I use Linode's DNS manager to manage some of my domains, and the following occurred to me:

1) It would be really nice if I could set up some "templates" which I can then use when I create new zones. Currently the DNS manager will add some default values if I so choose, and it's pretty useful because it saves me some typing and hence also from stupid typos. But I always need to change those default values immediately, even if I'm not doing anything sophisticated. For instance, I often have to add several MX records for Google Apps, and I also prefer to use a CNAME record for "www" rather than an A record. It would be great if I could save those preferences as a template. Perhaps those of you who have multiple linodes could even have one template per server, customized for the way you've set up those servers. (Yes I know I can clone an existing zone, but still...... templates would be more "neat"!)

2) The DNS manager automatically adds a dot at the end of all entries where that dot is expected. Now, I usually add the trailing dot as part of my entry, just by habit. But when I do that, the DNS manager adds another dot to it, such that the zone file ends up saying something like domain.tld.. (notice two dots). This of course raises an error, which can go unnoticed until the next time the zone in question is regenerated (15 mins). Nothing like this happens with most other DNS management services I've used.

3) I'd like to see an "@" sign in those rows where the "host name" column is left empty, i.e. where the record is for the domain itself. That's just more intuitive for me, though others might disagree.

Very nice interface overall, though.

I second the template idea. I think that would be a great addition.

I also prefer to use CNAME records for ww.

I second the template idea. I think that would be a great addition.

I also prefer to use CNAME records for www.

Templates already exist just create a zone containing the data you wish to use for a template and set the zone status to disabled. When you are ready to create a new zone using this template, click the 'Clone an existing zone' link instead of 'Add a new domain zone'. Simply enter the new zones name on the next screen and you are done.

As for the trailing dots, thanks for mentioning it, will look into this.

Oh cool. I'll take a look at that then.

This is a rather old thread........

But unless something has changed since I opened this thread in May, zone cloning doesn't quite work like templates.

For example, suppose I have a zone for mydomain.com with a couple of subdomains like the following:

www CNAME mydomain.com.
mail CNAME mydomain.com.

If I clone this zone to newdomain.com, I get:

www CNAME mydomain.com.
mail CNAME mydomain.com.

Instead of:

www CNAME newdomain.com.
mail CNAME newdomain.com.

Which can be fixed right away, of course... but a real template with support for regexes would work much better for people who have dozens of domains (such as people who run a small webhosting business out of their linode).

I use a template fairly often for setting up new zones with pre-written defaults. This works great when setting up new zones, but doesn't help on those occasions when you need to make a standard change to an existing domain, such as switching mail to Google Apps.

This, in fact, is exactly what I came to the forums to look for today. I'm moving about a dozen domains to Google Apps (as domain aliases to one primary domain) and adding all those Google MX records over and over again isn't something I look forward to. I'd love to see partial templates, such as MX records, that can be added to an existing domain without disrupting any existing, non-MX records. Enough people use Google Apps that you could even provide a template for these settings and let anyone use it, via a "Added Google MX records" button or some such.

Some of these domains are largely unused so I'll probably just delete the zones and immediately add a new one using a template that's got the GA MX records already entered, but some of these have a number of A and CNAME records and are in regular use, so I'm stuck doing these manually.

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Kenn Wilson
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