Through Plesk, you can customize DNS settings for each domain created. The Plesk administrator can also enable you to customize your own DNS settings; however, it is very important that you possess a strong understanding of DNS prior to making any modifications to the DNS settings.
Note: Improper setup of DNS results in improper functioning of web, mail and FTP services.
There are six types of accessible DNS records:
A = Address - This record is used to translate host names to IP addresses.
CNAME = Canonical Name - Used to create additional host names, or aliases, for hosts in a domain.
NS = Name Server - Defines an association between a given domain name and the name servers that store information for that domain. One domain can be associated with any number of name servers.
MX = Mail Exchange - Defines the location of where mail should be delivered for the domain.
PTR = Pointer - Defines the IP address and host name of individual hosts in the domain. Translates IP addresses into host names.
TXT = Text - Defines a domain description, including the SPF (Sender Policy Framework) information. SPF record contains permissions describing hosts authorized to send SMTP traffic.
Plesk retrieves the default DNS settings from Server DNS configuration. To access the DNS zone management tools, click the 
DNS icon on the Domain Administration page. The DNS management page will open displaying the General tab:
On this page you can perform the following actions:
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enable/disable DNS for the domain,
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switch the DNS zone type from master to slave,
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add new DNS records,
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remove existing DNS records,
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restore the DNS zone by the DNS template.
The DNS Zone Status icon indicates whether DNS is turned on or off.
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If you wish to turn DNS on or off for the domain, click the
Enable or 
Disable icon respectively.
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Turning the DNS zone off will refresh the page, so that only a list of nameservers remains.
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If you are running remote DNS, and therefore want to turn DNS off for the domain, you should first create the appropriate NS entries for the domain and remove any inappropriate NS entries possibly created by the default DNS template created in the Server DNS section. At that point, turn DNS off. You see that the name server(s) for the domain remains listed as a link.
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You can perform a test on these name servers by selecting any of them. Selecting any name server will perform an NSLookup to check for the DNS records for your specific domain on that specific name server. NSLookup is used to verify the A record for the domain, the CNAME record for www, and the MX record to ensure that these basic records are resolved properly on the remote name server. The results are interpreted and presented through the user interface.
Adding new records
In order to add a DNS entry, click the 
Add New DNS Record button. On the next page, select the type of record
you wish to create from the Record type drop-down list, enter the data
required for the selected record type, and click OK. Each record type
has its own different setup. When creating DNS entries within a
specific DNS zone the name of the zone must be present for all entries.
Plesk sets the screen up with certain unchangeable fields in order to
prevent possible errors within the zone.
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For an A record, you need to enter the domain name for which you wish to create an A record. If you are simply defining an A record for your main domain, leave the available field empty. If you are defining an A record for a name server, you need to input the appropriate entry for the given name server (i.e. ns1). Then, you need to enter the appropriate IP address to which to associate the domain name. Then select OK to submit your entry.
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For a NS record, you need to enter the domain name for which you wish to create the NS record. If you are defining an NS record for your main domain, you leave the available field blank. Then enter the appropriate name server name in the field provided. You should enter the complete name (i.e. ns1.mynameserver.com). Then select OK to submit your entry.
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For a MX record, you need to enter the domain for which you are creating the MX record. For the main domain, you simply leave the available field blank. Then enter your mail exchanger (= the name of the mail server). If you are running a remote mail server named 'mail.myhostname.com', then simply enter 'mail.myhostname.com' into the field provided. Then you need to set the priority for the mail exchanger. Select the priority using the drop-down box: 0 being the highest and 50 being the lowest. Keep in mind that you also need to add the appropriate A record, and/or CNAME if applicable for the remote mail server. Select OK to submit your entry.
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For a CNAME record, you need to first enter the alias domain name for which you wish to create the CNAME record. You then need to enter the domain name within which you want the alias to reside. Any domain name can be entered. It does not need to reside on the same server. Select OK to submit your entry.
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For a PTR record, enter the IP address/mask for which you wish to define the pointer. Then enter the appropriate domain name for this IP to be translated to. Select OK to submit your entry.
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For a TXT record, enter the domain name that you want the TXT record to be associated with. For the main domain, leave the available field blank. Then enter a text format string to the second field. Select OK to submit your entry.
For adding a SPF record, enter the domain name you want this record to be associated with. If you are doing this for the main domain, leave the available field blank. Then select the SPF record checkbox. To allow all hosts to send SMTP traffic, leave "+all" in the Enter record string field. To specify certain hosts, delete "+all" and enter a proper string. If you are not experienced in making up such strings, use the SPF Setup Wizard: http://spf.pobox.com/wizard.html. Select OK to submit your entry.
To remove a DNS record, select it using a corresponding checkbox, and click Remove Selected. Before anything is processed you will be asked to confirm the deletion.
To switch the DNS zone type from master to slave, follow these steps:
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Click on the
Switch icon. The DNS Zone Properties page will open and the DNS zone type will change to slave.
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Enter the DNS master server IP in the field provided, and click Add. The new DNS master server record will be added immediately to the list of DNS master servers.
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To remove a DNS master server record, select it by clicking in the appropriate checkbox, and click Remove Selected.
Switch icon again. You will return to the DNS Settings page.
To restore the DNS zone by the DNS template, click on the 
Default button. Then you can select the IP address from the drop-down
list to be set up in the template, add the www prefix if required, and
click OK button to restore it.
Customizing Zone Settings
To access the tools of DNS zone settings customization, tab to the Zone Settings page. There you can perform the following actions:
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change the Default TTL (time-to-live) for all the DNS zone records,
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change the following SOA (Start Of Authority) record parameters:
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Refresh Interval - defines the amount of time that should pass from the moment when a secondary name server gets a copy of the zone (or sees that it hasn't changed) before it checks to see if it needs a new copy.
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Retry Interval - defines the amount of time that the primary name server(s) should wait, if an attempt to refresh failed, before making another attempt to refresh.
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Expire Interval - defines the amount of time that lets the secondary name server(s) know how long they can hold the information before it is no longer considered authoritative.
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Minimum TTL - defines the amount of time that the records in the zone are valid for (time-to-live, or TTL), unless the records have a higher TTL value.
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To edit the DNS zone settings for the current domain, type desired values into each input field, select appropriate time units from the corresponding drop-down lists, and click Set.
By default DNS zone transfers are allowed only for the name servers designated by NS records contained within each zone. To allow DNS transfers server-wide on Plesk, you can use the Common ACL feature.
To manage the common Access Control List (ACL) containing all hosts to which DNS zone transfers for all zones are allowed, switch to the Transfer Restrictions tab on the DNS management page.
To add an entry to the list, in the IP address/mask input fields enter the IP address or the network address selecting the appropriate subnet mask from the drop-down list to the left of the input fields, and click Add Network.
To remove an entry from the access control list, select the corresponding checkbox and click Remove Selected.
