Google Cloud WordPress DNS confusion

Question

I am admittedly very much a novice at this web stuff - gimme custom USB drivers and I'm good all day...

Deployed a WordPress site on a Google Cloud Virtual Machine. Setup a couple of pages and the site works fine going to the numeric IP. Followed instructions on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXtqqofrhOo - static IP, DNS zone, add records for domain_name and www.domain_name, etc.

Seems straight forward and simple enough. But, after a day, the "servers IP address could not be found". Went back through and double checked settings and spellings. All looks fine.

Found one problem. The 'dig' tool tells me my domain is listed on ns-cloud-e#.googledomains.com - the 'E' set of cloud DNS servers(?). Maybe that was from an earlier attempt. But now my DNS zone says my domain is listed with ns-cloud-a#.googledomains.com - the 'A' set of cloud DNS servers. I know I need to wait for propagation but shouldn't I at least be seeing the A DNS servers in the 'dig' tool?

Not sure where to go from here. Any suggestions would be -greatly- appreciated. TIA!

Serhii Rohoza Serhii Rohoza · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-23T10:22:47

To connect you domain to your website on GCP you should follow next steps:

create public managed zone on Google Cloud DNS
replace existed NS records with obtained at Google Cloud DNS (for example ns-cloud-d1-googledomains.com, ns-cloud-d2-googledomains.com, ns-cloud-d3-googledomains.com and ns-cloud-d4-googledomains.com) at domain registrar side
reserve external static IP address for your VM
create VM using reserved external static IP address or reconfigure existing one and do not forget to enable HTTP/HTTPS access
create A record
install web server and configure web site
check if required ports open with command nmap -Pn EXTERNAL_IP_OF_YOUR_VM and configure firewall if necessary
access your web site by domain name http://DOMAIN_NAME

To check if your configuration at registrar side correct use command dig NS DOMAIN_NAME and you should get something like this:

$ dig NS DOMAIN_NAME 
...

;; ANSWER SECTION:
DOMAIN_NAME.          86400   IN      NS      ns-cloud-d1-googledomains.com.
DOMAIN_NAME.          86400   IN      NS      ns-cloud-d2-googledomains.com.
DOMAIN_NAME.          86400   IN      NS      ns-cloud-d3-googledomains.com.
DOMAIN_NAME.          86400   IN      NS      ns-cloud-d4-googledomains.com.

After that you can check A records with quite the same command:

$ dig A DOMAIN_NAME
...

;; ANSWER SECTION:
DOMAIN_NAME.          300     IN      A       104.XXX.225.XXX

$ dig A DOMAIN_NAME
...

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.DOMAIN_NAME.      300     IN      A       104.XXX.225.XXX

if everything looks good at DNS side, but your site doesn't work:

This site can’t be reached

DOMAIN_NAME refused to connect.
Try:

Checking the connection
Checking the proxy and the firewall
ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED

check current status of firewall:

$ nmap -Pn 104.XXX.225.XXX
...
PORT     STATE  SERVICE
22/tcp   open   ssh
80/tcp   closed http
443/tcp  closed https
3389/tcp closed ms-wbt-server

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 11.49 seconds

in case ports 80 and 443 are closed you should open ports on firewall - go to Compute Engine -> VM instances -> click on NAME_OF_YOUR_VM -> click EDIT -> go to Firewall section and check Allow HTTP traffic and Allow HTTP traffic -> click Save. After that, check again with command nmap -Pn 104.XXX.225.XXX if ports 80/443 (http/https) are open:

$ nmap -Pn 104.XXX.225.XXX
...
PORT     STATE  SERVICE
22/tcp   open   ssh
80/tcp   open   http
443/tcp  open   https
3389/tcp closed ms-wbt-server

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 11.49 seconds

Returning back to your issue:

The 'dig' tool tells me my domain is listed on ns-cloud-e#.googledomains.com - the 'E' set of cloud DNS servers(?). Maybe that was from an earlier attempt. But now my DNS zone says my domain is listed with ns-cloud-a#.googledomains.com - the 'A' set of cloud DNS servers.

To solve this issue go to your zone on Google Cloud DNS and check NS records:

In case they aren't the same go to domain registrar side and replace NS records with proper ones then wait and check again. Keep in mind that propagation of DNS changes could take 24-72 hours.

Google Cloud WordPress DNS confusion

1 Answers