How to do a smooth DNS migration?

[Robin]

I have a domain, which is currently set up on the Cloudron side via "Wildcard". This setup has worked fine in the past because I've been blessed with a static IP address, but unfortunately that won't be the case in the near future, so I figure I need to migrate to something.

In the past, I've used Hetzner for hosting some stuff, so I already have an account there. I created a DNS API token, and tried to switch my domain to use Hetzner for setup. However, this fails with the error message "Domain nameservers are not set to Hetzner".

I can kind of understand why this is checked and an error raised, but on the other hand, it's a bit of a problem, as I guess it means that I'll need to switch NS over to Hetzner before there are any records created there by Cloudron, which means downtime...

It ,might be kind of nice to have a way to force this somehow, like "Yes, I know what I'm doing, I'm migrating to this DNS provider, please just create the right records" checkbox, or something... Or am I missing something else here?

[Robin]

Hmm, I guess Hetzner let me fix their side of it without NS records being set up. So I could:

• clone the appropriate records from my current DNS provider, and ensure they resolve as I expect
• repoint NS records to Hetzner
• wait for propagation of the NS record change (?)
• change Cloudron's DNS configuration

Any other/better options?

[Robin]

I ended up doing pretty much exactly that. Configured DNS at Hetzner as it should have been, swapped NS records, and prayed. Then I let Cloudron loose on it too. Guess this can be considered solved.

[girish]

@Robin Yeah, I think what you did is the correct approach. Given that we don't have a "I know what I am doing button..."