How to Set Up Private Nameservers

Private nameservers are what make a reseller account look like your own hosting company. Instead of pointing clients at your upstream provider's nameservers, they point at ns1.yourbrand.com and ns2.yourbrand.com. Nothing about the infrastructure changes — only what your customers see.

This is the first thing most new resellers try to set up, and the first thing they get stuck on, because it happens in two places and both have to be right.

What you need

• A domain you own for your brand — not a client's
• Your reseller account's IP addresses (in your welcome email, or ask support)
• Access to your domain registrar's control panel
• Access to WHM

Ideally two IPs, one per nameserver. One IP works and is common on entry reseller plans; two is more robust.

Step 1 — Register glue records at your registrar

This is the step people miss. A nameserver on your own domain creates a circular problem: to look up ns1.yourbrand.com, a resolver needs to ask a nameserver — but the nameserver it needs to ask *is* ns1.yourbrand.com.

Glue records break the loop by registering the IP address at the registry level, so resolvers can find the nameserver without needing the nameserver.

In your registrar's panel, look for Register a Nameserver, Private Nameservers, Host Records, or Child Nameservers — the label varies:

• ns1.yourbrand.com → your first IP
• ns2.yourbrand.com → your second IP (or the same one)

Save. Registries can take a few hours to publish glue.

If you skip this step, nothing else will work. No amount of correct WHM configuration fixes a missing glue record.

Step 2 — Point your brand domain at the new nameservers

Still at the registrar, set the domain's own nameservers to ns1.yourbrand.com and ns2.yourbrand.com. Remove any existing entries rather than adding alongside them.

Step 3 — Configure WHM

In WHM, open Server Configuration → Basic WebHost Manager Setup. Enter your nameservers in the Nameservers section and click Assign IP Address next to each one.

Then open DNS Functions → Nameserver Record Report and confirm both resolve to the IPs you expect.

Step 4 — Set them as the default for new accounts

In WHM under Packages, make sure new accounts are created with your nameservers rather than the defaults. Otherwise you will configure this correctly and still hand clients the upstream nameservers on every new account.

Also update the welcome email template under Server Configuration → Customization so it quotes your nameservers and your support contact.

Step 5 — Verify

From a terminal:

nslookup ns1.yourbrand.com
nslookup ns2.yourbrand.com

Both should return your IPs. Then create a test account, point a throwaway domain at your nameservers, and confirm the site loads.

Give the whole thing 24 hours before concluding it is broken. Glue records propagate on registry timelines, not yours.

When it does not work

• Nameserver does not resolve at all. Glue records missing or not yet propagated. This is the cause about 80% of the time.
• Resolves but sites do not load. Glue points at the wrong IP, or WHM was never told to use these nameservers.
• Only ns1 works. The second glue record was not saved. Both must exist independently.
• Registrar refuses to register the host. Some registrars require the domain to already use their nameservers before allowing child hosts. Set the domain's nameservers first, then add glue.
• Works for you, not for clients. Almost always local DNS caching. Test from a phone on mobile data.

Also worth branding

Once nameservers are done, the rest of the white-label work is quick: your logo in cPanel under cPanel Style, your support URLs in the welcome email, and your own domain for the client login rather than a shared hostname.

If glue records are fighting you, send us your registrar name and brand domain on WhatsApp. Registrar panels differ enough that it is faster for us to look at yours than to describe all of them.