Setting Up DNS Records — [CNAME] Record (canonical name record)

What is a [CNAME] Record?

A [CNAME] Record or a Canonical Name Record, specifies that the domain name or subdomain is an alias of another, canonical domain name.

The value of a CNAME record is always a domain name.

What does the [CNAME] Record serve for?

[CNAME] Records are useful because they allow you to set up an alias to a server without using its IP address.

For example, www.example.com can have a [CNAME] Record pointing to example.com.

This way when you type in your browser www.example.com, you are actually redirected to CNAMEexample.com.

How to check a [CNAME] Record?

Use the dig command, to check [CNAME] Record:

$ dig CNAME www.example.com +short
example.com.

Adding [CNAME] Record to DNS — Examples

Use the following syntax to add a [CNAME] Record to a Zone File.

Create an Alias for [WWW] with [CNAME] Record

www.example.com. IN CNAME example.com.

Create Multiply Aliases with [CNAME] Records

example.com. IN CNAME example.tld.
www.example.com. IN CNAME example.tld.
test.example.com. IN CNAME example.tld.
Was it useful? Share this post with the world!

Leave a Reply