Missing or incorrect glue records are one possible reason that a domain's nameservers cannot be reached. They are not the only cause of DNS failure.
What glue does
If example.com uses ns1.example.com as a nameserver, a resolver needs that server's address before it can ask the domain's own DNS servers. The parent zone supplies address records, called glue, to break that dependency.
If your domain uses nameservers under another provider's domain, that provider manages the nameserver host records. You do not create glue under your own domain for someone else's nameservers.
Create or update your own nameserver host records
- Open the registrar account for the domain containing your nameserver names.
- Find the registered nameserver, child nameserver or host-record controls.
- Register each nameserver hostname with the actual public IPv4 address, and IPv6 address if that server provides working IPv6 DNS.
- Keep the matching A and AAAA records in your own DNS zone consistent with the registered addresses.
- Delegate the domain to the intended nameservers only after they serve its zone correctly.
Use the IP addresses of the DNS servers, not the web server unless it really is also the authoritative DNS server.
Diagnose before changing glue
Inspect the parent delegation and its additional address records. Glue appears in the additional section, not as A records in the authority section. A WHOIS or registration-data response does not reliably show all glue records.
SERVFAIL can also result from DNSSEC validation failure, a broken delegation or unavailable authoritative servers. Check that each nameserver answers for the domain over both UDP and TCP port 53. If glue is correct, investigate those causes rather than repeatedly changing it.
After an address change, cached referrals can continue using old values until their TTL expires. Contact ArkHost with the domain, intended nameserver names and the observed DNS error if you need help.
