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Onboard a new client estate

45 min to do · 3 related

How do I take on a new client’s DNS?

Get read access to whatever provider holds the zones, connect it and sync so discovery finds everything, group the domains into a client portfolio, then run Estate health before promising anything. The health report on an inherited estate is both your work list and the most useful conversation you will have with that client in the first month.

# Getting access

  • Ask for an API credential scoped to DNS rather than a shared login. It is better practice and it is what DNSMentor needs anyway.
  • Ask who holds the registrar account. It is frequently a different company from the DNS provider, and frequently nobody the client can name.
  • If the outgoing provider will not co-operate, Import accepts zone files, CSVs, PDFs and screenshots.

# Discover what is really there

  1. Connect and sync Discovery enumerates every zone the credential can see, including the ones nobody mentioned in the handover.
  2. Group into a client portfolio Do this now. Per-client reporting, evidence export and access scoping all depend on it and retrofitting is tedious.
  3. Run Estate health Sorted worst first. Read the top ten before you agree to anything in a contract.

# What you will find

FindingHow commonWhat it means
No SPF record at allVeryAnyone can send as the domain and it will not be flagged.
DMARC still at p=noneVeryReporting only. It is not protecting anything.
Delegation to a provider they leftCommonFragile. Works until somebody tidies up an old account.
TTLs at 60 seconds since a migrationCommonUnnecessary query load and a fragile dependency on the provider.
Records at the wrong nameCommonResolve for nobody, look correct in every internal tool.
No CAA recordVeryAny certificate authority can issue for the domain.
Use the report commercially

Estate health output is a credible, specific list of things wrong that the previous provider left. It is the clearest early demonstration of why the client moved, and it writes your first quarter of remedial work for you.

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Related

Import an estate you have inherited How do I get all my existing client domains into DNSMentor? What Estate health is telling you How does DNSMentor score domain health? Connect your first DNS provider How do I connect a DNS provider to DNSMentor?
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