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Is it possible to set a CNAME record for a toplevel domain like example.com?

My ISP says that it's only possible to use CNAME's for subdomains but I've read somewhere else that is should be possible even if not recommended.

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CNAME is best avoided. You should ask about what you are really trying to do instead. – janm Sep 30 '10 at 12:00
@janm Avoided, why? – bzlm Sep 30 '10 at 12:10
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I want to point a top-level-domain to a amazon cloudfront distribution and they only support cnames. – Martin Sep 30 '10 at 12:13
I should point out that EVERY domain is a "subdomain". example.com is a subdomain of com, and com is a subdomain of .. Any limitations put in place by your ISP are put in place by your ISP and perhaps the registrar, not by the underlying technology. – ghoti Sep 22 '12 at 16:26
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example.com is not a toplevel domain so your question requires a rephrasing. – bortzmeyer Sep 22 '12 at 21:47

migrated from stackoverflow.com Sep 22 '12 at 16:56

3 Answers

up vote 12 down vote accepted

Not possible - this would conflict with the SOA- and NS-records at the domain root.

From RFC1912 section 2.4: "A CNAME record is not allowed to coexist with any other data."

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The quoted text doesn't say that it's not possible, only that it can't be used with other records. Your NS and SOA records would reside with the canonical name. – bukzor Aug 28 '12 at 18:11
up vote 4 down vote

You can setup your domain to be a CNAME to another domain, but then everything will go to that other domain -- including mail and the SOA "start-of-authority" record itself. However, you can still have separate subdomains, like "private.domain.com" use another mail and web server.

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If the parent zone has NS records and the child "zone" is only a CNAME then some systems will get very confused. – Alnitak Feb 7 '12 at 16:20
up vote 2 down vote

You can have an @ record set to a CNAME, but all other @ records (including MX) will be ignored and set to the same domain to which it points. However you can point www subdomain to a CNAME, ex.: www CNAME toanotherdomain.com

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