Types of DNS records

While working with route53, I came across a couple of DNS records which were new to me.

There are several types of DNS (Domain Name System) records, each with a specific purpose. Here are some of the most common types:

A record (Address record)

Maps a hostname to an IPv4 address.

example.com IN A 192.0.2.1

AAAA record (IPv6 Address record)

Maps a hostname to an IPv6 address.

example.com IN AAAA 2001:db8::1

CNAME record (Canonical Name record)

Maps an alias hostname to the true hostname (canonical name).

www.example.com IN CNAME example.com

MX record (Mail Exchange record)

Specifies the mail servers that should be used to handle email for a particular domain.

 example.com IN MX 10 mailserver.example.com

NS record (Name Server record)

Specifies the authoritative DNS servers for a particular domain.

example.com IN NS ns1.example.com

PTR record (Pointer record)

Maps an IP address to a hostname (reverse DNS lookup).

1.2.3.4.in-addr.arpa IN PTR example.com

SOA record (Start of Authority record)

Specifies a domain’s primary authoritative DNS server and provides information about the zone.

example.com IN SOA ns1.example.com admin.example.com 2019032101 7200 3600 1209600 3600

TXT record (Text record)

Stores arbitrary text data associated with a domain.

example.com IN TXT "v=spf1 mx -all"

SRV records

it is also known as Service records. it is useful for services that operate on non-standard ports or for load balancing between multiple servers providing the same service. it is used to define the hostname, port number, priority, and weight of a server that provides a particular service for a domain.

_Service._Proto.Name TTL Class Priority Weight Port Target
_imaps._tcp.example.com. 3600 IN SRV 10 5 993 mailserver.example.com.

Hope this was helpful, Happy Hacking :)