Re: Internet DNS A record / CNAME best practice

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Andy Hunt wrote:
Hi,

We run a primary and secondary DNS server for web based domain
requests, for a number of our clients.

We also provide web hosting on two servers using IIS and Host
Headers, so a lot of the domain names resolve to the same web server.

The question is which of the following scenarios is considered "best
practice" in this scenario?

1: Each domain name has an A record pointing to the IP address of the
web server, so you end up with maybe 50 different domain names all
having A records for www., pointint to the web server

2: We have a single A record on our own domain name, say www1.,
pointing to each of our web servers, and all the clients who have
their domains on that server have a CNAME record translating their
www. onto our www1.

I've seen both used by bigger ISP's, and we're keen to use the one
considered "better", so I would be grateful if you could advise which
you recommend and, prefereably, the reasoning.

You can use a CNAME for the www record, pointing to www1.anothername.com. As
long as you do not need or expect the bare domain name to use a CNAME. You
should not use a CNAME for the bare domain name because CNAME records cannot
exist on the same node with other records.
If you want the domain name to resolve without the www, you will need to use
an "A" record. If you create a CNAME record on the domain name node, you
cannot have an MX, A, TXT, or other records. Only NS and SOA records can
exist on the node with a CNAME.

--
Best regards,
Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
Hope This Helps
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