MHOSTMHOST

Pointing a domain at your server

To make a domain open the site on your VPS, you need to point its DNS records at the server's IP address. This article covers finding your server's IP in VMmanager 6, creating an A record at your domain's registrar (or an external DNS provider), and confirming with dig that the record has propagated. mHost VPS are IPv4-only, so you won't need an AAAA record.

What you'll need

  • A domain registered with any registrar (or already connected to an external DNS provider, such as Cloudflare).
  • Access to that domain's DNS management panel — your registrar's account, or the DNS provider's panel if you're using its nameservers.
  • An active mHost server and access to the VMmanager 6 panel.
  • SSH access as root or a sudo user — useful for checking with dig right from the server.

Step 1. Find your server's IP address

  1. Log in to VMmanager 6.
  2. Open the card for the VM you need and go to the "IP addresses" tab.
  3. Note the server's IPv4 address — that's the only public IP address an mHost VPS has (mHost VPS don't have IPv6).

📷 screenshot: the "IP addresses" tab on a server's card in VMmanager 6

Tip: if you haven't connected to the server yet or changed the root password, go through "VNC console and first connection (SSH/RDP)" first — it covers where to find the IP, the password, and how to log in for the first time. If you're already connected over SSH, you can get the same IP address right on the server: curl -4 ifconfig.me.

The rest of this article uses the example domain example.com and the example address 185.246.66.12 — substitute your own.

Step 2. Create an A record at your registrar or DNS provider

First, figure out where to manage the records:

  • If the domain uses its registrar's default nameservers, create the records right in the registrar's account, usually in a section called something like "DNS Management", "DNS Records", or "Zone Editor".
  • If the domain is delegated to an external DNS provider (for example, Cloudflare), manage the records there instead — changes in the registrar's panel won't have any effect in that case.
Tip: not sure which one applies to you? Check with dig +short example.com NS. It shows the domain's nameservers, and their names usually make it clear whether it's the registrar or a third-party DNS provider.

In whichever panel that turns out to be, create records pointing at the server's IP address from Step 1. Field names vary between panels ("Name" / "Host" / "Subdomain", "Value" / "Points to" / "Content"), but the meaning is the same:

  • A, `@` → `185.246.66.12` — the root domain, example.com. Instead of @, some panels just leave the name field blank or ask for the full domain name — it's the same thing.
  • A, `www` → `185.246.66.12` — the subdomain www.example.com, same IP address.

No need to create an AAAA record: mHost VPS are IPv4-only and don't have an IPv6 address.

You can leave TTL at its default value — usually 3600 seconds (an hour) or "Auto." Lowering it manually only makes sense if you're moving an already-live domain to a new server: if the old record has a long TTL, drop it to 300 seconds a few hours before the switch so the old value expires from resolver caches faster.

Important: you can't use a CNAME at the root domain (@) — it already has other records there (SOA, NS), and a CNAME must be the only record for that name. This restriction doesn't apply to www: instead of a separate A record, you could use CNAME www → example.com, but a plain A record with the same IP works just as well and is simpler to check.
Tip: if the domain has Cloudflare proxying enabled (the orange cloud on the record), switch the A record to "DNS only" (grey cloud) while you first set up the server and issue the SSL certificate. Otherwise dig will show Cloudflare's IP address instead of your server's, and Let's Encrypt's domain validation may fail. You can turn proxying back on once the site and HTTPS are up and running.

Step 3. Wait for propagation and check with dig

Changes don't appear instantly: resolvers around the world pick them up gradually, over a period set by the record's TTL. For a new record, this usually takes anywhere from a few minutes to 2-4 hours; if the domain previously had a record with a long TTL, it can take a day or two.

Install dig if it's not already there:

bash
sudo apt install -y dnsutils      # Ubuntu/Debian
sudo dnf install -y bind-utils    # AlmaLinux/Rocky
Tip: on macOS and Linux, dig is often already installed. You can run the commands below either from your own computer or over SSH right on the VPS.

Check the records:

bash
dig +short example.com A
dig +short www.example.com A

The expected result is the same IP address you set in Step 2.

To confirm the record isn't visible only to your own ISP but has actually reached outside resolvers, query it directly against public DNS servers:

bash
dig @8.8.8.8 example.com +short
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com +short

On Windows, the equivalent of dig is the built-in nslookup:

text
nslookup example.com
nslookup example.com 8.8.8.8

The second argument to nslookup is the specific DNS server to ask (the equivalent of @8.8.8.8 in dig).

Tip: if the output is empty or shows the old IP, the previous record's TTL probably hasn't expired yet, or the change wasn't saved in the registrar's or DNS provider's panel. Wait roughly as long as the TTL from Step 2 and check again. To see the picture from several locations at once without a terminal, use a free web checker such as whatsmydns.net.
Done: dig +short example.com A returns your VPS's IP address — the domain is pointed at the server.

What's next

The domain points at the server — now you can set up a web server and HTTPS. Install Nginx and put up a site — see "Nginx: install and your first site" — then get a free certificate — see "Free SSL with Let's Encrypt (certbot)".

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