Records format (JSON)

This page shows the JSON formats for various Cloud DNS record types. To get started using Cloud DNS, see the Quickstart. To manage your DNS records, use the ResourceRecordSets API.

Supported DNS record types

Cloud DNS supports the following types of records:

Record type Description
A

Address record, which is used to map a host name to an IPv4 address.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "example.com.",
  "rrdatas": [
      "1.2.3.4"
  ],
  "ttl": 86400,
  "type": "A"
}
AAAA

IPv6 Address record, which is used to map a host name to an IPv6 address.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "example.com.",
  "rrdatas": [
      "2607:f8b0:400a:801::1005"
  ],
  "ttl": 86400,
  "type": "AAAA"
}
CNAME

Canonical name record, which is used to alias names.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "mail.example.com.",
  "rrdatas": [
      "example.com."
  ],
  "ttl": 86400,
  "type": "CNAME"
}

Note that the hostnames must end with periods or trailing dots (.) in the rrdatas fields to be fully-qualified DNS names.

MX

Mail exchange record, which is used in routing requests to mail servers.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "example.com.",
  "rrdatas": [
      "10 mail.example.com.",
      "20 mail2.example.com."
  ],
  "ttl": 86400,
  "type": "MX"
}

Note that the hostnames must end with periods or trailing dots (.) in the rrdatas fields to be fully-qualified DNS names.

NAPTR

Naming authority pointer record, defined by RFC 3403.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "2.1.2.1.5.5.5.0.7.7.1.e164.arpa.",
  "rrdatas": [
      "100 10 \"u\" \"sip+E2U\" \"!^.*$!sip:information@foo.se!i\" .",
      "102 10 \"u\" \"smtp+E2U\" \"!^.*$!mailto:information@foo.se!i\" ."
  ],
  "ttl": 300,
  "type": "NAPTR"
}

Note that the value in the final replacement field of each rrdatas must end with a period or trailing dot (.) to be a fully-qualified DNS name.

This record type raises several escaping issues. Embedded quotes must be escaped for use in JSON as demonstrated earlier. Also, the regexp field frequently contains backslash characters, and these must be double-escaped: once as required by the zone file format and again as required by the JSON format. To demonstrate, the example from RFC 3403 section 6.1 would be represented in the JSON API as: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "cid.urn.arpa.",
  "rrdatas": [
      "100 10 \"\" \"\" \"!^urn:cid:.+@([^\\\\.]+\\\\.)(.*)$!\\\\2!i\" ."
  ],
  "ttl": 300,
  "type": "NAPTR"
}
NS

Name server record, which delegates a DNS zone to an authoritative server.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "example.com.",
  "rrdatas": [
      "ns-cloud1.googledomains.com."
  ],
  "ttl": 86400,
  "type": "NS"
}

Note that the hostnames must end with periods or trailing dots (.) in the rrdatas fields to be fully-qualified DNS names.

PTR

Pointer record, which is often used for reverse DNS lookups.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "2.1.0.10.in-addr.arpa.",
  "rrdatas": [
    "server.example.com."
  ],
  "ttl": 60,
  "type": "PTR"
}

Creates a mapping from the address 10.0.1.2 to the host name server.example.com, which could be defined in the managed zone named 0.10.in-addr.arpa.

SOA

Start of authority record, which specifies authoritative information about a DNS zone. An SOA resource record is created for you when you create your managed zone. You can modify the record as needed.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "example.com.",
  "rrdatas": [
    "ns-cloud1.googledomains.com. dns-admin.google.com. 1 21600 3600 1209600 300"
  ],
  "ttl": 21600,
  "type": "SOA"
}

Note that the hostnames must end with periods or trailing dots (.) in the rrdatas fields to be fully-qualified DNS names.

SPF

Sender policy framework record, which is used in email validation systems.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "example.com.",
  "rrdatas": [
    "v=spf1 mx:example.com -all"
  ],
  "ttl": 21600,
  "type": "SPF"
}
SRV

Service locator record, which is used by some voice over IP, instant messaging protocols, and other applications.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "sip.example.com.",
  "rrdatas": [
    "0 5 5060 sip.example.com."
  ],
  "ttl": 21600,
  "type": "SRV"
}

Note that the hostnames must end with periods or trailing dots (.) in the rrdatas fields to be fully-qualified DNS names.

TXT

Text record, which can contain arbitrary text and can also be used to define machine-readable data, such as security or abuse prevention information.

Example of the resource record set representation: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "example.com.",
  "rrdatas": [
    "google-site-verification=xxxxxxxxxxxxYYYYYYXXX"
  ],
  "ttl": 21600,
  "type": "TXT"
}

The TXT record consists of a list of character strings (RFC 1035). In zone file format, you write this as a sequence of white space separated strings. Each string can be quoted or unquoted. If one of your strings contains embedded white space, you must use the quoted form, for example: 

{
  "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
  "name": "example.com.",
  "rrdatas": [
    "\"v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all\""
  ],
  "ttl": 21600,
  "type": "TXT"
}

The preceding resource record set consists of a single TXT resource record that contains a single character string with embedded spaces.

Wildcard DNS records

Wildcard records are supported for all record types, except for NS records. For example, you might want to map all subdomains to the IP address 1.2.3.4 with the following Change request:

{
"additions": [
    {
      "kind": "dns#resourceRecordSet",
      "name": "*.example.com.",
      "rrdatas": [
        "1.2.3.4"
       ],
       "ttl": 21600,
       "type": "A"
    }
]
}

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