After you add a CNAME record to your domain's DNS settings—say to customize a web address or recover your Google account—you can check the status of your change by looking up which CNAME records are currently in effect for your domain. Find your domain’s CNAME records using a third-party web service or running DNS queries from your computer. You can see if the record is added. If so, you can also verify that you made the change correctly.
Before you begin
Remember that it can take up to 72 hours for DNS changes to go into effect, depending on the record's TTL value when you made the change. What is the TTL?
If you purchased a domain from a Google partner while signing up for your Google Cloud account, you don't need to add a CNAME record to verify domain ownership. We already know that you own the domain.
Look up and check CNAME records
Look up CNAME records with your domain host- Go to your domain host's website. Get help identifying your domain host.
- Sign in to your domain host account.
- Go to the DNS records for your domain. Get help finding your DNS records.
- Verify the results. Depending on their purpose, the values returned should match those on the CNAME record values page, for example:
Domain Type Class TTL Answer mail.solarmora.com. CNAME IN 3600 ghs.googlehosted.com.
The application nslookup comes with most operating systems and can be used to look up name server details from your Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, or Linux command line.
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To start the command line in Windows, click Start > Run. Enter cmd and press Enter.
On Mac or Linux, start the terminal.
- Enter the following command:
nslookup -q=cname mail.example.comReplace example.com with the name of the domain that has the CNAME record you want to look up.
- Interpret the output as in this example, solarmora.com:
nslookup -q=cname mail.solarmora.comThe example returns:
Server: 8.8.8.8Address: 8.8.8.8#53 Non-authoritative answer:mail.solarmora.com canonical name = ghs.googlehosted.com.The relevant part is the last 2 lines. Specifically, the output tells us that mail.solarmora.com is pointing to the canonical name ghs.googlehosted.com.
- (Optional) Examine the first 2 lines of the
nslookupoutput and ensure the IP address shown (in the example, 8.8.8.8) represents your desired name server. You might have configured a different name server depending on your ISP or custom configuration. You can also choose to append 8.8.8.8 to thenslookupcommand to use the Google Public DNS resolution service, for example:
nslookup -q=cname mail.solarmora.com 8.8.8.8
Still need help?
Contact your domain host directly for more assistance. If you're trying to verify domain ownership and need help telling your host exactly what you need, see What should I tell my domain host?
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