A domain is a unique address that consists of several parts. If it conforms to the scheme of a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), it can be resolved by DNS servers to an IP address. But more about this in the next subchapter.
When registering a domain, the Second-Level domain is requested in combination with a Top-Level domain. In my case this is the combination "linuxserversetup.com".
By the way, domain names are not purchased, but rented. The permanent right of use is then granted to a natural or legal person. We have to deposit our contact details for this, but more about that in a moment.
When searching for a free domain, you will quickly notice that the choice of top-level domain has a great influence on availability and price. The main differences in TLDs are:
At Hetzner, a free domain administration must be purchased once, the "Domain Robot". This is a bit confusing, but after three clicks it is done. The Domain Robot seems to be an additional function that has to be activated somehow.
Let's first switch from the Hetzner "Cloud" page to the "Robot" administration area.
There we do the following things:
Via the navigation point "Ordering" we find in the offer list the free "Domain Robot" below "Domain Administration". We order that and confirm the purchase on the next page.
This activates the domain management in our Hetzner account and two new menu items appear in the navigation. Domains (we will continue with this later) and Handles.
A "Handle" is basically a contact, similar to an address book. In order not to have to enter his data for each domain again, different contact data can be stored as a handle and reused. This really makes sense when several domains need to be changed at once.
Depending on which extension your domain should have, you have to choose the "top level domain" first. In my case ".com".
We save the handle and then go to the domain administration. There we can specify the handle during the domain registration.
We switch to the domain administration via the navigation point "Domains". Via the button "new domain", we get to the domain search.
Prices vary depending on the top-level domain.
If the desired domain is still free, the handles for Holder, Admin-c, Tech-c and Zone-c can be assigned.
Unlike shared hosting, where contact details are only stored for the holder and admin-c, when you have your own server, the responsibility is in all areas. In my case, I have specified the same handle for all roles.
We simply accept the pre-filled name servers. We will come to the DNS configuration in the next subchapter.
With "register domain and obligation" the domain is registered. Depending on the top-level domain, the activation takes only a few minutes to a few hours. Even though this is an automated process, this request goes through several stations. As soon as our hoster as registrar receives a confirmation from the responsible registry, which manages the allocation of the top-level domain, we will be notified by email about the hopefully successful connection.
In the meantime, we can move on to the next tasks.