Yes I added the A record with the registrar, ns1.mydomain.com and ns1.mydomain.com I have not yet created the nameserver records with the domain registrar as I want to make sure my NS servers will work before I do that
If you created a A record for ns1.example.com in ISPConfig but ISPConfig is not your nameserver... no address wil be known for ns1.example.com and the lookup will fail. I would advice you to add the ns1 and ns2 records at your registrar's nameserver, wait, and then test. For now, you can test using the IP instead of ns1.example.com, but it can't hurt to add those records to your current DNS provider due to propagation and cache.
OK so let me get this right... I should keep the A records at my registry but remove them from ISPConfig, is that correct? Because that's what I've had
so my dig command would be dig any mydomain.com @123.123.123.123 <<<external ip with A records on domain provider for ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com And remove the A records from ispconfig Should I also remove the NS records from ispconfig?
You should not remove the A records from ISPConfig. When using dig with "@ns1.example.com", it will look up the A or AAAA record for ns1.example.com. So it asks the root servers for the TLD (in this case .com) what the nameservers for example.com are. I'll say they are ns1.provider.com and ns2.provider.com. Then a lookup will be done at those nameservers for the A/AAAA record of ns1.example.com, because you want to query that server for a record. Then it gets the record from your provider and looks up what you are trying to look up @ ns1.example.com. So, to look up using the hostname, you have to create a record for that hostname with your current DNS provider, and your future DNS provider (which is you). Every change to DNS can take time because things can be cached in several places, so you have to be patient to see the result.
So I have to create ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com as well as ns1.myregistrar.com and ns2.myregistrar.com With my registrar
No, you have to create the records for your nameserver both in ISPConfig and with your provider - right now your provider will be used by all clients, but in the future, the records in ISPConfig will be used.
No, it's not what you said. You said you'd have to create records for your current registrar aswell which is not needed.