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.comwith 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 HOSTsubdomainthat aliasessubdomain.ondigitalocean.app.(looks like a CloudFlare proxy server that ultimately directs toexample.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!
This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.
You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!
These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.
Get our biweekly newsletter
Sign up for Infrastructure as a Newsletter.
Hollie's Hub for Good
Working on improving health and education, reducing inequality, and spurring economic growth? We'd like to help.
Become a contributor
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
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.
Hope that helps!
Let me know if you have any questions.
- Bobby.