The registry has taken the domain out of the DNS.
The registry does not publish the domain’s delegation, so it does not resolve. Registries set it for abuse, court orders, policy violations or a domain that is about to be deleted.
- EPP code
- serverHold
- In RDAP
- server hold
- Set by
- The registry (server status)
- Defined in
- RFC 5731 §2.3
- How serious
- Act now
Why it matters
Everything under the domain stops resolving, including email authentication records.
When you’d see it
A registry can suspend a name it considers abusive (phishing, malware) or under a court order. If your domain was compromised and used for abuse, cleaning it up and contacting your registrar is the way back.
How it shows up in a lookup
In a gTLD WHOIS lookup it appears as “Domain Status: serverHold https://icann.org/epp#serverHold”; RDAP shows it as “server hold”. It is a server status, so only the registry can add or remove it, and it overrides anything your registrar sets.
What to do
Ask your registrar what the registry needs. If the domain has no issue and you simply need it to resolve, the registrar may need to supply delegation information first.
Related codes
Sources
Sources
- RFC 5731 §2.3 (EPP Domain Name Mapping) · checked 5 Oct 2026
- ICANN: EPP Status Codes, What do they mean, and why should I know? · checked 5 Oct 2026
- RFC 8056: EPP and RDAP status mapping · checked 5 Oct 2026