Records

Last change on 2025-10-07 • Created on 2025-10-07 • ID: NE-AA6D4

What records should I configure after creating a zone?

The SOA record and three NS records are always created automatically.

When you add a new DNS zone in Hetzner Console, we do not create default records for you. You'll need to add all necessary records yourself.

In most cases, users set up records for a website and email. Here's a common example for the zone example.com:

Type Name
(use @ for root)		 Points to / Value Description
A @ 203.0.113.1 The root domain example.com points to the IP address of the server on which the website is hosted.
A www 203.0.113.1 The subdomain www.example.com points to the IP address of the server on which the website is hosted.
A mail 203.0.113.1 The subdomain mail.example.com points to the IP address of the server on which the mail server is running.
MX @ mail.example.com. If the email address is admin@example.com, for example, the sender will look up the MX record for example.com. The MX record for the root domain example.com points to the subdomain of the server on which the mail server is running (in this example mail.example.com).

Why do my MX or CNAME record hostnames not work?

It is possible that you forgot to add the period at the end of the zone file entry:

ftp      IN CNAME  ftp.example.org

Here, the host name would resolve to ftp.example.org.*IhreDomain.de*. The following entry is correct:

ftp      IN CNAME  ftp.example.org.

How do you format domains in DNS records?

When you define a (sub)domain in a record, there is a simple rule that always applies.

  • No period at the end of the (sub)domain

    The provided entry is not the full domain. The zone itself is appended automatically at the end of the entry. Your entry together with the appended zone is interpreted as a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).


  • Period at the end of the (sub)domain

    The provided entry is the full and final domain. The entry is used exactly as provided and no domain suffix is appended. Your entry by itself is interpreted as a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

This rules is especially important with the record types CNAME, HTTPS, MX, NS, SRV, and SVCB.


Example in zone example.com:

Name (use @ for root) Value
correct example.com.
false example.com
old.example.com. new
  • correct.example.com points to example.com
  • false.example.com points to example.com.example.com
  • old.example.com points to new.example.com

Is www in www.example.com now a subdomain or a hostname?

If you have not entered a www or www.example.com NS entry into the zone file for the zone, this is clearly a hostname.

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