What is an AAAA Record?
An AAAA record (sometimes referred to as a quad A) record gives the IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) information when a DNS query is performed. The A in this case stands for Address, similar to A records which resolve a domain name for an IPv4 address.
Due to scarcity companies are running out of IPv4 addresses and therefore are starting to use IPv6 addresses. The reason there are four As (AAAA) is to reflect that an IPv6 address, which is 128 bits, is four times the size of an IPv4 record, which is 32 bits.
The AAAA DNS record is stored in a DNS zone on a DNS authoritative server usually residing on a company’s network or at a website host company.
What is an AAAA Record Example
We can find an AAAA record by using the DIG command or the nslookup command.
If we take a look at google.com as an example we can see an IPv6 address of 2607:f8b0:4009:80a::200e when we run an nslookup to find the AAAA record for google.com.
How to add an AAAA Record
Creating an AAAA record will depend on the DNS management solution you’re using. If you’re using Micetro to create it, you can follow these steps:
- Open the Micetro Web UI
- Go to DNS
- Double click on the DNS zone for which you’d like to create an AAAA record
- Click the Create button
- Enter a record name
- Enter the record type
- Specify the Time-to-live
- Select AAAA as the record type
- Input the IPv6 address
- Optionally enter the owner name
- Click Add to Request or Create Now depending on your permissions
