About DNS zone records

DNS zone records specify zone information for the name-to-address translations performed by the domain name server.

Ensim Pro automatically creates a Name Server (NS) record for the zone’s name server, and Host (A) records for the FTP server and the domain name (www), but you can add others. You can modify the record information at any time.

- Note: If you added records to an alias zone (that is, a zone added to an alias domain), before you remove the alias domain, make sure you manually migrate all the records to another zone.
  However, if you are not using Ensim Pro as your DNS name server, you do not need to do anything with the DNS settings of Ensim Pro; the settings shown in the DNS section of the Appliance Administrator GUI are not used. For more information, see:
  Introduction to DNS and name servers
  Using Ensim Pro as a DNS server

Another type of zone record, called an SOA record, serves a very specific purpose and is described in the topic About SOA records.

The following table describes the different DNS record types that Ensim Pro supports.

# DNS record types

Use this record: | To specify:
Name Server (NS) | The host name of a DNS server that is authoritative for the domain. If you add additional remote DNS servers, create a Host (A) record before you create the NS record for the server. Note: A DNS zone requires one NS record. If you have only one NS record in a zone, you cannot remove that NS record.
Host (A) | An IP address for forward host-name-to-IP-address mapping.
Pointer (PTR) | A host name for a reverse IP-address-to-host mapping.
Alias (CNAME) | A mapping between one host name and another. This record tells the DNS server that any requests made to the alias name are to be redirected to the host to which the alias points. The target host does not have to be within the local domain. Tip: Create a Host (A) record before you create the alias. Caution! Do not use a CNAME alias record for a name-based domain, or an NS or MX record.
Mail Exchanger (MX) | A mail server other than the SMTP server provided by Ensim Pro. You can specify more than one external mail server. Tip: Create a Host (A) record for the host running your mail server before you create the MX record.