Monitor DNS Records

You can use DNS Check to monitor DNS records for changes. Monitored DNS records are automatically checked every 5 minutes by default.

Here's how to set this up:

1. Sign up for a DNS Check account.
2. Click on DNS Checks in the top navigation bar:

   

3. Click the Add DNS record group button:

   

4. This brings up the following form:
   

   Here's a brief description of each field:

   1. Name - this appears in the DNS record group page's title and header.
   2. Description - the optional description appears below the title. Example uses include internal notes or instructions for posting DNS records.
   3. Name servers to query - if you have a paid account, you can optionally specify which name server (DNS server) you wish to query. You can enter the name server's domain name or IP address. DNS Check's recursive name servers are queried by default.
   4. Check frequency - How often to check DNS records in this record group. The default is 5 minutes. Paid accounts may also choose to pause checks or to only run them once an hour.
   5. Make publicly visible - When this option is on, you can share the DNS record group's URL with anyone you wish to give read-only access to. Here's an example publicly visible DNS record group. When this option is off, your DNS record group can only be viewed by logging into your account.
   6. Send notifications - this controls whether to send notifications when a DNS record changes state between passing and failing. See our Notification Settings page for more details.

   After you fill out the form, click Save to create the new DNS record group.

5. Now it's time to add DNS records:
   

   

   You have two options (detailed below):

   1. Add individual DNS records by clicking the Add DNS record button and selecting a record type.
   2. Import a zone file by clicking the Import zone file button.

Adding Individual DNS Records

When you click the Add DNS record button and select a record type, a form appears with the fields that are relevant to the selected record type. For example, here's what's shown for an A record:

Form Fields

1. Name - The DNS record name to monitor. For example, example.com or www.example.com. You can also monitor a wildcard record by entering its name with the asterisk, like *.example.com.
2. IP address - The expected IP address, like 1.2.3.4 for a specific IP or * to accept any value, as long as the record exists. Record types other than A and AAAA label this field Value.
3. Exclusive - When enabled, the check compares the full set of DNS records returned for this name and type against the set you monitor, so a record you haven't accounted for fails the check.

   Our Exclusive DNS Record Matching page covers this in full: how to monitor a name that publishes several records, why the option belongs on all of them or none, what a failure reports, and how it behaves on ALIAS records.

4. Invert check - (paid accounts only) When enabled, the check logic is reversed. The check passes when the DNS record is not found, or when it is found but with a different value. Set the value to * to be notified as soon as a record is created, or enter a specific value to be notified if that value ever appears.

   Our Inverted DNS Checks page covers this in full: both use cases, how it behaves on ALIAS records, what a failure reports, and why it can't be combined with the "Exclusive" option or used on load balancer records.

After filling out the form, click Save to create the DNS record. The record will be checked immediately and then automatically every 5 minutes (or according to your configured check frequency).

You can edit any DNS record later by clicking on it in the DNS record group page. The edit form has the same fields as the create form:

Import a Zone File

If you have many DNS records to monitor, you can import them all at once using a zone file. This is much faster than adding records individually.

Click the Import zone file button to open the import form:

Paste your zone file contents into the text area and click Import. DNS Check will parse the zone file and create DNS records for each entry. Standard zone file format (RFC 1035) and several non-standard record types are supported, including:

• Standard record types: A, AAAA, CAA, CNAME, HTTPS, MX, NS, PTR (reverse DNS), SOA, SPF, SRV, SVCB, and TXT records
• Non-standard records: wildcard-value and load balancer records
• Comments (lines starting with ;)
• $ORIGIN and $TTL directives
• Relative and fully-qualified domain names

After importing, you can review and edit the imported records as needed. You can also export your monitored DNS records back to zone file format at any time by clicking the Export zone file button on the DNS record group page.

For a full description of the import options, the export format, and how zone files work, see the Zone Files page.

Notification Options

DNS Check provides many notification options. Each time a DNS record changes state between passing and failing, a notification gets sent using each enabled option. You may enable as many or as few of these options as you'd like.

See our Notification Settings page for more details.