CNAME record pointing to another host?

Bruce123

• February 06, 2014 20:55

I have a hosting account, www.somedomain.com, on my server A software vendor that the account owners are working with has asked me to set up a CNAME record for a subdomain "info" (info.somedomain.com) that points to their server, abc.outside.com, like this - info 14400 IN CNAME abc.outside.com. - which I have done. My understanding, however, is that an A record (with a destination IP address) is needed to accomplish the redirection to an outside server, like this - info 14400 IN A 1.2.3.4 They disagree, and their contentions are that:

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• They have several subdomains at the destination IP address (abc.outside.com, def.outside.com, etc.) and so I need to direct to the specific subdomain
• They have done this "hundreds of times" without any problems

I configured the CNAME record as described above about 8 hours ago, and "info.somedomain.com" continues to resolve to my host server. Is this a propagation time issue, or do I indeed need to create an A record instead of the CNAME record? If I do need an A record, how is the problem of specifying the specific target on the other end (abc.outside.com vs def.outside.com) solved? Thanks for your help - it is truly appreciated! Bruce

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  cPanelMichael

  • February 07, 2014 12:45

  Hello :) It's acceptable to use a CNAME entry that points to a remote host. Has the new entry propagated as of yet? Thank you.

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  Bruce123

  • February 07, 2014 14:15

  Thanks for your response. It has not, but it occurred to me a little while ago that we may not be SOA for the domain, which a little bit of digging did verify. I apologize for not thinking of that earlier. It is good to know that a CNAME record is an acceptable method for this, though. I appreciate your help and reply. Bruce

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  cPanelPeter cPanel Staff

  • February 09, 2014 15:23

  Hello Bruce, Glad the problem is solved. Thank you for updating this thread with the outcome.

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