Alibaba Cloud DNS:Transfer DNS records between accounts

Limits

1. You cannot directly transfer domain names that are used as suffixes for the Access Domain of a Global Traffic Manager (GTM) instance. You must delete the relevant Access Domain before you transfer the DNS records.

   Note

   This rule applies to Global Traffic Manager 3.0. For earlier versions of GTM, after you transfer the DNS records, GTM uses the last effective policy and no longer provides failover. Any subsequent adjustments to the GTM scheduling policy will not take effect.

2. This feature is available only for domain names registered under your account. It is not supported for domain names registered under other accounts or domain names that are not registered with Alibaba Cloud.

3. After you perform a batch transfer of domain names, the destination account obtains management permissions for domain name resolution. These permissions include DNS record management but not domain name registration management.

4. This feature is available only to Alibaba Cloud accounts. RAM users cannot use this feature.

5. This feature supports transfers only between accounts that are both on the Alibaba Cloud China Website (www.aliyun.com) or both on the Alibaba Cloud International Website (www.alibabacloud.com). Cross-site transfers are not supported.

Scenario 1: Domain name using Free Edition DNS

You can directly transfer a domain name that is registered with Alibaba Cloud and uses the Free Edition of DNS. If a domain name is attached to a paid Alibaba Cloud DNS instance, see Scenario 2: Domain name that uses a paid edition of DNS.

1. Go to Alibaba Cloud DNS - Public Authoritative Zone.

2. On the Public Zone tab, click the Batch Operation button.

   

3. Click Domain Name > Manage Domain Names. Then, enter the domain names whose DNS records you want to transfer and click Transfer Domain Names to Another Account.

   

4. In the dialog box that appears, enter the verification code from the text message or email, the Login Account, and the Destination Account ID. Then, submit the form.

   

5. To check the result of the batch task, go to the Batch Operation Logs tab and click Download Log Details.

   

Scenario 2: Domain name using paid DNS

You cannot directly transfer the DNS records of a domain name that uses a paid edition of DNS.

To smoothly migrate the DNS records and ensure uninterrupted domain name resolution, follow these steps:

1. Transfer the domain name from Account A to Account B. For more information, see Transfer a domain name to another Alibaba Cloud account. After the transfer is complete, the domain name registration is transferred to Account B. Because the domain name uses a paid edition of DNS, its DNS records remain in Account A.

2. In Account B, follow the instructions in Transfer DNS records between accounts. Make sure to select Attach an instance of the same edition. The DNS records are then migrated to Account B.

   

3. Transfer the domain name from Account B back to Account A. For more information, see Transfer a domain name to another Alibaba Cloud account. After the transfer is complete, the domain name registration is transferred to Account A. Because the domain name uses a paid edition of DNS, its DNS records remain in Account B.

4. After you complete these three steps, the domain name registration remains in Account A, and the DNS records are transferred to Account B.

Retrieve a domain name and its DNS records

For a domain name registered with Alibaba Cloud, if its DNS records are transferred to another Alibaba Cloud account, you can retrieve the DNS records and their management rights to the current account using the Add Zone feature in the account that owns the domain name. For example, if a domain name is in Account A and its DNS records are transferred to Account B, you can use the Add Zone feature in Account A to retrieve the DNS records from Account B.

1. On the Alibaba Cloud DNS - Authoritative Zone page, click Add Zone, and enter the target domain name in the dialog box that appears.

2. A message appears in the dialog box: The domain name has been transferred to another account. Do you want to retrieve the management rights to this account? To retrieve the domain name and its DNS records, select Reclaim Domain Name and DNS Records. The system then checks the DNS instance attached to the domain name in Account B. If the instance is a paid edition, you must first purchase an instance of the same edition in Account A. Then, select Attach an instance of the same edition to automatically attach the new instance and prevent service interruptions.

   

   Warning

   1. If the domain name is attached to a paid instance in Account B, you must purchase an instance of the same edition in Account A. Otherwise, the domain name is attached to a Free Edition instance by default when its DNS records are retrieved. This may pause DNS records that are supported by the paid instance and cause service interruptions.

   2. If you do not want to attach a paid instance after you retrieve the DNS records, check the DNS records in Account B before you proceed. Also, disable the update lock and DNSSEC features.

   3. If the domain name in Account B uses a Free Edition DNS instance, you can directly retrieve the DNS records. The records are not affected and can be smoothly transferred.

3. Select the instance to attach and click OK to retrieve the DNS records to the current account.