DNS & Zone Records Explained

If you’re a ProFusion client, you’ve likely been contacted by us this past month regarding a server migration we are performing. A server migration literally means we are picking up our sites from one server and moving them to a new location. Server migrations may need to happen for several reasons. For us, we decided to go through the hassle of a migration so that we can:

  • Take advantage of new technology and ensure that the operating system (OS) and the hardware beneath it are up-to-date with current technology.
  • Replace aging infrastructure that is coming to the end of its lifecycle.
  • Expand and distribute hosting to help reduce load at a single point and achieve high availability.

A migration brings up a lot of questions because we are asking our clients to make changes to their DNS or Zone Records that typically only have to be made if you are moving your hosting provider or setting up a new site. We’re writing this blog post to shed a little light on your hosting records and what they all mean.


As a great first step, look at this short video on DNS records and hosting.

The Domain Name System/Server (DNS):

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the phonebook of the Internet. Humans access information online through domain names, like ProFusionWebSolutions.com. Web browsers interact through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources (hat tip to CloudFlare for that definition).

Since your domain name does more than just serve up a website, there are different records within the DNS that come into play. The major ones that we deal with during a migration are:

  • A-Record – The A-Record IP address tells the browser what IP address to look to load the website. 
  • MX Record – The MX (Mail Exchange) record. The MX record is used to tell the world which mail servers accept incoming mail for your domain and where emails sent to your domain should be routed to. If you are not using domain-based email, you will likely not have an MX record set up. 
  • SPF Record - An SPF record is a Sender Policy Framework record. It's used to indicate to mail exchanges which hosts are authorized to send mail for a domain. An SPF record becomes important if you are sending email from a system like MailChimp. You are telling MailChimp to send the email from you@yourdomain.com, however, MailChimp doesn’t actually login to your account and send from your email address. Adding an SPF record gives MailChimp the authority to send on behalf of the specified domain name.

Where do I update the DNS?

Typically, you will update the DNS at your registrar. Your registrar is where you purchased your domain name from. If you are not sure who you purchased your domain name from, you can do a look up by going to www.whois.com. Enter in your domain name in the search bar. When you get to a screen like the one below, click on the orange Whois button.

On screen you are taken to next, you’ll get some important domain information – specifically where your domain is registered (the registrar) and when it expires. You’ll also be able to see what the Name Servers currently are.

Once you know where the domain is registered, you can update the DNS per your hosts specifications. Be careful when changing the DNS, however. If you have domain based email or sites on a sub-domain, changing the DNS could make these elements unavailable. Make sure your host has made a copy of your Zone Records prior to changing the DNS.

What does a Zone Record look like? 

As the video explained, if you are taking a new site live and you have existing MX, SPF or other records in your Zone Record, it may be easier to modify the A-Record instead of updating the DNS. All this will do is change the IP address to the website. So you’ll be taking down the old site IP address, and updating it with the new IP address.

If you use a registrar like GoDaddy, updating your Zone Records isn’t all that challenging, you just want to make sure you have a basic understanding about what you are doing. An example Zone Record managed at GoDaddy is below:

In reviewing this record, we can see that:

  • The site is hosted with ProFusion based on the IP address in the A-record row.
  • The email is hosted at Google based on the MX records
  • The DNS is pointed to GoDaddy (domaincontol.com is GoDaddy’s DNS) based on the NS records.

There are a number of other things we can read into when we look at this full Zone Record, but the A, MX, and DNS would be the major ones we pay attention to when looking at a Zone Record.

Other tools: 

You may need to lookup what your MX record or A record is set to at some point. If you do not have access to your Zone Record, you can go to MXToolbox.com and do a lookup there. This is a tool we use quite frequently to check IP addresses and records.

Questions? 

Hosting can be tricky and oftentimes clients who come to us aren’t sure who their current host or registrar is. If you find yourself in this situation, let us know. We’d be happy to run a little recon for you to see where your site is hosted and who is the current owner and registrar on your website.