Setting up your own private nameservers on a cPanel server has many benefits, most importantly enabling all of cPanel’s built in DNS tools which can make DNS changes much easier.
Most Customers with their own VM's or Dedicated servers with WHM/cPanel will want to use a domain name they already own, often the same domain name that is being used for the hostname of the server that will be running the private nameservers.
For this example, we will use a fake domain called example.com. Our server is called host.example.com and we will be setting up ns1.example.com and ns2.example.com.
There are three parts to setting your private nameservers: Configuring the server to accept and process the DNS requests, registering your your new nameservers at the registrar who controls the domain name, and finally pointing domains at those new nameservers.
Log in to your server’s WHM interface and find the navigation section on the left called Basic cPanel & WHM Setup, under Server Configuration. This is the first item on the left navigation bar.
in some newer WHM versions this option can be found from > Home »Server Configuration »Basic WebHost Manager® Setup.
At the bottom, you will find the Nameservers section.
Where you can fill in the registered DNS records (which you created or registered at your domain's registrar). If you havent registered DNS records yet please move to Step2 and circle back to step once the dns-records are registered.
The vast majority of registrars do not charge their customers any extra fee for registering nameservers as long as the main domain name itself has already been purchased.
If you registered the domain yourself:
If you are setting up nameservers for a domain name that you own, which you also purchased yourself at a domain registrar, you will need to login to your account at that same registrar and use their tool to register the new names.
For example, if you are setting up ns1.testdomain.com and ns2.testdomain.com, and forexample if you purchased testdomain.com from GoDaddy, then your registrar is GoDaddy and you would need to login to your GoDaddy account in order to register the new nameservers. If you have registered your domain with any of the other domain registrar's you can find the detailed instructions by contacting their support.
Once you have found the tool/page you need at your registrar’s web site the registration itself is very straightforward. Most registrars use a simple form where you enter in the name of the nameserver you wish to create and the corresponding IP address (that we obtained from the steps described above).
The final step in creating your own nameservers is to start using them by correctly pointing your domains. Log in to your registrar and edit the assigned nameservers so that it now points at your new nameserver names.
Please note that if you change a domain’s nameservers the domain will temporarily stop working while the new settings propagate throughout the entire internet. This process is called DNS Propagation. If downtime is a critical issue for your domain we recommend you make this during a weekend or late at night when traffic is likely to be low.
Now that your domain is pointing at your server’s nameservers you can use the DNS tools in the WHM and cPanel interfaces to modify your zone files!