CNAME is a Canonical Name Record or Alias Record.
A type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS), which indicates that one domain name is an alias of another canonical domain name.
Each system that hosts a website must have an IP address to be connected to the World Wide Web.
The DNS resolves the domain name of the system to the IP address, but sometimes more than one domain name resolves to the same IP address, and this is where the CNAME is useful.
A machine can have an unlimited number of CNAME aliases, but for each alias a separate CNAME record must be in the database.
This helps in multiple servers such as FTP server and WEB server each running on different ports from a single IP address. Each server has its own input into the DNS like ftp.yourdomain.com & www.yourdomain.com.
We can also use CNAME for multiple HTTP servers on the same port with different names on the same physical host.
The big advantage of using CNAME is that if we change the IP address of an A-record, any CNAME record referring to that host will also change.
If we have a website with yourdomain.com then this domain name is linked to an A-record that translates the domain name to the correct IP address 1.2.3.4 . If you have multiple subdomains, such as www.example.com, ftp.example.com, mail.example.com, etc. and you want these subdomains to refer to your main domain name which is yourdomain.com, instead of creating an A-record for each subdomain and linking it to the IP address of your domain, create an alias, a CNAME record for all these domains.
In the following example, we will create a CNAME record for www that is an alias for gamebrew.net
Navigate to Domains from the main menu, and select Manage DNS.
Click the Edit icon
Click theย Add Record button
Fill in the details and click Add Record. Keep in mind that an A-record must already be present for yourdomain.com to be able to create a CNAME that points to that. Follow this KB article to create an A-record.
The Add Record form contains the following fields:
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Type: A dropdown menu, currently set to "CNAME" (Canonical Name record). There is a help icon (?) next to the label.
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Name: A text input field, filled with "www2". There is a help icon (?) next to the label.
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TTL (Time To Live): A text input field, set to "3600". There is a help icon (?) next to the label.
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Cname: A text input field, containing "pokemonshop.eu".
Verify the record is in place.
