Overview

With IONOS Cloud Domain Name System (DNS), you can publish your domain names to the global DNS. The feature is built around the concept of DNS zones and records that are managed primarily through the Cloud DNS API. Along with the API operations, the Data Center Designer (DCD) provisions you with an option to grant additional users with permission to manage these DNS zones and records.

Features

The Cloud DNS offers the following key capabilities:

• High availability: The IONOS Cloud DNS infrastructure is designed with redundancy at every level, including multiple DNS servers, network links, power sources, and data centers. This redundancy ensures that if one component fails, another can take over and continue to provide service without interruption.

• Fully-managed service: The DNS infrastructure and provides the service as a SaaS model.

• Automation: The Cloud DNS API lets you automatically create, update, and delete DNS zones and records.

Concepts

• DNS: Refers to a system that converts domain names into IP addresses. The DNS translates domain names into numeric IP addresses that computers can understand and use to access websites or other internet resources.

• Name Servers: Name Servers or DNS Servers are parts of the computer's DNS infrastructure and store DNS records for a particular domain name. They provide information about the IP address or other resources associated with a domain name. When you request access to a domain, your device queries the domain's name servers to resolve the corresponding IP address.

• DNS Zone: A DNS zone is an administrative unit that contains DNS records for a specific domain. It specifies the authoritative DNS servers for that domain and their IP addresses.

• DNS Record: A DNS record is a set of instructions stored on DNS servers that maps domain names to IP addresses and vice versa. They are used to help route internet traffic, provide email services, and facilitate other internet functions. DNS records come in various formats, such as Address (A), Canonical Name (CNAME), Mail Exchange (MX), Text (TXT), and so on.

• Reverse DNS: Reverse DNS is a method of resolving an IP address to a domain name. It is the opposite of the standard DNS lookup, which resolves a domain name to an IP address. You can verify the authenticity of an IP address by checking whether the hostname associated with the IP address matches the expected domain. Reverse DNS operates through PTR (Pointer) records, which are special DNS records.

• Secondary DNS Zone: A secondary DNS zone is a read-only copy of a primary DNS zone. It holds the same DNS records for a domain and helps distribute the load and ensure redundancy. If the primary DNS server experiences issues, the secondary zone can still provide accurate DNS information, ensuring continuous availability for domain name resolution.

• DNSSEC Keys: DNSSEC keys are cryptographic keys used to enhance the security of the DNS. DNSSEC keys are generated as pairs: a private key and a corresponding public key. The private key is kept secure, while the public key is shared in DNS records. These keys are crucial for validating DNS responses, preventing tampering, and ensuring the security of DNS information.

• Time-to-live (TTL): TTL is a DNS record setting that specifies how long a DNS resolver should cache the results of a query before querying the DNS server again for updated information.

• Domain Registrar: A domain registrar is a company or an organization that manages the registration of domain names on the Internet. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) accredited registrars are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and validity of domain name registrations. Domain registrars include IONOS, Strato, Fasthosts, Arsys, Home.pl, and World4You.