Testing site Before DNS propagation

November 30, 2013 8.8k views
sgrenger
By:
sgrenger
Hello! I have just created a droplet on ubuntu, then instaled zpanel. The problem is taht when i try to access the zpanel interface in my web browser with the subdomain set by zpanel (zpanel.domain.com) it shows nothing, probably because there's no DNS pointing to it, am i right? I want to do some tests in a temporary domain, to put all my site files and test everything, to only then change the DNS. How do i do that? How to use Zpanel to do my tests before propagating DNS?
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7 Answers
kamaln7 MOD November 30, 2013
You can edit /etc/hosts locally in order to test zPanel before updating the DNS records.
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wiak November 30, 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)#Location_in_the_file_system
there is host file on most oses, if you dont use linux localy
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sgrenger November 30, 2013
sorry, i'm totally new with all those stuff, the experience i had was shared hosting with cpanel, and now im learning all this new stuff..

What do i do with the hosts file? put on my droplet IP?
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davidossahdez December 1, 2013
You need to insert a new line in the hosts file that looks like this:

192.168.0.12 example.org www.example.org

The first part is the droplet IP and the following text should be your domain name. You can insert as many domains as you want, just separate them with a space.
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sgrenger December 1, 2013
Nice David!!

Actually i got to access zpanel only by typing my droplet IP in web browser. My server hosts file remain untouched, with 3 lines like 120.0.0.1 domain.com, 120.0.0.1 autoreply zpanel.domain.com, 120.0.0.1 zpanel.domain.com

Is it alright? I'm wondering if i'll have to change those lines or remove them qhen i point the real domain DNS..
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kamaln7 MOD December 1, 2013
That is alright, however if you want to test your websites I believe you will have to browse to the website itself i.e. it won't load if you simply browse to your IP, you will have to browse to the website itself. Therefore, in order to be able to do that without affects other visitors/users, you will have to edit the DNS record manually by editing the hosts file.
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theguycalledsam December 1, 2013
You could use your server's IP until the DNS sorts itself out.
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