If you're running a white-label reseller hosting business on ipxcore, your clients should never see "ipxcore.com" or "dnsroundrobin.net" in their nameserver settings. Private nameservers (also called custom nameservers or vanity nameservers) make every account look like it's hosted on your brand. This article walks through the full setup.
What you'll end up with
By the end, your reseller clients will use nameservers like:
ns1.yourbrand.comns2.yourbrand.com
...instead of the default ipxcore nameservers. Your clients see only your brand; ipxcore stays invisible.
Step 1: Pick a domain you control
Use your reseller business's primary domain, or register one specifically for branding (yourbrand-hosting.com). The domain doesn't have to be hosted on the same reseller account — it just needs to be a domain you own, with the registrar accessible to make the changes in step 3.
Step 2: Get two IP addresses from ipxcore
For private nameservers you need two IPs — one for each nameserver hostname (this is required by ICANN and most registrars; having both nameservers on the same IP defeats redundancy and most registrars will refuse the glue records).
The easiest way to get them is to resolve our two public round-robin hostnames:
$ dig +short all1.dnsroundrobin.net $ dig +short all2.dnsroundrobin.net
Each hostname always resolves to several IPs in our anycast pool. Pick any one IP from the first pool and any one from the second pool — that's your pair for the glue records in Step 3. No ticket needed; these IPs are public.
If your business case specifically requires dedicated static IPs (rare — usually compliance or SSL-related), open a support ticket and we'll assign them to your reseller account at no charge.
Step 3: Register glue records at your registrar
"Glue records" tell the global DNS system which IP each of your nameserver hostnames resolves to. Without glue, DNS resolution becomes circular and breaks (you can't look up ns1.yourbrand.com if the nameserver authoritative for yourbrand.com is itself ns1.yourbrand.com).
Can't I just use a CNAME? No — the DNS spec (RFC 2181 §10.3) forbids using a CNAME as the target of an NS record, and registrars only accept IPs (not hostnames) for glue entries. The only way to skip glue is to point client domains at all1.dnsroundrobin.net and all2.dnsroundrobin.net directly — no glue needed because those hostnames live in a different domain — but you lose the white-label, which defeats the point of this article.
Log in to your domain registrar and look for "Register Nameservers", "Glue Records", "Child Nameservers", or "Personal Nameservers". The exact name varies by registrar:
- Namecheap: Domain List → Manage → Advanced DNS → "Personal DNS Server"
- GoDaddy: Domain Settings → DNS → "Host Names"
- Cloudflare Registrar: Domain → Manage Nameservers → Custom Nameservers
- Porkbun: Domain Management → Authoritative Nameservers → Glue Records
Register two entries:
ns1.yourbrand.com→ IP #1 from step 2ns2.yourbrand.com→ IP #2 from step 2
Step 4: Configure WHM
Log in to your WHM (URL is in your reseller welcome email). Go to:
- Server Configuration → Basic WebHost Manager Setup: set the primary and secondary nameserver fields to
ns1.yourbrand.comandns2.yourbrand.com.
Then go to:
- DNS Functions → Nameserver IPs: assign each nameserver to its corresponding IP from step 2.
Step 5: Update existing client accounts
New accounts you create from now on will use your private nameservers automatically. To update existing accounts:
- Account Information → List Accounts → Modify: for each existing account, set the new nameservers in the DNS settings.
- Or run WHM's Edit Zone Templates and update all zones in batch.
Step 6: Test
From a terminal, verify your nameservers resolve correctly:
$ dig ns1.yourbrand.com +short 192.0.2.10 $ dig ns2.yourbrand.com +short 192.0.2.11 $ dig yourclientdomain.com NS +short ns1.yourbrand.com. ns2.yourbrand.com.
If glue records are missing, you'll see a SERVFAIL or NXDOMAIN response. Wait 1-2 hours for registrar changes to propagate before troubleshooting.
Optional: DNS clustering for redundancy
For higher reliability, ask us about adding a third nameserver in a different geographic location. ipxcore supports DNS clusters across our seven North American facilities — your clients get faster, more reliable lookups, all under your brand.
