DNS- Terminology

Domain Name System which translates the human friendly hostnames
into the machine IP addresses

• www.google.com => 172.217.18.36

DNS uses hierarchical naming structure

.com
example.com
api.example.com
www.example.com

DNS Terminologies

• Domain Registrar:
Amazon Route 53, GoDaddy, etc..
• DNS Records:
A, AAAA, CNAME, NS, etc..
• Zone File:
contains DNS records
• Name Server:
resolves DNS queries
• Top Level Domain (TLD):
.com, .us, .in, .gov, .org, etc...
• *Second Level Domain (SLD): *
amazon.com, google.com, etc..

Let's take an example below...

Domain Registar vs. DNS Service

You buy or register your domain name with a Domain Registrar typically by paying annual charges (e.g., GoDaddy)

The Domain Registrar usually provides you with a DNS service to manage your DNS records But you can use another DNS service to manage your DNS records.

• Example: purchase the domain from GoDaddy and use Route 53 to manage your DNS records

Route 53 – Record Types

• NS-Record
  Name Servers for the Hosted Zone which Control how traffic is routed for a domain

• A-Record
  maps a hostname to IPv4

• CNAME
  maps a hostname to another hostname