The CNAME record is also known as canonical name record. It is used for specifying that a domain name is an alias for another domain, the “canonical” domain. A typical example is the www subdomain which is often set as an alias to the root domain name
The CNAME record is used only for subdomains. You can’t add any other records for a given hostname if this hostname has a CNAME Record. Also, it’s not possible to create a CNAME record if there are any other records for this hostname.
The CNAME record has the following look
Why do you need a CNAME record?
CNAME records are frequently used for pointing many hosts to the same place and updating them easily
- Providing a separate hostname for specific services, such as email or FTP, and pointing that hostname to the root domain.
- Registering the same domain in several countries and pointing the country versions to the main “.com” domain
- Pointing from several websites owned by the same organization to a primary website