[Term of the Day]: Canonical Name

Term of the Day

"Canonical Name"

Definition — What is a CName?

A Canonical Name, also known as CName, is a record in a DNS database that indicates the true hostname of a resource (a server or computer) that its aliases are associated with. It is typically used to map multiple URLs to a single IP address, as well as to redirect users to sites after their URLs change or are abandoned.

The DNS resolves the resource’s domain name to its IP address, but sometimes more than one domain name resolves to the same IP address, and this is where the CNAME is useful.

For example, say you have several subdomains, like www.servicedeskplus.com, www.desktopcentral.com, etc and you want these subdomains to point to your main domain name www.manageengine.com. Instead of creating A records for each sub-domain and binding it to the IP address of your domain you can create CName records.