Managing DNS records

• A / AAAA: IPv4 / IPv6 address.
• CNAME: alias to another name.
• MX: mail server, with priority.
• TXT: verifications, SPF, DKIM, DMARC.
• SRV: services with priority, weight and port.
• CAA: authorities allowed to issue certificates.
• NS: delegate a subdomain to other nameservers.
• PTR: reverse lookup.

Use @ for the apex and just the label for subdomains (www, not www.example.com). A name starting with *. is a wildcard: *.app answers for any subdomain of app.example.com that has no record of its own.

TTL, in seconds, is how long resolvers may cache the answer. Low values (300) make changes visible sooner; high values (3600 or more) reduce queries. Lower it before a migration, then raise it again.

• A name with a CNAME cannot have other records: use A/AAAA at the apex.
• Long TXT values (such as 2048-bit DKIM keys) are split automatically into 255-byte strings, as the protocol requires.
• Changes are live on the NorthDNS nameservers within seconds; resolvers refresh when the TTL expires.

From the DNS page you can import a BIND zone file (including Cloudflare exports) and export the zone in the same format, for backups or to move to another provider.

Every change creates a zone version. The history shows what changed and who changed it, and lets you restore an earlier version. Changes also appear in the domain activity log.

Every record operation is available through the API, with tokens limited to one domain and only the permissions you need.