Unable to update the DNS zone for a domain after adding a record in Plesk: Cannot delete the last NS DNS record for the domain

Symptoms

• When attempting to add a DNS record to a domain manually, the following error appears in the Plesk GUI after clicking Update to apply the changes to the DNS zone of the related domain:

  PLESK_ERROR: Cannot delete the last NS DNS record for the domain.

• When attempting to generate a wildcard SSL certificate for a domain, the _acme-challenge TXT record is never created and the following error can be found in /var/log/plesk/panel.log after activating debug mode:

  CONFIG_TEXT: [2023-01-03 21:20:27.961] 3399:63b48e02d955f DEBUG [panel] Protocol version: 1.6.9.1
  [2023-01-03 21:20:27.988] 3399:63b48e02d955f DEBUG [panel] run operator dns
  [2023-01-03 21:20:28.007] 3399:63b48e02d955f DEBUG [api-rpc/letsencrypt] API-RPC response [cef3b659fd9b1ed66cf0ba6f7caa5b38]:
  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <packet version="1.6.9.1">
  <dns>
  <add_rec>
  <result>
  <status>error</status>
  <errcode>1019</errcode>
  <errtext>Cannot delete the last NS DNS record for the domain.</errtext>
  </result>
  </add_rec>
  </dns>
  </packet>

Cause

The domain has missing or incorrect NS records (such as having an IP as value instead of a hostname).

Resolution