UltraDNS2 Guide
UltraDNS2 combines the award-winning UltraDNS resolution network with a second global DNS anycast network, operated by a leading anycast cloud provider. UltraDNS2 provides the redundancy of having a separate network with all the advanced features and functionality of UltraDNS, giving you a single pane of glass to manage both your networks.
Now that you have enrolled in UltraDNS2, please familiarize yourself with the items in this guide to ensure that you correctly configure and maintain your new UltraDNS2 feature.
Account Configuration
When the UltraDNS2 service is enabled for your account, the zone data within your account will begin to flow to both UltraDNS and UltraDNS2 networks. Additionally, when UltraDNS2 is officially turned on at the account level within the database, all the zone information is then copied over to both the UltraDNS and UltraDNS2 networks, thereby Enabling your account.
Once this process has been established, you will need to configure your NameServer details.
Update Your NameServer Records with your Registrar
You will need to delegate the UltraDNS2 specific Nameservers outside of UltraDNS to your registrar. The list of Name Server (NS) Records for both UltraDNS2 and UltraDNS can be found in the Nameserver Records List section of this guide.
Portal Changes
We have intentionally made the visual changes to the UltraDNS Managed Services Portal as minimal as possible, therefore, the following are the changes you may notice when logging into your account.
Logo / Branding Change
Although a rather minor change, the UltraDNS branding logo will be the first indicator that your account has been configured to utilize the UltraDNS2 service. Every screen across the portal will display the new UltraDNS2 logo, as shown below.
Domains
For accounts that have UltraDNS2 enabled (turned on and configured), the Domains page will provide an additional column, UltraDNS2, which provides a quick view drop-down menu to identify if a zone is Active, or Inactive.
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Active – When an account has the UltraDNS2 feature enabled and the zone has the necessary Nameservers configured for UltraDNS2, the zone is considered Active.
-
Inactive – When an account has the UltraDNS2 feature enabled, but the specific zone does not have the necessary UltraDNS2 nameservers configured to utilize the second network.
Using the drop-down menu, you can quickly switch between views to see which zones are Active, and which zones are Inactive and still require additional configurations.
Bulk Add / Remove UltraDNS2 Domains
The Add / Remove UltraDNS2 function allows you to select multiple domains (in bulk) to either apply the UltraDNS2 service to, or revert an UltraDNS2 enabled domain back to a standard UltraDNS domain. By doing so, the Name Server (NS) record details that have already been configured and delegated for your account will be applied to those same NS records for the selected Domains. After the operation is completed, the selected Domain(s) will be UltraDNS2 enabled, and the zone data will begin to flow between the UltraDNS and UltraDNS2 networks.
Please be aware, that there are restrictions on the types of Domains that can be selected for this process. The following Domain types cannot be selected when performing the Add or Remove UltraDNS2 function, and will pause the operation and display an error message.
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Secondary Domains
-
Alias Domains
-
Domains in a Suspended status
SOA Change
Please be aware that performing either the Add UltraDNS2 or Remove UltraDNS2 function will change the Serial value on the Start of Authority (SOA) record for the selected Domain(s).
Add UltraDNS2
To perform the Add UltraDNS2 operation, select at least one domain that does not violate the Domain restrictions listed above, and then click the Add UltraDNS2 button. A confirmation window will appear listing the selected Domains, and if they violate the restrictions, or are available to be added to the UltraDNS2 network. Click the Submit button to initiate the operation.
After successful completion of the Add UltraDNS2 operation, a .CSV file can be downloaded from the Tasks List that will display the selected Domains, and the confirmation of the added NS records.
Refresh the Domains list to see the updated status of the newly configured Domains.
Remove UltraDNS2
To perform the Remove UltraDNS2 operation, select at least one domain that does not violate the Domain restrictions listed above, and then click the Add UltraDNS2 button. By doing so, the Name Server (NS) record details that have been configured and delegated for your account will be removed, leaving you the basic UltraDNS NS records. After the operation is completed, the selected Domain(s) zone data will only flow to the UltraDNS network.
A confirmation window will appear listing the selected Domains, and if they violate the restrictions, or are available to be added to the UltraDNS2 network. Click the Submit button to initiate the operation.
IMPORTANT: If removing the UltraDNS2 NS records results in a Domain no longer having at least two (2) NS records configured, a message on the .CSV file will display "After removing the UltraDNS2 NS at least 2 NS records should be present." Please confirm that at least two UltraDNS configured NS records are configured for the Domain before trying the operation again.
Refresh the Domains list to see the updated status of the newly configured Domains.
After successful completion of the Remove UltraDNS2 operation, a .CSV file can be downloaded from the Tasks List that will display the selected Domains, and the status of the removed NS records.
Nameserver Records List
A significant change that users will notice are the number of Nameserver (NS) Records that will appear in their domain(s). UltraDNS customers have six default NS Records created for their account, while the UltraDNS2 customers will now have eight NS (six from UltraDNS, and two from UltraDNS2) records.
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Two UltraDNS2 NS records (.com and .org)
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ns100.ultradns2.com.
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ns100.ultradns2.org.
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Six UltraDNS NS records (.net, .org, .info, and .co.uk)
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pdns1.ultradns.net
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pdns2.ultradns.net
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pdns3.ultradns.org.
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pdns4.ultradns.org.
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pdns5.ultradns.info.
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pdns6.ultradns.co.uk.
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|
Reports
Query Analytics
The Query Analytics Report page is comprised of two reports: the Zone Query Details Report, and the Host Query Details Report.
The Zone Query Details Report is designed to provide aggregated zone query volumes for multiple zones within your account, which will be displayed by default when clicking on the Query Analytics report from the list of available reports.
The Host Query Details Report provides aggregated host query volumes for one or all hosts within a zone. This report is implemented as a “drill down” report, designed to get more granular information on a host basis from the Zone Query Details Report.
For users with access to multiple accounts, you can specify the Account in which you want to view the responses for. To view this report, click on the Reports tab on the left-hand side of the screen, and then from the drop-down list, select Query Analytics.
Upon loading the report, you’ll see two charts displaying zone query results, as well as a table of all the zone names you currently have access to.
UltraDNS2 Enabled Accounts
For UltraDNS2 enabled accounts, the Query Analytics report will display an additional configuration drop-down menu, that allows users to change the view of the report details. The report data and table columns will display the same type of data, but this allows our UltraDNS2 customers greater flexibility to see their data in greater granularity.
UltraDNS – Selecting this option from the drop-down menu will only display the standard zones that are configured for the UltraDNS service.
UltraDNS2 – Selecting this option from the drop-down menu will only display the zones that are configured using the UltraDNS2 feature.
UltraDNS & UltraDNS2 – Selecting this option from the drop-down menu will display all zones of the available zones for the account being displayed.
Please note that when selecting UltraDNS & UltraDNS2 as the drop-down option, the displayed report data will not indicate which zone is the UltraDNS, and which is UltraDNS2. We recommend one of two options as a workaround.
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Export the UltraDNS and the UltraDNS2 reports individually so that you can clearly identify which zones are associated to each feature.
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Export the UltraDNS & UltraDNS2 report data and then compare the exported zone list to the Domains page, which has the column indicating which zone is Ultra2 enabled.
Usage Summary Report - UltraDNS2 Enabled
For those accounts that have the UltraDNS2 feature enabled, two new columns will be displayed: Query Responses UltraDNS and Query Responses UltraDNS2. These new columns offer users a quick view to see the traffic between the two networks, as well as seeing the total traffic.
Additionally, there are two new graph-lines on the chart that can be viewed and selected to narrow down the results to only the UltraDNS or UltraDNS2 network traffic details.
The Service Package details will span the UltraDNS and UltraDNS2 network rows as they are in an Active-Active configuration, and the resolution of the query (queries) can be resolved from either network at any point in time.
The Usage Summary Report for an UltraDNS2 enabled account can only return the last thirteen (13) months of data, whereas the standard UltraDNS Usage Summary Report returns thirty-six (36) months. The query amounts for the two columns will display the warning color coding scheme.
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Red = 100% usage.
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Orange = 90 - 99.9% usage.
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Yellow = 80-89.9% usage.
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White = <80% usage.
Additionally, when viewing the Daily Usage Summary Report, the new Query Responses UltraDNS and Query Responses UltraDNS2 columns will be displayed as well.
Account Info
The final location that UltraDNS2 customers will notice a change is on the Accounts section of the account. The Assigned Name Servers section on the Accounts Info page will display the eight new NS records that have been assigned to the account.
API Changes
To coincide with the Portal changes, we have made a slight update to our REST API to indicate those NS records that are system generated by the UltraDNS2 service.
Resource Record Sets (RRSet) DTO
Attribute |
Description |
Type |
Required? |
---|---|---|---|
ownerName |
The domain name of the owner of the RRSet. Can be either:
If a FQDN, it must be contained within the zone name FQDN. |
String. |
NO for PUT, POST, or PATCH calls. Ignored if present. Not present (and ignored if present) if this RRSet is embedded inside of an Owner structure. |
rrtype |
Resource Record Type for the RRSet. Must be formatted as the well-known resource record type (A, AAAA, TXT, etc.) and the corresponding number for the type, between 1 and 65535 or a known resource record name (A, AAAA, SRV, etc.). |
String. |
NO for PUT, POST, or PATCH calls. Ignored if present. Not present (and ignored if present) if this RRSet is embedded inside of an Owner structure. |
ttl |
The time to live (in seconds) for all records in the RRSet. Must be a value between 0 and 2147483647, inclusive. |
Integer. |
Should be included in PUT, POST or PATCH calls. If TTL is not specified, the value set at the account level (either for record type or global setting) will be used. |
rdata |
The data for the records in the RRSet. Must use the BIND presentation format for the specified rrtype. For MX, NS, CNAME, PTR, and APEXALIAS record types, the rdata value cannot be relative to the zone name. It must be a FQDN. If rrtype is MX, entering “0 .” will create a NULL MX record, implying that “No Service” is available for the server / record. |
Array. |
REQUIRED for PUT, POST, or PATCH calls. Must include BIND formatted data. If a null MX record exists for a zone, no additional MX records are allowed. Additionally, if an MX record exists within a zone, a Null MX record cannot be created. |
systemGenerated |
Indicates whether the record in an rdata list is system generated or not.
It represents the Boolean value that corresponds to the record in the list (in same order the records are returned). |
Array (Boolean). |
Will be returned for GET requests when used as the query parameter systemGeneratedStatus.
If the query parameter is set to true, then the attribute name will be returned in the response.
Ignored for PUT/PATCH/POST requests. |
ultra2SystemGenerated |
Indicates whether the nameserver in an rdata list is generated by the UltraDNS2 system or not. |
Array (Boolean) corresponding to the nameserver in the list. |
ultra2SystemGenerated will only be returned for those accounts which have UltraDNS2 enabled, as well as the associated NS records. |
JSON Example: Results for Ultra2 Enabled Account
{
"zoneName": "abc.com.",
"rrSets": [
{
"ownerName": "abc.com.",
"rrtype": "NS (2)",
"ttl": 86400,
"rdata": [
"ns1.hostingsvcs.com.",
"ns2.hostingsvcs.com.",
"udns1.ultradns.net.",
"udns2.ultradns.net."
],
"systemGenerated": [
false,
false,
true,
true
],
"ultra2SystemGenerated": [
true,
true,
false,
false
]
}
],
"queryInfo": {
"q": "kind:ALL",
"sort": "OWNER",
"reverse": false,
"limit": 50
},
"resultInfo": {
"totalCount": 1,
"offset": 0,
"returnedCount": 1
}
}
Zone API and DTO
When performing a GET Zone API call, the “ultra2” parameter will be returned with either a “true” or “false” to indicate if the zone is UltraDNS2 configured. This new attribute will be returned for all GET Zone API calls.
Attribute |
Description |
Type |
---|---|---|
name |
Name of the zone, with trailing periods (….) Must be a valid domain name. |
Required for zone creation. Ignored if present on update. |
accountName |
Name of the account. |
String. Required for zone creation. Ignored if present on update. |
type |
Type of zone. Valid values are PRIMARY, SECONDARY or ALIAS. |
Required for zone creation. Ignored if present on update. |
owner |
Name of the user that created the zone. |
Returned in GET responses for zone information. Ignored if present on create or update. |
recordCount |
Number of records in the zone. |
Returned in GET responses for zone information. Ignored if present on create or update. |
dnssecStatus |
Whether or not the zone is signed with DNSSEC. Valid values are SIGNED or UNSIGNED. |
Returned in GET responses for zone information. Ignored if present on create or update. |
lastModifiedDateTime |
The last date and time the zone was modified, represented in ISO8601 format. |
Returned in GET responses for zone information. Ignored if present on create or update. |
ultra2 |
Only applicable to accounts that have enabled the UltraDNS2 service. Indicates if the zone has UltraDNS2 enabled or not. Valid values are false and true. |
Boolean. Returned in GET responses for zone information. |
JSON Example: GET Zones with ultra2 parameter
"queryInfo": {
"q": "",
"sort": "name",
"reverse": false,
"limit": 100
},
"cursorInfo": {
"next": "MTByZWNvcmRzLTEwODUuY29tLjpORVhU",
"last": "fjpMQVNU"
},
"zones": [
{
"properties": {
"name": "0-0-0oxfr-ut9-test.com.",
"accountName": "javauie2e",
"type": "PRIMARY",
"dnssecStatus": "UNSIGNED",
"status": "ACTIVE",
"owner": "javauie2e",
"resourceRecordCount": 5,
"lastModifiedDateTime": "2022-09-27T05:06Z",
"ultra2": false
}
},
{
"properties": {
"name": "007-tosha.com.",
"accountName": "javauie2e",
"type": "PRIMARY",
"dnssecStatus": "UNSIGNED",
"status": "ACTIVE",
"owner": "javauie2e",
"resourceRecordCount": 8,
"lastModifiedDateTime": "2020-06-24T07:19Z",
"ultra2": true
}
},
To specifically return only UltraDNS2 enabled zones (or only those on the UltraDNS (standard) network), a new query parameter “network” has been added.
Attribute |
Description |
Type |
---|---|---|
q |
The query used to construct the list. Query operators are:
|
String. |
cursor |
Can be provided after the initial List Metadata for Zones request. Use with the cursorInfo details for fetching the next, previous, first or last page(s) of details. |
String. Optional. |
limit |
The maximum number of rows requested. Default is 100. |
Integer. Optional. |
https://api.test.ultradns.net/v3/zones?q=network:ultra2
Customer Support Info
Clicking on the Contact Us link will direct you to the immediate contact information for the UltraDNS Managed Services Support staff, as well as provide additional contact information.
Clicking the Support Portal will navigate you to the Customer Support portal where customer service tickets can be created, and additional resources can be found.