Overview
DNS lets your domain point to a specific IP address, so the server listening there can host your domain. Several record types exist, but the ones you'll use most often are:
A - Used to link a domain or subdomain to an IPv4 address.
AAAA - Used to link a domain or subdomain to an IPv6 address.
CNAME - Used to link a domain or subdomain to another domain or subdomain.
For most purposes, you’ll only need to use A and AAAA records.
How do I locate my public IP address?
Each DreamCompute instance in the US-East 2 cluster is assigned a public IPv4 and IPv6 address.
You can view these addresses in two ways:
On the Instances page of the DreamCompute dashboard
Using the OpenStack command line client:
[user@localhost]$ openstack server list +--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+ | ID | Name | Status | Task State | Power State | Networks | +--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+ | 10a3b11b-dc2f-42a2-b5d8-84508a5156a5 | website | ACTIVE | - | Running | public=208.113.128.37, 2607:f298:5:101d:f816:3eff:fe79:8c72 | +--------------------------------------+---------+--------+------------+-------------+-------------------------------------------------------------+
If you have multiple instances, you will have multiple public IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. You will need to track which addresses host which websites or other services.
How do I add IP addresses to my domain in the DreamHost panel?
To add a new IP address:
Set your domain to 'DNS Only'. See the Setting your domain to 'DNS Only' article for more information.
Make sure your domain is already hosted. See the Adding a website and hosting article for more information on how to add hosting to a domain.
Create a new A record for the domain or subdomain. See the Adding custom DNS records for more information.
Create additional A records as needed for domains you wish to host on your instance. You can also create an A record for the non-www version of your site URL. All you need to do is leave the 'Host' field blank.
How long do I need to wait for DNS to propagate?
After the DNS entries are saved, the DNS must propagate which can take several hours. The default TTL (time-to-live) for DreamHost nameservers is 5 minutes, so any change to your DNS records should be updated nearly everywhere around the world within that time.
