A DNS record, also known as resource record or simply RR, has specific rules in a DNS zone. The DNS records are completely made of text. That makes them very light. Those written instructions are stored inside zone files. There are forward lookup DNS zones, Reverse lookup DNS zones, Primary DNS zones, and Secondary DNS zones. They can host different recourse records.
Depending on the request, the DNS servers start searching for a specific type of a DNS record like an A DNS record that points a hostname to an IP, MX for accepting mail messages, another hostname, or a particular service of a hostname.
As we mentioned before, the DNS records are just text, so they are easy to edit. Please pay attention when you are changing any parameter on them, because that can lead to incorrect redirection or not responding service.
In this category, you can read about the different DNS records we support and how to configure them correctly.
Most commonly used DNS record types:
A record — Points a domain/hostname to a specified IPv4 direction. Set your domain to its location.
AAAA record — Points a hostname to a specified IPv6 address. The distinction, compared to the A record is the version of the IP address.
CNAME record — Canonical shows that one domain has another “real”, or “canonical” domain name. Use it for subdomains.
MX record — Mail exchanger DNS record shows which mail server is in charge of accepting emails for the domain.
TXT record — There are more than a few TXT records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. They are often used for verification and security.
NS record — Nameserver DNS record. Its purpose is to redirect to the nameserver for the DNS zone.
SOA record — Shows where the authority starts. It includes the primary name server and has global parameters for the zone.
SRV record — This record indicates the location of servers for a particular service.
PTR record — PTR is for Reverse DNS lookups. It will point an IP address to a domain/hostname.
Web Redirect record — The Web Redirect record (also known as URL redirect or HTTP forwarding) allows you to redirect the requests for http://yourdomain.com to http://anotherdomain.com.
Less commonly used DNS record types:
ALIAS record — This DNS record demonstrates that one domain is an alias for another, but contrary to CNAME, you can use it for the root domain too.
CAA record — You can add a Certification Authority Authorization record to show who can issue certificates for the domain.
DS record — Use the Delegation Signer to secure delegations in DNSSEC.
RP record — Shows the mailbox of the hostname’s administrator.
TLSA record — TLSA record associates TLS certificate to the name of the domain.
NAPTR record — Commonly used in Internet telephony to map servers and addresses of users in SIP.
You can find information about all available DNS record types in the left sidebar.
Originally published at https://www.cloudns.net.
