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I'm creating new DNS records in our DC (Windows Server 2016) and I bump into zones where there are a lot of records that do not have a regular hostname, only an "@".

We are using scopes and policies, new Windows Server 2016 features for DNS configuration.

I know that one can use "*" for wildcards in hostnames, but I don't know the meaning of "@".

Hostnames with "@"

Dave M
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jask
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2 Answers2

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If the name for a domain (or zone) is "example.com.", then an @ record indicates that the name for the DNS record is also "example.com."

In the GUI for a Microsoft Windows Server DNS Service, this is (or at least has been for a long time) called "Same as parent folder".

Normally the name used for a DNS record indicates everything before the name of the zone (commonly called the "domain name"). So if you enter a record named "server01" in a DNS zone called "example.com.", then the full record is "server01.example.com." If you want to enter a record where the full record is just "example.com" (which is necessary for a lot of things, like MX records), then you enter an @ in many DNS systems to tell the DNS server to respond to requests for "example.com." with the data you add to the record in question.

Todd Wilcox
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    The `example.com` is actually shortened `example.com.` – in DNS server configuration `example.com` becomes `example.com.example.com.`, because without the tailing dot it's relative to the `$ORIGIN`, which could be referred with the `@`. – Esa Jokinen Feb 21 '19 at 15:41
  • Thanks a lot!! Now I understand better how it works. – jask Feb 21 '19 at 21:24
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For what I could find in the RFC, it stands for

@               A free standing @ is used to denote the current origin.

Source: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1035

Hope it helps

Community
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Fran Gimenez
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