DNS records¶

A Record¶

An A record maps a domain name to the IPv4 address of a server and is required for a website to be served via a domain name. For specific information on adding and pointing your domain to Kinsta, please refer to our in-depth guide here.

• Type: A
• Hostname: Specify a subdomain if you’re configuring a subdomain. If you are setting up an A record for your root domain, leave the Hostname field empty.
• IPV4 Address: Enter your Site IP Address (IPv4).
• TTL (Time to Live): We recommend using the default setting of 1 hour.
• Add DNS record with and without www: Check this box if you want to automatically add the CNAME record for your www domain at the same time.

AAAA Record¶

An AAAA record maps a domain name to the IPV6 address of a server that supports an IPV6 address.

There may be a couple of situations where you may want to add an AAAA record in Kinsta DNS:

• If you have a subdomain you’d like to point to another server that does support IPV6.

• If you’re using Kinsta DNS to manage your main domain’s DNS, but you’re pointing the main domain to another server that supports IPV6.

• Type: AAAA

• Hostname: Specify the subdomain you’re configuring. If you are setting up an AAAA record for your root domain, leave the Hostname field empty.
• IPV6 Address: Specify the IPV6 address of the server.
• TTL (Time to Live): We recommend using the default setting of 1 hour.
• Add DNS record with and without www: Only check this box if you’re creating the AAAA record for your root domain and want to automatically add the CNAME record for your www domain at the same time.

CNAME Record¶

A CNAME record handles the mapping of a domain name to another hostname. CNAMEs are commonly used to map a www domain to a non-www domain (e.g. www.kinstalife.com to kinstalife.com). If you selected the Add DNS record with and without www box when adding an A or AAAA record, the CNAME for your www domain has already been added. For specific information on adding and pointing your domain to Kinsta, please refer to our in-depth guide here.

• Type: CNAME
• Hostname: Specify the hostname of your subdomain.
• Points To: Specify the hostname you’d like the CNAME to resolve to.
• TTL (Time to Live): We recommend using the default setting of 1 hour.

TXT Record¶

TXT records are used for a variety of things. Typically they are used for verification. For example, you can verify your domain name with Google Workspace using a TXT record.

• Type: TXT
• Hostname: Specify the hostname for your TXT record.
• TTL (Time to Live): We recommend using the default setting of 1 hour.
• Content: The body of the TXT record.

Let’s say we need to add the TXT record below to verify the domain kinstalife.com with Google Workspace.

SPF Record¶

SPF records are used by internet service providers (ISPs) to check the sender’s IP address, as well as the IPs of the website. If they match up, then you’re good to go. Here’s an example of what an SPF record looks like: v=spf1 include:[DOMAIN] ~all

Third-party email providers and transaction email services might have you set up an SPF record for email authentication purposes. However, SPF records are now obsolete (RFC 7208) and can be entered as TXT records instead.

• Hostname: Specify the hostname for the SPF record.
• TTL (Time to Live): We recommend using the default setting of 1 hour.
• Content: The body of the SPF record (begins with v=spf1).

DKIM Record¶

DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail. This is an extra layer of email authentication typically used by email marketing software and transactional email providers. In MyKinsta DNS, there is no separate option for DKIM, as these are typically entered as either a CNAME record or TXT record, depending on the service. In the example below, we are adding a DKIM record for Mailgun.

TXT records have a limit of 255 characters. This limit is not on our end but rather imposed by the DNS protocol itself. If you need to add a DKIM record that is longer than 255 characters, you’ll need to split the value/content of the record into multiple strings. This is done by encapsulating each string in double quotes.

Do not add any line breaks between the strings.

Checking DNS (with dig or a lookup tool) will show the record as a single entry:

"v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIGfM...[LONG_STRING]...Ib3D"