What is an A Record?
An A record (Address Record) is a type of DNS record that maps a domain name to an IPv4 address. It is the most fundamental DNS record type and is what tells the internet which server to connect to when someone types your domain name into their browser.
How Does A Record Work?
When you set up an A record, you are creating a direct mapping from your domain (like example.com) or subdomain (like www.example.com) to a specific IPv4 address (like 93.184.216.34). Multiple A records can be created for the same domain pointing to different IP addresses for load balancing or failover purposes.
A records are typically the first DNS records you configure when setting up a new website. You create an A record for your root domain and often another for the www subdomain. The TTL (Time to Live) value on an A record controls how long DNS resolvers cache the result. Lower TTL values mean changes propagate faster but generate more DNS queries. When migrating to a new server, you update your A records to point to the new server's IP address.