DNS Records and Its Common Types

DNS Records and Its Common Types

DNS records are mapping files which tell the DNS server which IP address is associated with which domain name. It also tells the DNS server how to handle those requests. There are various types of DNS records, but all DNS records for a specific domain are contained in something called a DNS Zone. Think of the DNS Zone as a container which allows the internet to look up the IP address for one, and only one, particular domain.

The common DNS record types are as follows:

A and AAAA Records

Address or A records (also known as host records) are the central records of the DNS. These records link a domain to an IP Address. AAAA record is same as A record—but instead of a 32-bit IPv4 IP address, it returns a 128-bit IPv6 address.

NS Record

Name Server (NS) records determine which servers communicate DNS information for a domain. Generally, you will have primary and secondary name server records for your domain.

MX Record

Mail Exchange records direct email messages to the servers for a particular domain. Multiple MX records can be defined for a domain, each with a different priority. The lowest number is the highest priority. If mail can’t be delivered using the first priority record, the second priority record is used, and so on.

TXT Record

Text or TXT records may contain arbitrary text, but can also be used to define machine readable text.

CNAME Record

Canonical NAME or CNAME records link an alias name to another canonical domain name. For instance, alias.example.com might link to example.com.