Yes, if the domain doesn't exist, rubber _should_ try and create the
domain record before adding the A record for the new instance. Since
it exists for you, that isn't where the failure is happening.
You can try opening up a console and creating the record manually to
see if it is the dns lib, or the rubber use of it thats broken:
(RUBBER_CONFIG is set if you config.gem 'rubber')
./script/console
>> n = Rubber::Dns::get_provider('nettica', RUBBER_CONFIG); nil
=> nil
>> n.provider_env
=> {"user"=>"myuser, "password"=>"mypassword"}
>> n.create_host_record(:host => 'yourhost', :domain =>
'yourdomain.com', :type => 'A', :data => '1.2.3.4')
Matt