Record types
Alibaba Cloud DNS supports the following types of Domain Name System (DNS) records: A, canonical name (CNAME), mail exchanger (MX), text (TXT), service (SRV), AAAA, name server (NS), and Certification Authority Authorization (CAA). For more information, see Add a DNS record.
Record type | Description |
A | An A record maps a domain name to an IPv4 address. |
AAAA | An AAAA record maps a domain name to an IPv6 address. |
CNAME | A CNAME record maps a domain name to another domain name. |
MX | An MX record maps a domain name to a mail server address. |
TXT | A TXT record contains arbitrary readable text. |
SRV | An SRV record specifies a server that hosts a specific service. SRV records are commonly used in directory management for Microsoft operating systems. |
NS | An NS record is used to delegate a subdomain name to another DNS service provider. |
CAA | A CAA record is used to authorize a specified certification authority to issue certificates for a domain name. |
Intelligent DNS resolution
Alibaba Cloud DNS can return DNS results based on the geographic locations of users. For more information, see Intelligent DNS resolution.
Resolution line | Description |
Default line | You must set one of resolution lines to the default line. If no intelligent resolution line is matched during a DNS query, Alibaba Cloud DNS returns the DNS result that corresponds to the default line. |
Internet service provider (ISP) line | If you set a resolution line to an ISP line, such as a line of China Unicom or China Mobile, DNS results are returned based on the specified ISP line. |
Provincial ISP line | If you set a resolution line to a provincial ISP line, such as a line of China Unicom Beijing, DNS results are returned based on the specified provincial ISP line. |
Line outside the Chinese mainland | If you set a resolution line to a line outside the Chinese mainland, DNS results are returned based on the specified line. |
Continental line outside the Chinese mainland | If you set the resolution line to a continental line outside the Chinese mainland such as a line of Asia or Europe, DNS results are returned based on the specified continental line. |
Country or regional line outside the Chinese mainland | If you set the resolution line to a country or regional line outside the Chinese mainland such as a line of South Korea or USA, DNS results are returned based on the specified country or regional line. |
Custom resolution line | You can configure custom resolution lines to return specific IP addresses to DNS queries from specific CIDR blocks. |
Subdomain management
Alibaba Cloud DNS provides independent DNS hosting and resolution services for subdomains such as second-level domains and third-level domains. For more information, see Manage subdomains.
TTL
Time to live (TTL) is the period of time for caching DNS records on DNS servers that are deployed around the world. Alibaba Cloud DNS allows you to modify the TTL value. Valid values of TTL are 1 second, 60 seconds, and 600 seconds. Changes in a DNS record can take effect worldwide in as fast as 1 second. For more information, see Set the TTL period.
URL forwarding
Alibaba Cloud DNS allows you to add an explicit or implicit URL forwarding record to redirect requests for a domain name to another network address. For more information, see Add a DNS record.
IPv6
Alibaba Cloud DNS supports IPv4/IPv6 dual stack. If a user accesses a domain name over an IPv6 network, the local DNS server sends the DNS request to Alibaba Cloud DNS. Then, Alibaba Cloud DNS returns both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses to the local DNS server. The local DNS server preferentially returns the IPv6 address to the user. For more information, see IPv6.
Weight settings
Alibaba Cloud DNS supports weighted round-robin. You can set weight values for IP addresses to allocate DNS requests. IP addresses are returned to DNS requests based on the preset weight values. For more information, see Set weights.
Request statistics
Alibaba Cloud DNS supports statistics on DNS requests for domain names and subdomain names. You can download DNS request reports. For more information, see Introduction to the DNS traffic analysis feature.
DNS protection
Alibaba Cloud DNS provides the DNS protection feature to protect your domain names against flood attacks. Alibaba Cloud DNS provides the following levels of protection against DDoS attacks: basic DNS attack defense and advanced DNS attack defense. For more information, see DNS protection.
Secondary DNS
You can configure Alibaba Cloud DNS as secondary DNS. Then, Alibaba Cloud DNS automatically updates the changes in DNS records in your primary DNS. For more information, see Enable the secondary DNS feature.
DNS monitoring
Alibaba Cloud DNS simulates the DNS detection requests of users to monitor domain hijacking, the availability of ISP DNS services, and resolution latency. For more information, see DNS monitoring.
APIs
Alibaba Cloud DNS provides extensible APIs and supports SDKs in Java, Python, PHP, .NET, and Go. For more information, see Quick start.
GTM
Global Traffic Manager (GTM) achieves nearby access to application services and load balancing in high-concurrency scenarios. GTM can implement traffic switchover based on health check results. This allows you to build active zone-redundancy and geo-disaster recovery services in a flexible and efficient manner. For more information, see What is GTM 3.0?
Testing tool
Alibaba Cloud provides a DNS testing tool to help you test whether DNS records are valid on local DNS servers, authoritative DNS servers, and public DNS servers. For more information, see Check whether the DNS records take effect.