes you to the domain's own page under Domains, where records can be added, edited and deleted.
The split is intentional. This tab is a quick check while you are working on the site; the editor is the place where a mistake has consequences, so it lives with the domain rather than one click away from a site's build settings.
Editing needs the domains:write permission. If your role does not have it, the button is not shown.
DNS mistakes take effect everywhere, and they take as long to undo as the TTL you set. Before changing an existing record, write down its current value. Before changing MX records, remember that mail sent during the gap is not queued by your old provider forever.
Premium DNS
A banner at the bottom of the page offers an upgrade to Premium DNS, showing the price in your own currency, with an Add to cart button that takes you straight to checkout.
Premium DNS adds anycast nameservers, CAA record support, and TTLs down to one millisecond. Anycast is the headline: the same nameserver address is announced from multiple locations, so lookups are answered by whichever is closest to the person asking, and a single location going away does not take your DNS with it.
It is priced at US$11.00 per month and is added per domain.
Whether it is worth it depends on how much your traffic is worth to you. A brochure site is fine on standard DNS. A store, an API, or anything where a few seconds of resolution failure costs real money is the case for anycast.
DNSSEC is not a paid extra. It can be switched on for domains using Kapsule DNS regardless of Premium DNS, and there is a specific procedure for turning it off safely. See DNSSEC before enabling or disabling it.
Troubleshooting
The record is here but the site still does not load. DNS is only one half. Confirm the domain is also attached to the site on the Site Domains Tab, and that the pill there reads DNS Active.
A record was changed but the world still sees the old value. Resolvers cache answers for the length of the TTL that was in force before your change, not the new one. If the old TTL was an hour, expect up to an hour.
Mail stopped after a DNS change. Check the MX records first, then SPF. See MX Records and SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
The page says records are only available for Kapsule domains, but the domain is in my account. The domain is in your account for billing and renewal, but its nameservers still point elsewhere. Change the nameservers at the registrar: see Nameservers.
Proxied says No and you expected the CDN. The CDN is enabled per site and per plan, not by editing a record by hand. See Enabling the CDN.
Where To Go Next
- Site Domains Tab to attach or detach a domain.
- DNS Basics for what each record type does.
- DNSSEC for signing the zone.