Manage response policies and rules

This page provides information about how to manage response policies and response policy rules.

Cloud DNS private zones let you create a single response policy per network that modifies resolver behavior according to the policy created. You can also create rules as part of response policies.

You can create a single response policy rule per network that can do the following:

  • Alter results for selected query names (including wildcards) by providing specific resource records.
  • Trigger passthru behavior that bypasses the response policy, exempting names that would otherwise match. For example, for wildcard responses, this lets private DNS query matching continue as if it never encountered a wildcard.

For information about how VPC Service Controls lets customers enforce controls on API access from their private VPC networks, see Setting up private connectivity to Google APIs and services.

Manage response policies

Create a response policy

To create a response policy, follow these steps.

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud DNS zones page.

    Go to Cloud DNS zones

  2. Click the Response policy zones tab.

  3. Click Create response policy.

  4. Enter the name of the response policy that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicy.

  5. Enter a description of the response policy, such as My new response policy.

  6. From the Networks drop-down, select one or more networks to associate with the response policy.

  7. Click Create.

    You can create a response policy rule in each response policy zone that you create. For instructions, see Creating a response policy rule.

gcloud

Run the gcloud dns response-policies create command:

gcloud dns response-policies create RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME \
    --networks=NETWORK \
   [--description=DESCRIPTION]

Replace the following:

  • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicy
  • NETWORK: a comma-separated list of network names to associate with the response policy, such as network1, network2
  • DESCRIPTION: a description of the response policy, such as My new response policy

API

Send a POST request by using the responsePolicies.create method:

POST https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/responsePolicies

Replace PROJECT_ID with the name or ID of the project that you want to create the response policy in.

View response policies

To view the list of all response policies in a given project, or to view the description of a specific response policy, follow these steps.

Console

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Cloud DNS zones page.

    Go to Cloud DNS zones

  2. Click the Response policy zones tab.

  3. The Response policies list page lists the response policies that you have created.

gcloud

  • To see the list of all response policies in a project, run the gcloud dns response-policies list command:

    gcloud dns response-policies list

  • You can limit the number of response policies by using the --limit flag. For example, to see a list of the first ten response policies, run the following command:

    gcloud dns response-policies list \
  --limit=10

  • To see a detailed description of a response policy, run the gcloud dns response-policies describe command:

    gcloud dns response-policies describe RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

    Replace RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME with the name or ID of the response policy that you want to view the description for.

API

To see the detailed description of a response policy, send a GET request by using the responsePolicies.get method:

GET https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/responsePolicies/RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where you have created the response policy
  • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to see the description for, such as myresponsepolicy

Update a response policy

To update a response policy, follow these steps.

Console

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Cloud DNS zones page.

    Go to Cloud DNS zones

  2. Click the response policy that you want to edit. You can also click More in the row of the response policy name.

  3. Click Edit response policy.

  4. Make the required updates.

  5. Click Save.

gcloud

Run the gcloud dns response-policies update command:

gcloud dns response-policies update RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

Replace RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME with the name or ID of the response policy that you want to update, such as myresponsepolicy.

Use the same syntax as the create command for any updated fields.

API

  • To apply a partial update to a response policy, send a PATCH request by using the responsePolicies.patch method:

    PATCH https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/responsePolicies/RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where you have created the response policy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to update, such as myresponsepolicy

  • To update a response policy, send an UPDATE request by using the responsePolicies.update method:

    UPDATE https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/responsePolicies/RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where you have created the response policy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to update, such as myresponsepolicy

Delete a response policy

To delete a response policy, follow these steps.

Console

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Cloud DNS zones page.

    Go to Cloud DNS zones

  2. Click More in the row of the response policy name.

  3. Click Delete.

gcloud

Run the gcloud dns response-policies delete command:

gcloud dns response-policies delete RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

Replace RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME with the name or ID of the response policy that you want to delete.

API

Send a DELETE request by using the responsePolicies.delete method:

DELETE https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/responsePolicies/RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where you have created the response policy
  • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to delete, such as myresponsepolicy

Manage response policy rules

A site's DNS response policy consists of rules that a DNS resolver consults during lookups. If a rule in the response policy affects the incoming query, it is processed; otherwise, the lookup proceeds normally.

Create a response policy rule

To create a response policy rule, follow these steps.

Console

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Cloud DNS zones page.

    Go to Cloud DNS zones

  2. Click the Response policy zones tab.

  3. From the list of response policy zones, click the response policy zone for which you want to create a rule.

  4. Click Create response policy rule.

  5. Enter the name of the response policy rule that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicyrule.

  6. From the Selector drop-down, choose the selector type to apply this rule to.

  7. Enter the DNS name (wildcard or exact) to apply the rule to, such as www.googleapis.com.

  8. Choose the action for the response policy rule. For example, to alter the behavior of the response policy, choose Behavior; otherwise, choose Local data.

    • If you chose Behavior, from the drop-down, select the behavior for the rule.

    • If you chose Local data, you must add a new resource record set. For instructions about how to add a new resource record set, see Creating a resource record set.

  9. Click Create.

gcloud

  • To alter behavior for selected query names, run the gcloud dns response-policies rules create command, and specify the --type flag:

    gcloud dns response-policies rules create RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME \
  --response-policy=RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME \
  --dns-name=DNS_NAME \
  --local-data=name="DNS_NAME.",type="RRTYPE",ttl=TTL,rrdatas="RRDATA"

    Replace the following:

    • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME: a name for the response policy rule that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicyrule
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name of the response policy, such as myresponsepolicy
    • DNS_NAME: the DNS or domain name, such as www.googleapis.com
    • TTL: time to live for the response policy, such as 21600
    • RRTYPE: the resource record type, such as A
    • RRDATA: the resource record data, such as 1.2.3.4. Separate multiple entries with |, such as 1.2.3.4|5.6.7.8.

  • To create a bypass rule, run the gcloud dns response-policies rules create command, and set the --behavior flag to bypassResponsePolicy:

    gcloud dns response-policies rules create RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME \
  --response-policy=RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME \
  --dns-name=DNS_NAME \
  --behavior=bypassResponsePolicy

    Replace the following:

    • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME: a name for the response policy rule that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicyrule
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name of the response policy, such as myresponsepolicy
    • DNS_NAME: the DNS or domain name, such as www.googleapis.com

API

  • To create a new response policy rule, send a POST request by using the responsePolicyRules.create method:

    POST https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/responsePolicies/RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME/rules

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where you have created the response policy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to create a rule for, such as myresponsepolicy

View a response policy rule

To view the list of all response policy rules in a given response policy, or to view the description of a specific response policy rule, follow these steps.

Console

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Cloud DNS zones page.

    Go to Cloud DNS zones

  2. On the Response policy zones tab, click the response policy name that you want to see the associated rules for. The Response policy details page lists the rules associated with the response policy.

  3. To view the details of a specific response policy rule, click the name of the rule. You can also click More in the row of the response policy rule name.

gcloud

  • To view the list of Cloud DNS response policy rules within a response policy, run the gcloud dns response-policies rules list command:

    gcloud dns response-policies rules list RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

    Replace RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME with the name of the response policy, such as myresponsepolicy.

  • To view details about a specific response policy rule, run the gcloud dns response-policies rules describe command:

    gcloud dns response-policies rules describe RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME \
  --response-policy=RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

    Replace the following:

    • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME: a name for the response policy rule that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicyrule
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name of the response policy, such as myresponsepolicy

API

To see the detailed description of a rule in a response policy, send a GET request by using the responsePolicyRules.get method:

GET https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/responsePolicies/RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME/rules/RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where you have created the response policy
  • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to create a rule for, such as myresponsepolicy
  • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE: the response policy rule that you want to see the details of

Update a response policy rule

To edit or update a response policy rule, follow these steps.

Console

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Cloud DNS zones page.

    Go to Cloud DNS zones

  2. Click the response policy name that you want to edit the rules for.

  3. Click the name of the response policy rule that you want to edit.

  4. On the Response policy rule details page, click the rule name that you want to edit.

  5. Make the required updates.

  6. Click Save.

gcloud

Run the gcloud dns response-policies rules update command:

gcloud dns response-policies rules update RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME \
    --response-policy=RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

Replace the following:

  • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME: a name for the response policy rule that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicyrule

  • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name of the response policy, such as myresponsepolicy

    Use the same syntax as the create command for any updated fields.

API

  • To apply a partial update to a response policy rule, send a PATCH request by using the responsePolicyRules.patch method:

    PATCH https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/responsePolicies/RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME/rules/RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where you have created the response policy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to update the rule for, such as myresponsepolicy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE: the response policy rule that you want to update

  • To update a response policy rule, send an UPDATE request by using the responsePolicyRules.update method:

    UPDATE https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/responsePolicies/RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME/rules/RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where you have created the response policy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to update the rule for, such as myresponsepolicy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE: the response policy rule that you want to update

Delete a response policy rule

To delete a response policy rule, follow these steps.

Console

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Cloud DNS zones page.

    Go to Cloud DNS zones

  2. Click the response policy name that you want to edit the rules for.

  3. Click the name of the response policy rule that you want to delete.

  4. On the Response policy rule details page, click More in the row of the response policy rule name.

  5. Click Delete. You can also click the rule that you want to delete: on the Response policy rule details page, click Delete response policy rules.

gcloud

  • To delete a Cloud DNS response policy rule, run the gcloud dns response-policies rules delete command:

    gcloud dns response-policies rules delete RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME \
  --response-policy=RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME

    Replace the following:

    • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME: a name for the response policy rule that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicyrule
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name of the response policy, such as myresponsepolicy

API

  • To delete a response policy rule, send a DELETE request by using the responsePolicyRules.delete method:

    DELETE https://dns.googleapis.com/dns/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/responsePolicies/RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME/rules/RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project where you have created the response policy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to delete the rule from, such as myresponsepolicy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE: the response policy rule that you want to delete

Use cases

This section provides example use cases to configure rules for response policies.

Direct specific names to restricted VIP addresses

You can configure a response policy that has local CNAME data for each zone to translate Google API requests to restricted Google APIs. Names that aren't specified continue to be resolved by using regular DNS.

For example, you can create a response policy for pubsub.googleapis.com, which has local CNAME data for a zone, to translate Google API requests to restricted.googleapis.com. In the meantime, www.googleapis.com, which is unspecified, continues to be resolved by using regular DNS.

In the following example configuration, you create a policy and apply it to a specific VPC network.

gcloud

  1. To create a response policy, run the gcloud dns response-policies create command:

    gcloud dns response-policies create RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME \
    --networks=NETWORK \
    --description=DESCRIPTION

    Replace the following:

    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicy
    • NETWORK: a comma-separated list of network names to associate with the response policy, such as network1,network2
    • DESCRIPTION: a description of the response policy, such as My new response policy

  2. To add a rule to the policy, run the gcloud dns response-policies rules create command:

    gcloud dns response-policies rules create RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME \
    --response-policy=RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME \
    --dns-name=pubsub.googleapis.com. \
    --local-data=name="pubsub.googleapis.com.",type="A",ttl=300,rrdatas="199.36.153.4|199.36.153.5|199.36.153.6|199.36.153.7"

    Replace the following:

    • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME: a name for the response policy rule that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicyrule
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name of the response policy, such as myresponsepolicy

API

  1. Create a response policy by URL:

    {
  kind: "dns#responsePolicy",
  response_policy_name: RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME,
  description: RESPONSE_POLICY_DESCRIPTION,
  networks: [
    {
      network_url: URL_TO_NETWORK;
    }
  ]
}

    Replace the following:

    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: a name for the response policy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_DESCRIPTION: a description of the response policy

    • URL_TO_NETWORK: the URL for which you're creating the response policy

  2. Add a rule to the policy:

    {
  kind: "dns#responsePolicyRules",
  rule_name: RULE_NAME,
  dns_name: DNS_NAME,
  local_data: [
    {
      name: "pubsub.googleapis.com.",
      type: "A",
      ttl: 300,
      rrdata: ["199.36.153.4", "199.36.153.5", "199.36.153.6", "199.36.153.7"]
    }
  ]
}

    Replace the following:

    • RULE_NAME: a name for the rule that you are creating, such as pubsub
    • DNS_NAME: the DNS name for which you are creating the rule, such as pubsub.googleapis.com.; note the trailing dot

Direct all names except some to restricted VIP addresses

You can set rules to exempt some DNS responses from a policy rule that covers an entire domain or a large IP address block. This concept is called passthru behavior. By using passthru behavior, you can let names that lack support for service controls be allowed past the wildcard name.

For example, you can let www.googleapis.com be allowed past the wildcard name in the example *.googleapis.com. The exact match for www takes precedence over the wildcard *.

In the following example configuration, you create a policy with a specified name and apply it to a specific VPC network. The rule allows www.googleapis.com to bypass the wildcard *.googleapis.com.

gcloud

  1. To create a response policy, run the gcloud dns response-policies create command:

    gcloud dns response-policies create RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME \
    --networks=NETWORK \
    --description=DESCRIPTION

    Replace the following:

    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name or ID of the response policy that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicy
    • NETWORK: a comma-separated list of network names to associate with the response policy, such as network1,network2
    • DESCRIPTION: a description of the response policy, such as My new response policy

  2. To add a bypass rule to the policy, run the gcloud dns response-policies rules create command, and set the --behavior flag to bypassResponsePolicy:

    gcloud dns response-policies rules create RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME \
    --response-policy=RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME \
    --dns-name=DNS_NAME \
    --behavior=bypassResponsePolicy

    Replace the following:

    • RESPONSE_POLICY_RULE_NAME: a name for the response policy rule that you want to create, such as myresponsepolicyrule
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: the name of the response policy, such as myresponsepolicy
    • DNS_NAME: the DNS or domain name, such as www.googleapis.com

API

  1. Create a response policy:

    {
  kind: "dns#responsePolicy",
  response_policy_name: RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME,
  description: RESPONSE_POLICY_DESCRIPTION,
  networks: [
    {
      network_url: URL_TO_NETWORK;
    }
  ]
}

    Replace the following:

    • RESPONSE_POLICY_NAME: a name for the response policy, such as my-response-policy
    • RESPONSE_POLICY_DESCRIPTION: a description of the response policy, such as my response policy
    • URL_TO_NETWORK: the URL for which you're creating the response policy

  2. Add a rule to the policy:

    {
  kind: "dns#responsePolicyRules",
  rule_name: RULE_NAME,
  dns_name: DNS_NAME,
  local_data: [
    {
      name: "*.googleapis.com.",
      type: "A",
      ttl: 300,
      rrdata: ["restricted.googleapis.com."]
    }
  ]
}
{
  kind: "dns#responsePolicyRules",
  rule_name: "www-passthru",
  dns_name: "www.googleapis.com.",
  behavior: BYPASS_RESPONSE_POLICY
}

    Replace the following:

    • RULE_NAME: a name for the rule that you are creating, such as googleapis
    • DNS_NAME: the wildcard DNS name for which you are creating the rule, such as *.googleapis.com.; note the trailing dot

What's next

  • To create, update, list, and delete managed zones, see Manage zones.
  • To find solutions for common issues that you might encounter when using Cloud DNS, see Troubleshoot.
  • To get an overview of Cloud DNS, see Cloud DNS overview.