Which IP Address Is Returned for the Domain Name If There Are Multiple IP Addresses in a Record Set?

You can configure multiple IP addresses in A and AAAA record sets.

If you have configured multiple IP addresses for an A or AAAA record set, all configured IP addresses will be returned for each query in a random sequence, and the first IP address will be used.

The following describes how a domain name is resolved:

1. An end user enters a domain name in a browser, and the request for the domain name is sent to the local DNS server.
2. The local DNS server forwards the request to the authoritative DNS server.
3. The authoritative DNS server returns all IP addresses to the local DNS server in a random sequence.
4. The local DNS server returns all IP addresses to the browser.
5. The browser uses the first IP address for connection.

Statistically, the probability of returning each IP address is approximately the same.

The following is an example how IP addresses are returned for a domain name. You have a website with a domain name of example.com and deployed on three servers. The IP addresses of the three servers are 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.2, and 192.168.1.3.

An A record set is configured for example.com, with the Value field set to the three IP addresses.

Table 1 describes the IP addresses returned when different end users access the website.