Host your domains' DNS on CubePath's anycast network, with GeoDNS and health checks. Manage zones on the DNS Zones page in my.cubepath.com.

How it works

A zone is one domain and every record under it. You create the zone here, point the domain's nameservers at CubePath at your registrar, and from then on our nameservers are the authority for that name: every resolver in the world asks us, and we answer from the anycast network — the same addresses announced from every location, so a query is answered by whichever site is closest to the resolver that sent it.

That's also what makes the two features on top of it work. Because we answer the query rather than handing out a static file, the answer can depend on where the resolver is (GeoDNS) and on whether the target is alive (health checks).

Create a zone

  1. 1
    Add the domain
    Click Create Zone and enter your domain (e.g. example.com), without www.
  2. 2
    Choose how to start
    Empty zone and add records by hand, upload a zone file (BIND format — .txt, .zone or .db, up to 1 MB), or quick scan to look up the records your domain publishes today and import what we find.
  3. 3
    Point your nameservers
    At your registrar, set the domain's nameservers to the CubePath nameservers shown on the zone's Nameservers tab.
  4. 4
    Verify
    Come back and click Verify. Once the delegation is visible, the zone goes active and starts answering.

A zone reports one of: pending verification (created, delegation not seen yet), verification failed (we looked and the nameservers weren't ours), active (serving), suspended (not serving — contact support for the reason) or deleting.

The zone tabs

TabWhat it's for
RecordsEvery record in the zone: names, types, values and TTLs
NameserversThe nameservers to set at your registrar, and the Verify button
SOA settingsZone-level timers and the hostmaster contact
Health checksProbe a record's target and pull it from DNS when it fails
RecommendationsOne-click SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for your domain
ActivityAudit log of every change to the zone

GeoDNS isn't a tab of its own — it's a field on each A/AAAA record, so it lives in Records.

Plans

PlanGeoDNSHealth checksZonesRecords per zoneMin TTL
FreeNo035060 s
ProYesup to 101020030 s
BusinessYesup to 5050100010 s

Each health check is billed at $10/month, prorated and stopped the moment you delete or disable it.

What it doesn't do

  • GeoDNS routes by the resolver's location, not by load. It sends a whole region to one answer set; it doesn't spread requests by server load. For per-request balancing inside a region, use a Load Balancer.
  • A health check watches one IP, not a service. Three servers means three records and three checks.
  • DNS failover isn't instant. Resolvers cache your answers for the length of the TTL, whatever we know in the meantime.

Delete a zone

Deleting removes the zone and all its records, and can't be undone — the dialog asks you to type the domain to confirm. Move the delegation somewhere else first: once the zone is gone, our nameservers stop answering for the domain, and if the registrar still points at them, the domain stops resolving entirely.