Knowledge Base

Unable to create a new domain/subdomain or migrate/rename an existing domain/subdomain: DNS record already exists

Symptoms

When creating a new domain/subdomain/alias, migrating an existing domain/subdomain or activating the mail service for a domain, the operation fails with one of the following errors:

DNS records for domain with such name already exist

The subdomain with such name already exists

This DNS record already exists.

Unable to create the subdomain test.example.com. because a DNS record pointing to the host test.example.com. already exists.

Unable to create the domain example.com because a DNS record pointing to the host example.com already exists.

Unable to set up the domain alias example.net because a DNS record pointing to the host example.net already exists.

DNS records for a domain with such a name already exist.
On attempt to apply the changes to DNS template at Tools & Settings > DNS Template > Apply DNS Template Changes, the operation fails with the following error message:

There were issues syncing DNS zones with the DNS zone template.
Unable to resolve dns zone

Cause

Orphaned DNS records exist in the Plesk database.

Resolution

For Plesk on Linux

Connect to the Plesk server via SSH.
Create a database dump of the Plesk database (for more information, see this KB article):

# plesk db dump psa > /root/psa_backup.sql
Access the Plesk database:

# plesk db
Find dns_zone_id of the domain, which cannot be created, using the following command. Replace example.com with an actual domain name:

mysql> select dns_zone_id,host from dns_recs where host like "%example.com%";
+-------------+---------------------+
| dns_zone_id | host |
+-------------+---------------------+
| 3 | www.example.com. |
| 3 | example.com. |
| 3 | ns2.example.com. |
| 3 | ns1.example.com. |
| 3 | example.com. |
| 3 | ftp.example.com. |
| 3 | example.com. |
| 3 | example.com. |
| 3 | _dmarc.example.com. |
| 3 | example.com. |
| 3 | mail.example.com. |
| 3 | ipv4.example.com. |
+-------------+---------------------+
Using dns_zone_id from the output above, make sure that the domain name is the same:

Note: In some cases the output may be empty.

mysql> select id,name from dns_zone where id=3;
+----+-------------+
| id | name |
+----+-------------+
| 3 | example.com |
+----+-------------+
Delete records from corresponding tables using the ID from the steps above. In case all zones for all domains need to be removed the where id=x can be omitted:

mysql> delete from dns_zone where id=3;
mysql> delete from dns_recs where dns_zone_id=3;
mysql> delete from dns_refs where zoneId=3;
Exit MySQL:

mysql> exit
Create the domain/subdomain/alias in Plesk / Rerun the migration/restore.

For Plesk on Windows

Connect to the Plesk server via RDP.
Start a command prompt as an Administrator.
Create a database dump of the Plesk database (for more information, see this KB article):

plesk db dump psa > C:psa_backup.sql
Access the Plesk database:

plesk db
Run these commands to remove orphaned records:

delete from dns_recs where dns_zone_id in (select id from dns_zone where id not in (select dns_zone_id from domains) and id not in (select dns…