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Integrations Glossary

Table of Contents

A reference for the terms used in DNSimple’s integrations articles. For DNS terms such as zones and name servers, see the DNS Glossary. For API access tokens and account IDs, see the API Glossary. For zone transfers, see the Secondary DNS Glossary.

Integrated DNS Providers

Integrated DNS Provider

Another DNS provider whose zones you manage from your DNSimple account. DNSimple supports Amazon Route 53, Azure DNS, and CoreDNS, on all plans. Cloudflare and Gandi are listed on the page but are not available yet.

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Connected provider

An Integrated DNS Provider account that you have connected to DNSimple with its credentials. Connected providers are listed under on the page. You can connect more than one Route 53 or Azure DNS account; an account has one CoreDNS connection.

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Nickname

The name you give a connected provider, such as AWS production. DNSimple uses it to tell connections apart, for example in the sync dialog, which lists Route53 - AWS production. The CoreDNS nickname is always CoreDNS.

Integrated zone

A zone at an Integrated DNS Provider that DNSimple manages alongside its own copy of the zone. Integrated zones appear on the page with a label for each provider that has them.

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DNS Zone Providers card

The card on a domain’s tab that lists the providers serving the zone and lets you add the zone to another provider, remove it, or delete it there.

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Import

Loading the current zones and records from Route 53 or Azure DNS into DNSimple’s view of the provider. Importing records does not change the DNSimple zone. The page also refreshes integrated zones each time it loads.

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Sync

Making a zone’s records at one provider, the destination, match the records at another, the source. A sync creates, updates, and deletes records at the destination. Records of a type the source does not support stay as they are. You start a sync from the warning in the Record Editor.

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Out of sync

The state of a zone whose records differ between DNSimple and an Integrated DNS Provider. The Record Editor shows a warning with a button.

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Remove

Stopping DNSimple from managing a zone at a provider. The zone and its records stay at both DNSimple and the provider. Remove is available for Route 53 and Azure DNS.

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Delete

Deleting a zone and all its records at the provider. The zone and its records stay at DNSimple. For CoreDNS, deleting removes the zone’s CoreDNS configuration.

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Cluster identifier

The name you give a CoreDNS server or group of servers when you add a zone to CoreDNS. The same value goes in the identifier setting of the Corefile. DNSimple uses it to show which records the cluster has loaded.

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Refresh interval

How often CoreDNS reloads a zone from DNSimple, set with refresh in the Corefile. The default is 1 minute. Record changes in DNSimple reach CoreDNS on the next refresh.

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Provider credentials

AWS access key

The access key ID and secret access key of an AWS IAM user that DNSimple uses to manage Route 53. The user needs six Route 53 permissions.

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Azure app registration

The application in Microsoft Entra ID that DNSimple uses to manage Azure DNS. Connecting Azure DNS needs its client ID and a client secret, plus your subscription ID, tenant ID, and the resource group that holds your zones.

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Connectors and hosting platforms

Connector

An authorized link between one domain and one Heroku app or Netlify site. A connector creates the DNS records the platform needs and monitors the connection. DNSimple offers the Heroku Connector and the Netlify Connector.

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Connection

One connector link between a domain and an app or site. Connections are listed on the domain’s tab.

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One-click service

A ready-made set of DNS records for a known provider, applied to a zone in one step. Removing a service also removes the records it created.

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DNS target

The host name a hosting platform gives you to point your domain at. Heroku assigns each host name its own DNS target, such as whispering-willow-5678.herokudns.com.

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ALIAS record

A DNSimple record type that points the domain apex at a host name, such as a DNS target, and answers with that host name’s current addresses. ALIAS records exist only at DNSimple, so Route 53 and Azure DNS do not receive them in a sync.

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Infrastructure as code

Terraform provider

The dnsimple/dnsimple provider for Terraform, which manages DNS records, domains, email forwards, and certificates as code.

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Prefetch

A Terraform provider setting that lists each zone’s records once and reads them from that list, instead of fetching every record with its own request. It helps large configurations stay under the API rate limit.

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Consul-Terraform-Sync module

The dnsimple/cts/dnsimple module, which creates DNSimple records from the services in a Consul catalog. Each service describes its records with dnsimple_ metadata keys, such as dnsimple_record_name.

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Have more questions?

If you have any questions about DNSimple integrations, contact support, and we will be happy to help. You can also read more about DNSimple integrations.