DNS record reference
Every record requires type, name, ttl, and a mode. TTL is 30 through 2,147,483,647 seconds. Names are lower-cased, converted to IDNA ASCII, limited to 253 characters and 63 per label, and must remain inside the managed zone. Use @ for the apex.
| Type | Content | Additional rules |
|---|---|---|
A | IPv4 address | May be DNS-only, Geo-DNS, or proxied |
AAAA | IPv6 address | Lower-cased; may be DNS-only, Geo-DNS, or proxied |
CNAME | DNS target | May be DNS-only, Geo-DNS, or proxied |
MX | DNS target | Priority 0–65,535 required |
TXT | 1–4,096 characters | Import joins quoted segments |
NS | DNS target | Apex delegation changes require administrator permission |
CAA | flags, issue/issuewild/iodef, value | Flags 0–255 |
SRV | DNS target | Owner begins _service._tcp, _udp, or _sctp; priority, weight, port required |
PTR | DNS target | Only in managed in-addr.arpa or ip6.arpa zones |
Priority, weight, and port are integers from 0 through 65,535. DNS names without a dot are relative to the zone; @ targets the apex; . is preserved as the DNS root.
Modes
| Mode | Meaning |
|---|---|
dns_only | Publish normalized content |
geo_dns | Publish country, continent, then default answer sets |
proxied | Publish pool routing and use origin.host as stored content |
Only A, AAAA, and CNAME may be proxied. One proxied hostname has exactly one record and origin. It cannot coexist with another A, AAAA, or CNAME at the same owner. A non-apex proxied hostname becomes a CNAME and must be the only record at that owner. A proxied apex may coexist with non-routing types such as MX and TXT.
Zone-wide validation
- Logical duplicates are rejected after normalization.
- A published CNAME cannot coexist with another record at the same owner.
- One Geo-DNS record must be the only record of its type at an owner.
- Underscores are limited to valid SRV owners.
- Record owners cannot escape the managed zone.
- PowerDNS serials remain monotonic and are not supplied by customer records.