Following "zero downtime" steps to transfer a domain to a new registrar has resulted in downtime :-(

Forums › IT Pro and developers › Following "zero downtime" steps to transfer a domain to a new registrar has resulted in downtime :-(

Baboon

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#295835 27-Apr-2022 14:18

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

I'm wanting to transfer a domain from https://www.discountdomains.co.nz/ to https://metaname.net/

It is used just for email hosted at a third company - https://www.hostinger.com/

I set the TTL for all records to 5mins, thinking that would help, then I followed these steps to the letter: https://metaname.net/my/transfer_help

Which are to create the zone at Metaname

, then set the nameservers at the current registrar to Metaname's nameservers.

Wait till five mins past the next hour, then transfer the domain for no downtime.

Except I haven't wanted to do the transfer, because twice now I've tried this, and I get stuck with email sent to my user being bounced, till I return to using Discount Domain's nameservers and zone record.

I tried this yesterday, and experienced a two hour interruption in service before giving up. I tried again today, and am now five hours into a service interruption.

I emailed Metaname support yesterday after I aborted the first attempt, and they just replied that I should be sure "Names that are fully-qualified such as www.vivacissimo.net.nz. or ghs.google.com. should have a trailing dot". Yep - they are. And I also showed them they were in a screenshot.

I then emailed Hostinger and had them look over everything I'd set. They replied that it all looked fine.

I'm stumped and increasingly frustrated. I don't want to proceed with the transfer, because I don't know what's wrong. I only know that yesterday it was fixed by returning to the prior setup in Discount Domains using their own nameservers and own zone record.

TIA for any advice you might have :-)

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#2907520 27-Apr-2022 14:26

Just transfer the domain, duplicate the records on metaname to be the same as on the old registrar. Dont try and change the DNS servers on your original registrar. It'll all go seamlessly then.

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fearandloathing

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#2907521 27-Apr-2022 14:26

Are you missing the trailing ‘.’ On the data record. Don’t include your domain on the host name. Only the domain key is set up properly by the looks of it.

Baboon

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#2907523 27-Apr-2022 14:34

fearandloathing: Are you missing the trailing ‘.’ On the data record. Don’t include your domain on the host name. Only the domain key is set up properly by the looks of it.

Metaname replaces @ with the domain. As you can see in the screenshot - trailing dots are there.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

Baboon

385 posts

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#2907533 27-Apr-2022 14:37

askelon:
Just transfer the domain, duplicate the records on metaname to be the same as on the old registrar. Dont try and change the DNS servers on your original registrar. It'll all go seamlessly then.

Well, I was trying to avoid downtime. And the resulting downtime regardless, made me worry something was messed up in the Metaname zone record…

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

askelon

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#2907536 27-Apr-2022 14:40

Well, I was trying to avoid downtime. And the resulting downtime regardless, made me worry something was messed up in the Metaname zone record…

There should be no downtime doing it that way. Other option is setup a cloudflare account and add the domain. It should duplicate your existing records automatically. Change your current DNS servers to match the cloudflare ones, transfer the domain, change the metaname ones to the cloudflare ones too. I manage all my DNS via cloudflare rather than metaname.

fearandloathing

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#2907557 27-Apr-2022 15:11

Baboon:

Metaname replaces @ with the domain. As you can see in the screenshot - trailing dots are there.

No you are using your trailing . and @ in the wrong locations.

Pretty sure you don't use the @ in the 'Name' column unless it's for the root domain. The 'Name' column needs just the host name not the FQDN the 'data' column needs to end with the .

Edit: missing words

Baboon

385 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2907572 27-Apr-2022 15:51

fearandloathing:
Baboon:

Metaname replaces @ with the domain. As you can see in the screenshot - trailing dots are there.

No you are using your trailing . and @ in the wrong locations.

Pretty sure you don't use the @ in the 'Name' column unless it's for the root domain. The 'Name' column needs just the host name not the FQDN the 'data' column needs to end with the .

Edit: missing words

Well, now I'm just completely confused. I really don't understand why Metaname has made what I've done many times in other registrars, so obtuse. The info supplied to enter and Metaname's UI doesn't match up. Ever. I give up. At this point it would be easier to just switch registrars to one where I can just enter the records and have them work, as per normal.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

fearandloathing

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#2907580 27-Apr-2022 16:02

Personally use metaname for your registra, cloudflare for your dns. If cloudflare supports your tld, use cloudflare as your registra aw well.

Baboon

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#2907584 27-Apr-2022 16:11

fearandloathing: Personally use metaname for your registra, cloudflare for your dns. If cloudflare supports your tld, use cloudflare as your registra aw well.

Even worse, twice I've received emails back from Metaname support, and just won't tell me precisely what I'm doing wrong. Instead I get _hints_ as to my mistakes. I don't want HINTS right now, while I'm trapped in downtime!!! I want _answers._ I want to learn from _clear_ _direct_ answers. _Not_ hints.

I swear, I've entered records like this in a dozen other registrar's zone records, without a hitch. Why on Earth does Metaname a) have to be different with different names for fields and different conventions for record entry, and b) not just tell you what is different and how it will impact you?

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

Baboon

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#2907623 27-Apr-2022 16:53

Well, in the meantime I've returned to using Discount Domains for the DNS, with the strong inclination to take earlier advice regarding separating DNS from registrar.

However, more out of curiosity than anything else at this point, have I finally got it right?

Not that it _really_ matters, as I'm loathe to try a third time.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

fearandloathing

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#2907630 27-Apr-2022 17:12

Baboon: Well, in the meantime I've returned to using Discount Domains for the DNS, with the strong inclination to take earlier advice regarding separating DNS from registrar.

However, more out of curiosity than anything else at this point, have I finally got it right?

Not that it _really_ matters, as I'm loathe to try a third time.

That looks correct, assuming the redacted information is the equivalent of example.co from example.co.nz

Baboon

385 posts

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#2907634 27-Apr-2022 17:23

fearandloathing:

That looks correct, assuming the redacted information is the equivalent of example.co from example.co.nz

It is indeed, except of course for the DKIM.

Your help is much appreciated. Clearly I should've come here first, rather than contact Metaname support :-)

I'm trying to tell myself not to do anything rash while I'm still angry, but my strong inclination tonight is to move away from Metaname (I already have a couple domains with them, that use their email provider's own nameservers, so no point of reference for Metaname zone records to look back on, you see).

Weirdly I've seen a bunch of other Geekzone users rave about Metaname's support, over the years…

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

michaelmurfy

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#2907670 27-Apr-2022 19:26

Metaname's support is totally fine and to be honest I, along with many other people find their DNS management fine also when I used it (I use Cloudflare for DNS but use Metaname for all my domains).

Hints are a way to learn. Metaname expect their clients to have some DNS knowledge and know how to "dig around" to work out a solution. It is not a basic service, it does what it says on the packet and does it well since DNS normally does actually require an ending dot - some registrars add this in for you. See here: https://stackexchange.github.io/dnscontrol/why-the-dot

It would help if you just told us your domain as then we could dig around also... But essentially "dig mx @ns1.metaname.net your-domain.co.nz" would have shown the missing dot at the end of your records. There are also online tools to do some digging too: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/

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Baboon

385 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2907674 27-Apr-2022 19:40

Metaname is the only registrar I've used over the years, out of about a dozen, that has a different convention for inputting zone records. And no email or web provider I've ever used has handed out their DNS record info in the format Metaname insists upon.

And while I'm happy to learn, in fact I _want_ to learn, hints are _not_ what I need when I'm becoming increasingly stressed by a service interruption caused by a system that quite frankly, smells of IT arrogance.

It may please some people to feel smarter than others, and lord it over them. But it's not the great look they think it is.

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

- Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson)

BlakJak

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#2907680 27-Apr-2022 20:13

Haven't reviewed the correspondence so can't really tell if there's any arrogance there or not.

Do remember though, that a domain name registrar is primarily there to let you register domain names.

Hosting of a DNS Zone is not actually a standard registrar feature. It's an additional service, pertaining to DNS, and there are references out there which would give a solid clue as to the problem. Michaelmurfy's comments are on the button.

Duplicating your old DNS Zone on your new DNS Servers _and then testing them to prove they work as expected before changing your authoritive nameservers_ is what I would call a standard practice, however. You do this by directing a DNS query straight at the server concerned. Dig is the Linux CLI tool that does this, though you can usually get 'good enough' with nslookup (it won't show you TTLs' and such but it'll at least show you the answer is what you'd expect). Run nslookup from a dos prompt, and then submit 'server x.x.x.x', then execute your query.

Metaname is 'no frills', assumes you know what you're doing, and lacks some of the polish of some other platforms, true. But in compensation you get all the flexibility that comes with this.

Not gonna judge about this 'hints' business without all the facts, though.

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