ServerBuddies Support Blog

Start of Authority (SOA) record

The SOA record is the first record in a properly configured zone. It contains information about the zone in a string of fields. An SOA record tells the server to be authoritative for the zone. The SOA record takes the format.

Example:

domain.name - The name of the domain to which the SOA belongs. Instead of writing out the full domain, you can also use ‘@’ in the file to let the nameserver fill this out automatically.

IN - The class of the DNS record. ‘IN’ is an abbreviated form of ‘Internet’.
SOA - The type of DNS record, which in this case is ‘Start of Authority’.

hostname.domain.name - Also known as the ‘hostmaster’ field. It contains the e-mail address of the person responsible for maintaining the zone.

minimum-ttl - The default TTL (Time To Live) for every record in the zone. The default is only used when a particular resource record does not have its own specified TTL value. When changes are being made to a zone, the default is often set at ten minutes or less.

CA (Certificate Authority) Bundle

A file on your server that verifies that your public and private keys were issued by a trusted entity.

If your Certificate Authority sent you a CA bundle file, you can install it to your server using WHM’s Install a SSL Certificate and Setup the Domain feature, or the Manage Service SSL Certificates feature.

Install a SSL Certificate and Setup the Domain

When you use this feature, WHM will automatically install your SSL certificate and private key in the correct directories. You may either paste the certificate and key into the fields on the screen yourself, or allow WHM to retrieve them.

It is very important that your SSL certificate and private key reside in the correct directories because if they do not, your server will remain unauthenticated, leaving your visitors at risk.