Structure of RWTH DNS
This page describes how the DNS system at RWTH Aachen University is structured and which resource records are used.
Resource Records
Resource records (RR) are the basic building blocks of a DNS system. They contain information that is used to resolve domain names to IP addresses and for other purposes.
RWTH uses the following resource records to assign addressing and routing information:
- A Record: Returns the 32-bit IPv4 address of a computer
- AAAA Record: Returns the 128-bit IPv6 address of a computer
- CAA Record: Specifies which Certificate Authority (CA) is authorized to issue certificates for the domain/zone or host
- CNAME Record: Alias to the canonical name for a computer
- HINFO-Record: General information about the computer, such as processor type or operating system
- MX Record: Specifies one or more mail exchangers (MX) for a domain
- NAPTR Record: RR enabling rule-based rewriting and service discovery with regular expressions (e.g. URLs)
- NS Record: Hostname of the authoritative name server
- SRV Record: Specifies the target hostname and port for a service
- SSHFP Record: Publishes the fingerprint of an SSH host key so that verification can be performed via a second channel
Zones/Subdomains
Zones/subdomains are used to achieve administrative and logical subdivision within a domain (e.g., rwth-aachen.de).
Registered network contact persons can create DNS records for the zone/subdomain entrusted to them via the DNS admin or by emailing an informal request to hostmaster@rwth-aachen.de.
An overview of existing entries and DNS domains can be found in the network overview.
DNS Servers
The following DNS servers are available within the university in the IPv4 and IPv6 address families:
IPv4
- 134.130.4.1 | dns1.rwth-aachen.de
- 134.130.5.1 | dns2.rwth-aachen.de
IPv6
- 2a00:8a60:0:4::1 | dns1.rwth-aachen.de
- 2a00:8a60:0:5::1 | dns2.rwth-aachen.de
Additional information:
- Host list (updated every 2 hours): https://netstatus.rz.rwth-aachen.de/dns/hosts
