---
title: "DNS Monitor"
description: "The DNS Monitor checks DNS responses for a hostname (e.g. deinkunde.com) on a fixed interval. This helps you detect unexpected record changes (A/AAAA), missing MX records, or TXT changes (SPF/DMARC / domain verification)."
---

## How it works

- We resolve the selected **record types (RRTypes)** (e.g. `A`, `AAAA`, `MX`, `TXT`).
- Optionally, we compare the resolved values against your **Expected Values**.
- Depending on your trigger settings, we can create incidents/alerts for:
  - **Resolve Error** (e.g. `NXDOMAIN`, timeout)
  - **Mismatch** (resolved values differ from Expected Values)

## Configuration

### Basic settings

- **Hostname**: Hostname only, without protocol or path (e.g. `deinkunde.com`, not `https://deinkunde.com/path`).
- **Check interval**: How often to check (e.g. every 30 minutes).
- **Status**:
  - `active`: checks run normally.
  - `maintenance`: checks still run, but alerting may be dampened depending on alert logic.
  - `disabled`: checks do not run.

### DNS checks

- **RRTypes**: Comma-separated list, e.g. `A, AAAA, MX, TXT`.
- **Match mode**:
  - `exact`: values must match exactly.
  - `contains`: expected values must be contained in the response.
- **Expected values**: a list per RRType (one value per line). Empty fields mean “do not validate”.
- **Triggers**:
  - `resolveError`: alert on DNS resolve errors.
  - `mismatch`: alert when Expected Values do not match.

## Monitoring locations

DNS checks run from our monitoring locations. If a monitor does not specify its own restrictions, (if configured) the **customer-level allowed countries** apply.