Question

How to use A/AAAA records instead of CNAME for subdomain

Posted on June 14, 2023
DNS
Asked by Cam Stephens

Context:

My DNS records are managed with DO (I’m also a DNS newbie)
I have a DO static site deployed at example.com with A records (iPv4-1, iPv4-2) and AAAA records (iPv6-1, iPv6-2)
When deploying another static site at subdomain.example.com, DO automatically creates a CNAME record with HOST subdomain that aliases subdomain.ondigitalocean.app. (looks like a CloudFlare proxy server that ultimately directs to example.com?).

What I want:

I want to create MX records for subdomain.example.com to receive mail at that address. However, attempting to create MX or TXT records for subdomain.example.com produces this appropriate error:

Records cannot share a name with a CNAME record.

Quick research explains this is necessary for DNS resolution.

Solution?

It looks like I have two options:

Use a different name (don’t want this)
Use A/AAAA records instead of CNAME for subdomain.example.com

Bottom line - Is option 2 possible, and if so, how should I modify my DNS records?

Specifically, what IP address should the A/AAAA records direct to for subdomain.example.com? I assumed they should direct to the IP for subdomain.ondigitalocean.app. (the CNAME record auto-generated by DO^) but a quick IP lookup shows the same iPv4/iPv6 values as example.com - obviously.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!

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Bobby Iliev

Site Moderator

• June 15, 2023

Accepted Answer

Hey @motivv,

Indeed, this is not possible at the moment.

For option 2, there is no fixed static IP address that you could use, however, what you could do is to move your DNS zone to Cloudflare, where you will be able to add a CNAME record alongside an MX record for the same subdomain name.

In case you want to see this as an option on the DigitalOcean side, the best thing to do to get your voice heard regarding this would be to head over to our Product Ideas board and post a new idea, including as much information as possible for what you’d like to see implemented.