Azure DNS

What it is

Azure DNS is a managed family of Domain Name System (DNS) services. DNS translates a name such as orders.northwind.example into an address or another DNS answer that software can use. Azure DNS includes public-domain hosting, private DNS zones for virtual networks, and services that help resolve names between Azure and on-premises networks.

Why it exists

People remember names, not IP addresses. Azure DNS lets a team manage name records with the same Azure identity, APIs, tools, and billing used for other Azure resources, without operating DNS servers for the supported service.

Key ideas

• A public DNS zone holds records for an internet-facing domain that Northwind controls. To make Azure answer publicly, its domain registrar delegates the domain’s name servers to the Azure DNS zone.
• A record answers a particular DNS question: A and AAAA records map names to IP addresses; CNAME points one name at another name; MX helps route mail; TXT carries verification or policy text. A TTL tells resolvers how long they may cache an answer.
• An alias record can point directly to supported Azure resources. This avoids hard-coding an Azure resource’s changing IP address in an ordinary record.
• A private DNS zone resolves names privately for linked virtual networks. It is not a public internet zone, even when its name resembles a public domain.
• Azure DNS Private Resolver supports name-resolution paths between Azure private zones and on-premises networks without running DNS-server VMs for that purpose. Traffic Manager is a separate DNS-based traffic-routing service, not a normal record host.

How it fits

[registrar] ─NS delegation─► [Azure public DNS zone: northwind.example]
                                      │
                    A / CNAME / MX / TXT / alias records
                                      │
                  orders.northwind.example → application endpoint

Northwind example

Northwind registers northwind.example with a registrar and delegates its public name servers to an Azure DNS zone. It creates orders.northwind.example to reach the public ordering endpoint. Inside its virtual network, a private DNS zone resolves a private database name. Maya keeps the two designs separate: publishing a record publicly would expose name resolution to the internet, while the private zone serves only linked networks.

Common confusion

• A registrar reserves a domain name; a DNS hosting service answers DNS queries for that domain. They can be different providers.
• DNS translates names. It does not by itself encrypt application traffic, authenticate users, or load balance every kind of connection.
• A lower TTL can make changes propagate through caches sooner, but it can increase DNS-query volume and does not instantly erase every existing cached answer.

Related

Home · private-dns · vnet · load-balancer · azure-front-door

Sources and re-audit

• Microsoft Learn — Azure DNS overview, checked 2026-09-16.