An example can be www.mydomain.com where the ‘www’ would be an alias name for any host computer in the ‘mydomain.com’ domain. For instance, an alias name ‘www.mydomain.com’ would redirect the end-users to C-01.MYDOMAIN.COM computer.
Since it can be very complicated and confusing for the end-users to memorize the actual hostnames which might be very technical in nature, most administrators create the alias names for such hosts which makes them easily reachable by the end-users.
Here is how you can create an alias for a DNS host record in the Windows Server 2012 DNS server:
- Log on to the Windows Server 2012 DNS server using the Enterprise Admin or Domain Admin account credentials.
- If not already started, initialize the Server Manager window from the bottom left corner of the screen.
- Once the Server Manager window is initialized, from the left pane, click to select the
DNS category.
- From the right pane, under the SERVERS section, right-click the DNS server.
- From the context menu that appears, click DNS Manager.
![]()
- On the opened DNS Manager snap-in from the left pane, expand the server name (DC-01.MYDOMAIN.COM for this demonstration), and then expand Forward Lookup Zones.
- From the expanded list, click to select and then right-click the domain name. (MYDOMAIN.COM for this demonstration.).
- From the displayed context menu, click the New Aliens (CNAME) option.
![]()
- On the New Resource Record box, in the Alias name (uses parent domain if left blank) field specify an alias name for the DNS host record. (www.mydomain.com for this demonstration.).
![]()
- In the Fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for target host field, click the Browse button.
- On the opened Browse box, from the displayed list, double-click the server name. (DC-
01.MYDOMAIN.COM for this demonstration.).
- Double-click the Forward Lookup Zones container.
- Double-click the domain name. (MYDOMAIN.COM for this demonstration.).
- From the displayed list, click to select the host for which this alias is being created.
![]()
- Once selected, click OK.
- Back on the New Resource Record box, click OK to create a new alias for the specified host.
![]()
- Back on the DNS Manager snap-in, right-click the server name. (DC-01.MYDOMAIN.COM for this demonstration.).
- From the displayed context menu, go to All Tasks, and click Restart from the submenu that appears.
![]()
- Wait till the DNS service restarts before the DNS server starts working using the modified settings.





