[OFF-TOPIC] Question about ClouDNS (and others') ALIAS records

[Victoria Risk]

Karl,

We have a knowledgebase article on the topic of ‘alias’ records: https://kb.isc.org/docs/aa-01640. The article is a bit out of date, but still basically valid.  It is not specific to the implementation you mention however. 

Vicky

> On Mar 26, 2024, at 7:49 AM, Karl Auer <kauer at biplane.com.au> wrote:
> 
> I'm puzzled by the ClouDNS "ALIAS" record. I was wondering if anyone
> knows how it is handled "under the hood"?
> 
> It seems to be a non-standard extension that some DNS providers
> support. It seems to work similarly to, but not quite the same way as,
> a CNAME. Its big advantage over a CNAME is that it can coexist with
> other records of the same name (LHS). However, it seems to be non-
> standard.
> 
> - when you look up the LHS, you do not get the ALIAS RHS back
> 
> - it seems to internally look up the RHS, and return those results
> 
> - if you make an A query, you get any matching A records back, as well
> as the results from any ALIAS records with the same LHS
> 
> - the TTLs of records obtained via the ALIAS are inherited from the TTL
> of the ALIAS record
> 
> - the real TTLS of the A records behind the ALIAS are lost. This seems
> to be risky
> 
> Same providers say it is faster to resolve than a CNAME; I can't see
> why that would be.
> 
> Regards, K.
> 
> -- 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au, he/him)
> http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
> 
> 
> -- 
> Visit https://lists.isc.org/mailman/listinfo/bind-users to unsubscribe from this list
> 
> ISC funds the development of this software with paid support subscriptions. Contact us at https://www.isc.org/contact/ for more information.
> 
> 
> bind-users mailing list
> bind-users at lists.isc.org
> https://lists.isc.org/mailman/listinfo/bind-users

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.isc.org/pipermail/bind-users/attachments/20240326/2562bae1/attachment.htm>