How to read route53 record

Question

When I see route 53 records. like following data existed. But I couldn't understand how to read them. I understand A records represents domainname's IPv4 address. but 123xyz.cloudfront.net.was represented in this record. What is this?

Record name　　　　　　　　　　　　Type　　　Routing policy　Differentiator　Value/Route traffic to
beta.test.example.com   A   　　　Simple   　　　　　　- 　　　　　　　　　　　　　123xyz.cloudfront.net.
beta.test.example.com   AAAA　　　Simple   　　　　　　- 　　　　　　　　　　　　　123xyz.cloudfront.net.
beta.test.example.com   NS  　　　Simple   　　　　　　- 　　　　　　　　　　　　　ns-1037.awsdns-01.org.
                                                            　　ns-891.awsdns-47.net.
                                                            　　ns-1996.awsdns-57.co.uk.
                                                            　　ns-113.awsdns-14.com.

I still haven't understood how to read them. if someone has experienced same issue, will you please let me know. thanks

Answer 1

The two most popular types of DNS entries are:

• A-Record, which resolves the domain name into an IP address
• CNAME, which tells DNS start start the domain name resolution again with a different DNS Name (eg point www.example.com to example.com

However, a domain apex (when it does not have a subdomain at the front) cannot have a CNAME record -- this means it is not possible to point example.com to www.example.com. Amazon Route 53 overcomes this with the concept of an Alias, which allows a domain apex to point to Amazon S3, Amazon CloudFront and a few other services:

Your DNS entries are saying:

• The A record resolves beta.test.example.com to 123xyz.cloudfront.net (using an Alias)
• The AAAA record does the same, but for IPv6
• The NS record points to the Name Servers for the Domain Name