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I have a .is domain name that was purchased from a very obscure retailer. The nameservers where set to dreamhost.com the domain may utilize some features of dreamhost like gmail integration and mysql. The heart of the site is being hosted on a linode.com vps. I would like to just send the blank A record over to linode so that only the root domain is in junction with linode.

I want to keep my nameservers with dreamhost and not have to set the whole domain up on linode.

If I set the blank A record to my linode's IP address will it work? Is there anything that I have to do on linode's side to make this work?

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    @BrentPabst Thanks for that, I totally didn't realize. Nov 14, 2012 at 19:55

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I think you are confusing the difference between what a DNS registrar/DNS host does and what a web host does.

The DNS Host (Dreamhost) is responsible for mapping domain names to IP Addresses and >returning the matching back to the requesting client.

The Web Server is simply designed to respond to incoming requests and send a response, it knows nothing of domain names (usually).

In your situation you want your VPS to response to traffic, I'm assuming for www.mydomain.is. In this case you do the following:

  1. Obtain the Public IP Address for your VPS. (From Linode)
  2. Login to your DNS management portal (Dreamhost)
  3. Create a new A record as follows: A --> 123.123.123.123 and replace the 123 stuff for your public IP

That should be all you need to do. Linode may have additional requirements but you would have to work with them on those. Open a support ticket.

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    This answered my question perfectly. But I wasn't confused. Dreamhost is a webserver, DNS Manager, and Registar. Linode is a webserver, and DNS Manager. Both have their own nameservers eg ns1.dreamhost.com, ns1.linode.com. The registar was set to dreamhosts nameservers, and I wanted to know if I had to set them to linode's or if I could get by with just setting dreamhosts A record. Nov 14, 2012 at 20:06
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In a word, yes.

Changing an A/AAAA record for a domain name will not have any effect on the NS records for the same domain name. You can host the domain at Dreamhost (that's where the NS records point) and a web site at Linode (that's where the A/AAAA records point), and everything will work like you expect.

Assuming Linode VPS uses name-based virtual hosting, just make sure it's configured to serve the right web site for whatever domain names you're using (e.g., "example.is" and "www.example.is").

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