Mapping a domain to my virtual server using an A record

Question

I bought a virtual server from Hetzner.

It has Debian 7.0 minimal installed, and I also installed Apache server using apt-get install apache2. That's about everything I did on the server. This URL works: http://78.47.140.229/

I have my domain registered on an unrelated registrar, and it allows me to set the name servers as displayed in this screenshot:

After doing some research it seems that I also need to set something called "A Host Record". I can't find any option to do this, do I need to set this on my domain registrar's side, or my server provider's side (Hetzner)?

Answer 1

Usually the service you registered the domain with will provide the DNS for that domain as well. Setting alternate name servers is more of an "advanced" feature if you are running your own DNS server or have an alternate DNS server already configured for your domain.

Set the DNS records (for which you provided an image) to the recommended name servers for the registrar.

Next you want to update the DNS records for your domain. You probably want to add an A host record as you mentioned:

example.com. IN A 78.47.140.229

And CNAME "shortcuts" which also point to that record:

www.example.com IN CNAME example.com.

Your registrar may have web-based tools to make this process simple.