Our domain is registered with Network Solutions, but its authoritative nameservers are AWS Route 53 nameservers managed by our website vendor, Crossbar. The current setup includes the main site and a members subdomain for billing. We are moving the public website to Wix while keeping the existing Crossbar site on portal.examplehockeyclub.org and leaving members.examplehockeyclub.org unchanged.
Crossbar created a separate DNS zone for portal.examplehockeyclub.org and told us to add these delegation records:
portal NS ns1.crossbar.org
portal NS ns2.crossbar.org
portal NS ns3.crossbar.org
portal NS ns4.crossbar.org
However, Network Solutions only lets us change the domain's nameservers. It does not provide access to individual DNS records because Route 53 is authoritative. Crossbar says they manage the zone and can add records such as TXT, CNAME, and MX, but they normally do not enter subdomain records themselves.
My understanding is that these NS records must be added to the authoritative parent zone for examplehockeyclub.org in Route 53, which appears to mean Crossbar must add them or provide access. I do not want to change the domain-level nameservers and accidentally disrupt the website, email, or billing system.
Is that delegation process correct? For the longer-term Wix migration, would it be better to keep DNS with Crossbar and have them point the root and www records to Wix, or move the main DNS zone to a provider we control and delegate only portal.examplehockeyclub.org to Crossbar?
3 Answers
For Wix, use its domain-pointing setup rather than switching the whole domain to Wix nameservers. That generally means adding Wix's required A records for the root domain and a CNAME for www in the existing authoritative zone. Leave the members records, mail records, SPF, verification TXT records, and other services in place.
Moving nameservers to Wix would make Wix the DNS provider and require recreating every necessary record there. A missing MX or TXT record may not be noticed until email or another service breaks.
Long term, I would move the main DNS zone to an account your organization controls, preferably with a reputable DNS provider or your own Route 53 account. Then delegate portal.examplehockeyclub.org to Crossbar with the four NS records. That keeps website-vendor changes separate from the organization's core DNS and avoids depending on Crossbar for routine updates.
Before changing anything, export or document the complete current zone, including MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, verification TXT, billing, and any other service records. Pre-create the equivalent records in the new zone, verify them, and lower TTLs ahead of the cutover. Keep the old setup available until the new records have been checked and propagated.
Yes, your understanding is correct. The four NS records for portal belong in the parent examplehockeyclub.org hosted zone, not in the registrar interface. Network Solutions is only acting as the registrar here; its nameserver settings determine which DNS servers the .org registry delegates the entire domain to. It cannot edit records inside the Route 53 zone.
Since Crossbar controls the authoritative hosted zone, they must add the delegation records or give you access to the zone. Changing the domain-level nameservers at Network Solutions would be a completely different operation and could affect every existing record.
That makes sense. The main priority is documenting the existing records and having Crossbar add the portal delegation before attempting the Wix cutover, rather than changing the registrar's nameserver settings.