Azure DNS and Private DNS Zones

Azure DNS is a hosting service for DNS domains that provides name resolution using Microsoft's global network of DNS servers. It supports both public DNS (for internet-facing domains) and private DNS (for name resolution within Virtual Networks). This lesson covers both services, DNS record types, and how to integrate DNS with your Azure networking architecture.

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What Is DNS?

The Domain Name System (DNS) translates human-readable domain names (like www.contoso.com) into IP addresses (like 52.168.1.100). Without DNS, users would need to remember IP addresses to access websites and services.

DNS resolution follows a hierarchy:

Client --> Recursive Resolver --> Root Servers --> TLD Servers --> Authoritative Server
                                                                      |
                                                               Returns IP address

Azure DNS acts as the authoritative DNS server for your domains — it responds to DNS queries with the records you configure.

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Azure DNS (Public)

Azure DNS hosts your public DNS zones on Microsoft's global Anycast network, which means queries are answered by the nearest DNS server for optimal performance.

Key Features