Configure the Plesk DNS template and server-wide DNS settings

Every new domain in Plesk gets a DNS zone built from the server's DNS template. Getting the template right once – nameservers, SPF, DMARC, CAA, sensible TTLs – means every new site starts with correct DNS. This guide is for Plesk administrators.

Before you start

• Plesk administrator access.
• Decide whether Plesk will be authoritative for customer domains. If you use external DNS (Cloudflare, a DNS cluster), you may disable the local DNS service instead.
• For your own nameservers, such as ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com, you need glue records at the registrar of example.com and ideally a second DNS server.

Open the DNS template

Go to Tools & Settings → DNS Template (under General Settings). The template uses placeholders: <domain> for the customer's domain and <ip> for the site's IP.

Set nameservers

1. Find the NS records (by default ns.<domain>).
2. Replace them with your global nameservers: edit each NS record and set the value to ns1.example.com, then add a second NS record for ns2.example.com.
3. Remove the default A record for ns.<domain> if you no longer use per-domain nameservers.

Recommended default records

• A records for <domain>, www, mail and webmail pointing to <ip>.
• MX for <domain> pointing to mail.<domain>, priority 10.
• SPF TXT such as v=spf1 +a +mx -all.
• DMARC TXT for _dmarc.<domain> such as v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@example.com. See SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
• CAA allowing letsencrypt.org if you only use Let's Encrypt.

SOA settings

Click SOA Records Template. Set a sensible TTL (for example 1 hour), Refresh, Retry, Expire and Minimum TTL values, and tick Use serial number format recommended by IETF and RIPE (YYYYMMDDNN). Choose the administrator email shown in SOA.

Apply changes to existing domains

Template changes affect only new zones by default. Click Apply DNS Template Changes and choose whether to apply to all zones or only those not changed by users. Be careful: applying to everything overwrites customer customisations of matching records.

Master, slave or disabled

• Master (default): Plesk hosts zones and answers DNS queries.
• Slave DNS: install the Slave DNS Manager extension to sync zones to a secondary BIND server for redundancy.
• Disabled: under Tools & Settings → DNS Settings (or per domain), switch DNS off when an external provider is authoritative. Customers then edit records there.

Troubleshooting

• New domains still use ns.domain: the template was not saved, or the domain was created before the change.
• Nameservers do not resolve: glue records at the registrar are missing.
• Zone transfers to slave fail: allow the slave's IP in Transfer Restrictions Template.

Next steps

• Manage records per domain.
• Set the server hostname.
• Manage IP addresses.