Transferring a domain name from another registrar to Alibaba Cloud requires migrating the associated DNS records. Learn how to complete the transfer without disrupting DNS resolution.
Scenarios
The domain name transfer itself is straightforward. For more information, see Transfer a domain name to Alibaba Cloud. However, DNS resolution and management can add complexity. The following scenarios describe how the transfer affects your DNS records.
The domain name is already using Alibaba Cloud DNS for resolution
In this scenario, your domain name is registered with another registrar but already uses Alibaba Cloud DNS for resolution. The DNS servers at your current registrar point to Alibaba Cloud DNS servers, such as vip(1-8).alidns.com, dns(1-32).hichina.com, or ns(1-8).alidns.com.
Scenario 1: The DNS records are in the destination account
For example, you transfer a domain name to Alibaba Cloud Account A, and the DNS records for that domain name are also in Account A. You can transfer the domain name directly. The DNS records are kept, and DNS resolution is not affected.
Scenario 2: The DNS records are not in the destination account
For example, you transfer a domain name to Alibaba Cloud Account A, but the DNS records for that domain name are in Account B. The impact of the transfer depends on the Alibaba Cloud DNS edition that Account B uses.
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Scenario |
Impact |
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Account B uses the Free Edition of DNS. |
When you transfer the domain name to Account A, the DNS records in Account B are also transferred to Account A. The DNS records are kept, and DNS resolution is not affected. |
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Account B uses a paid edition of DNS. |
When you transfer the domain name to Account A, the DNS records in Account B are not transferred. To transfer the DNS records, see Revoke a domain name and its DNS records. |
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The domain name is used as a suffix for a CNAME Access Domain Name in Global Traffic Manager 3.0. |
The DNS records are not transferred with the domain name, regardless of the DNS edition used. For more information, see Configure an access domain name. |
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The domain name is used as a suffix for a CNAME Access Domain Name in an earlier version of Global Traffic Manager. |
After the DNS records are transferred, Global Traffic Manager uses the last policy that was in effect, and the failover feature no longer works. Future changes to the scheduling policy in Global Traffic Manager will not take effect. |
The domain name uses another provider for DNS resolution
In this scenario, the DNS servers at your current registrar point to the registrar's default DNS servers or a third-party DNS service, not Alibaba Cloud DNS. This also applies if you have added DNS records in Alibaba Cloud DNS but have not configured your domain name to use those servers.
Scenario 1: You have already added DNS records in Alibaba Cloud DNS
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If the DNS records are in the destination account, the records that you added in the Alibaba Cloud DNS console are kept. DNS resolution is not affected.
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If the DNS records are not in the destination account, Alibaba Cloud DNS purges the records that were previously added to the console during the transfer process.
Scenario 2: You have not added DNS records in Alibaba Cloud DNS
To avoid disrupting your DNS records and business, migrate your domain name resolution to Alibaba Cloud DNS before transferring the domain name. For the migration procedure, see Migrate DNS resolution to Alibaba Cloud DNS.
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After you migrate the domain name resolution to Alibaba Cloud, ensure that the destination account for the domain transfer is the same as the account that holds the DNS records. For more information, see The domain name is already using Alibaba Cloud DNS for resolution.
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If the domain name that you want to transfer uses a self-managed DNS or a third-party DNS service, confirm with your DNS provider whether the transfer will affect the current resolution. If the provider confirms that the resolution will not be affected, you do not need to migrate the resolution to Alibaba Cloud DNS. You can transfer the domain name directly.