Azure DNS overview

The Domain Name System (DNS) translates (resolves) a service name to an IP address. Azure DNS provides DNS hosting, resolution, and load balancing for your applications by using the Microsoft Azure infrastructure.

Azure DNS supports both internet-facing DNS domains and private DNS zones. It provides the following services:

• Azure Public DNS is a hosting service for DNS domains. By hosting your domains in Azure, you can manage your DNS records by using the same credentials, APIs, tools, and billing as your other Azure services.

• Azure Private DNS is a DNS service for your virtual networks. Azure Private DNS manages and resolves domain names in the virtual network without the need to configure a custom DNS solution.

• Azure DNS Private Resolver is a service that enables you to query Azure DNS private zones from an on-premises environment and vice versa without deploying VM based DNS servers.

• Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer. This service allows you to distribute traffic to your public facing applications across the global Azure regions.

• DNS Resolver Policy offers the ability to filter and log DNS queries at the virtual network level. It also includes a Threat Intelligence feed which allows early detection and prevention of security incidents on your Virtual Networks where known malicious domains sourced by Microsoft's Security Response Center (MSRC) can be blocked from name resolution.

Azure DNS enables multiple scenarios, including:

• Host and resolve public domains
• Manage DNS resolution in your virtual networks
• Enable autoregistration for VMs
• Enable name resolution between Azure and your on-premises resources
• Secure hybrid networking
• Monitor DNS metrics and alerts
• Integrate with your other Azure services
• Perform Private Link and DNS integration at scale
• Protect your public and private DNS zones and records
• Enable automatic fault tolerance and failover for DNS resolution
• Load-balance your applications
• Link DNS records directly to Traffic Manager profiles
• Increase application availability and performance
• Monitor your application traffic patterns
• Secure and view DNS traffic

Note

Azure DNS is one of the services that make up the Network Foundations category in Azure. Other services in this category include Azure Virtual Networks and Azure Private Link. Each service has its own unique features and use cases. For more information on this service category, see Network Foundations.