A AAAA record (pronounced "quad A") is a DNS record that maps a domain name to an IPv6 IP address. For example, the www.dnscheck.co AAAA record maps to the 2604:a880:800:10::7a1:b001 IPv6 address. The IPv4 equivalent of a AAAA record is an A record.
"AAAA record" is pronounced "quad A record".
AAAA records are defined in RFC 3596.
DNS Check can monitor your AAAA records, and notify you if they become unresolvable, or start resolving to the wrong IP address.
Fields
Here are the fields that make up a AAAA record:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Name | A fully qualified domain name (FQDN). | www.dnscheck.co. |
| Type | The DNS record type. Always set to "AAAA". | AAAA |
| Address | An IPv6 IP address. | 2604:a880:800:10::7a1:b001 |
DNS Zone File Examples
Here's an example of how a AAAA record looks in a DNS zone file:
; Name Type Address
www.dnscheck.co. AAAA 2604:a880:800:10::7a1:b001
The Name ends in a period in the above example, so it's a fully qualified domain name.
Alternatively, you can create a AAAA record that's relative to the zone file's $ORIGIN. Here's an example of how to use this technique to define the same record as in the previous example:
$ORIGIN dnscheck.co.
; Name Type Address
www AAAA 2604:a880:800:10::7a1:b001
Additional Resources
- RFC 3596 - section 2 (New resource record definition and domain) defines AAAA records.