Alibaba Cloud DNS:Upgrade, unbind, rebind, or downgrade an instance

Upgrade an instance

Unbind a domain name from an instance

Unbinding a domain name from an instance means that you stop using the paid DNS instance for that domain name. After the domain name is unbound, it is automatically assigned a Free Edition DNS server. Unbinding a domain name from a paid DNS instance may cause DNS records that are only supported by the paid edition to be paused. This can lead to service interruptions. Complete the necessary preparations before you unbind the domain name.

1. Check the DNS record configuration.

   Check item	Details
   Check whether the update lock is enabled for the domain name	If the update lock is enabled, disable it. For more information, see the update lock document.
   Check whether DNSSEC is enabled for the domain name	If it is enabled, first delete the DS record at your domain name registrar, and then disable DNSSEC in the Alibaba Cloud DNS console. For more information, see How to disable DNSSEC.
   Check DNS records	Change the configurations of DNS records that are only supported by paid editions to configurations that are also supported by the Free Edition. This prevents records from being paused after you unbind the domain name from the paid instance. For more information about the feature differences, see Edition comparison. Check host records The Free Edition supports a maximum of 10 subdomain levels. If any host record has more than 10 levels, change it to 10 levels or fewer. Check lines for DNS request sources The Free Edition supports only the following lines for request sources: Default, Outside China, China Unicom, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Education and Research Network, Baidu, Bing, and Google. If you have configured lines other than these, change them to lines supported by the Free Edition. Check the TTL The minimum TTL supported by the Free Edition is 10 minutes. Check whether any DNS record has a TTL of less than 10 minutes. If so, change it to 10 minutes. Check the weight configuration If weighting is enabled, check whether the number of DNS records exceeds 10. The Free Edition supports a maximum of 10 IP addresses for load balancing for the same record type, host record, and line. Records that exceed this limit are paused and are not displayed in the weight configuration. Check the DNS record backup Check whether the DNS record backup feature is enabled. If it is, this feature is disabled after you unbind the domain name. However, backup files from the last three days are temporarily retained and then deleted after three days. Check the URL forwarding configuration The Free Edition supports a maximum of two URL forwarding rules. If you have more than two rules, reduce the number to two or fewer to avoid service interruptions.

   Warning

   • If you have configured Secondary DNS, this feature is disabled after you unbind the domain name from the paid instance. Confirm that you no longer need this feature.

   • If none of the preceding issues apply, or if you have addressed them, you can proceed to unbind the domain name from the instance.

2. See Change the DNS servers of a domain name.

   Note

   • First, change the DNS servers configured for the domain name. This ensures the security and stability of DNS resolution and prevents potential service interruptions caused by the unbinding. The Free Edition DNS servers include dns(1-32).hichina.com and ns(1-8).alidns.com. You can use any server from these ranges, such as dns1.hichina.com or ns1.alidns.com.

   • After you change the DNS servers, do not add or modify DNS records for 48 hours. Because NS records are cached, some DNS requests may still be sent to the paid DNS instance during this period. However, changes to DNS records on the Free Edition are not synchronized to the previous paid DNS instance.

3. Unbind the instance.

   Important

   Unbind the instance 48 hours after you change the DNS servers. Otherwise, DNS requests may continue to be resolved by the paid instance, which can affect your services.

   1. Go to the Alibaba Cloud DNS - Instance Plans page, find the target instance, and click the Bind Zone button in the Actions column.

   2. Click the Bind Zone button. In the dialog box that appears, enter one domain name per line.

      Note

      You can only bind domain names that are under your account.

Rebind a domain name to a different instance

If you have multiple paid DNS instances with different configurations, you can rebind a domain name from its current instance to another. Because all paid editions of Alibaba Cloud DNS use the same cluster, this process does not require changing the DNS servers for the domain name. Therefore, the status of the update lock and DNSSEC does not affect DNS resolution.

1. Check the DNS records.

   • If you rebind the domain name to a higher-edition DNS instance, DNS resolution is not affected.

   • If you rebind the domain name to a lower-edition DNS instance, follow the procedure in the Unbind a domain name from an instance section to check whether your DNS record settings are affected. For more information about the feature differences between paid DNS instances, see Edition comparison.

2. Rebind the instance.

   Scenario 1: You have not purchased the target instance yet

   1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud DNS - Authoritative Zones page. On the Instance page, on the Public Zone tab, click the Buy Now button.

   2. On the product purchase page, select the edition you want, enter the domain name that you want to rebind in the First-time domain binding field, click the Buy Now button, and complete the payment.

   3. The domain name is automatically unbound from the previous DNS instance and bound to the newly purchased DNS instance.

   Scenario 2: You have already purchased the target instance

   1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud DNS - Authoritative Zones page.

   2. Find the target instance and click the Bind Zone button in the Actions column.

   3. In the panel that appears, click Bind Zone.

      

   4. Enter the domain name that you want to rebind and click OK. The domain name is automatically unbound from the original instance and rebound to the target instance.

   Important

   If the new DNS servers assigned by Alibaba Cloud DNS are different from the previous ones after you rebind the instance, this does not affect domain name resolution. This is because all paid editions of Alibaba Cloud DNS use the same cluster: vip(1-8).alidns.com. You can also change the DNS servers to the newly assigned ones at your domain name registrar.

Downgrade an instance

Alibaba Cloud DNS does not support instance downgrades. However, you can achieve a similar result by rebinding the domain name to a different instance. For more information, see Rebind a domain name to a different instance.

• If a domain name is bound to a higher-edition DNS instance and you want to move it to a lower edition, you can rebind it to a lower-edition paid instance.

• You can also use this method to reduce the security protection capabilities or the domain name quota of your current plan.