DNS Records are stored in DNS servers and work to help users connect their websites to the outside world.

Types

All DNS records have one value in common: TTL, or time to live, which determines how long the record can remain cached before it expires. Loading data from a local cache is fast, but visitors won’t see DNS changes until their local cache expires and updates with a new DNS lookup. As a result, higher TTL values give visitors faster performance and lower TTL values ensure that DNS changes are picked up quickly. All DNS records require a minimum TTL value of 30 seconds.

Supported Record Types

• A record maps an IPv4 address to a domain/subdomain name. This determines where to direct any requests for a domain name. Fields include hostname e.g. apex domain(@), subdomain_name for subdomain. Wildcard * for for a non-existent subdomain to a specified resource or IP address. TTL -time to live 3600

• AAAA record maps an IPv6 address to a domain/subdomain name.

• TXT records are a type of DNS record that contains text information for sources outside of your domain. These are primarily used to verify that you own a domain.

• MX record is a mail exchanger record (MX record) that specifies the mail server responsible for accepting email messages on behalf of a domain name.

• CNAME records are a DNS record that allows one domain too be mapped as an alias to another canonical domain name

• CAA records allow domain owners to specify which Certificate Authorities (CAs) are permitted to issue certificates.

• SPF Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records contain lists of email servers that are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain. SPF records increase your email sending reputation with inbox providers by providing a means to check that your emails are being sent from your domain and not by a malicious user. SPF records are special TXT records.

• DKIM Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) records contain public keys used to authenticate email arriving from a domain. When you use DKIM on your email server, your server signs emails with a private key that receiving email servers then validate using the public key contained in a DKIM DNS record. DKIM records increase your email sending reputation with inbox providers by providing a means to check that no one has intercepted or altered the email during transit. DKIM records are special TXT records.

• NS record specifies the name servers, or servers that provide DNS services, for a domain or subdomain.

• SRV records specifies a hostname and port number for a specific service to direct certain types of traffic to particular servers. Some services, like SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and XMPP/Jabber (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), require SRV records.

• PTR (pointer) record, also known as an rDNS (reverse DNS) record, maps a domain name to an IP address.

• DMARC records' goals is to build on the system of senders and receivers collaborating to improve mail authentication practices of senders and enable receivers to reject unauthenticated messages.

• SSHFP records are used to identify which SSH keys belong to the domain.

• TLSA records are used to specify the keys used in a domain's TLS servers.