Why am I getting a “DNS zone already exists” error in Cloud Manager when adding my domain?

The “DNS zone already exists” error indicates that the domain you’re trying to add already exists in our system on a different customer’s account. To successfully add the domain to your account, you will need to open a Support ticket stating the name of the domain you’re looking to add. We will then ask you to add a unique string to any field in your domain’s WHOIS data. This method allows us to confirm that you have ownership of the domain so we can remove it from the other account.

The WHOIS data can be edited via your domain name registrar. If you’re unsure of who your registrar is, you can use the command whois domain.com | grep Registrar, where domain.com is your domain. Most registrars will have an online portal where you can log in and make the necessary changes to your WHOIS data. For example, GoDaddy provides these instructions. If you have WHOIS privacy enabled, we ask that you temporarily disable it so we can verify that the correct string was added to your WHOIS information.

Once the string has been added to your domain’s WHOIS information and we’ve verified it, we’ll be able to get the domain added to your account.