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Record Types#

Above we've seen some record types being listed: A, CNAME, and MX. When we create DNS records inside of a DNS zone, we need to define a record type so that the DNS system knows what kind of response to expect. The type is also used by DNS servers so that it knows what to look up when the DNS client asks for MX records (for example.)

There are many record types:

All active DNS record types

All active DNS record types
(Ruurtjan Pul, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Here's the list in text format should you want to reference it or go into more depth (no need to at this point in time): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DNS_record_types.

And here are the most common you'll use day to day:

  • A
  • AAAA
  • CNAME
  • TXT
  • MX

I've barely touched the other record types in my entire career, but that's not to say you won't.