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Hundreds of DNS records to move when switching to a new DNS host

Clicking records one by one works for 10 records, not 100+. Every serious DNS host (Cloudflare, Route 53, NS1) supports zone import in BIND format and an API. With an export and a script the migration takes an hour, not a week.

Try this first

  1. 1Export the current zone in BIND format. For providers that do not offer it, use dig AXFR (if allowed) or a script that queries each record type.
  2. 2Clean the export: forgotten records you wanted to remove anyway, and SOA/NS lines that should not move.
  3. 3Import into the new DNS host via their import tool. Cloudflare ingests BIND, Route 53 takes JSON via CLI.
  4. 4Before the NS flip, compare dig @old-ns versus dig @new-ns for at least 20 key records (apex, www, mail, mx, txt bundle).
  5. 5Lower TTLs the day before to 300 seconds, flip NS records at the registrar, and monitor for 48 hours.

When to bring us in

If your zone has a lot of custom config (DNSSEC, dynamic records, geo routing) and you do not know BIND, we can script the migration.

See also

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