CNAME only zone?

[Barry Margolin]

In article <mailman.507.1323556030.68562.bind-users at lists.isc.org>,
 Mark Andrews <marka at isc.org> wrote:

> In message 
> <CAA3U4eO=EbKB2ECSS4F1=fF22rpK2XcbP7qdUA3autXxaP8y-w at mail.gmail.com>
> , =?UTF-8?B?6aOO5rKz?= writes:
> > 2011/12/10 Lightner, Jeff <JLightner at water.com>:
> > > Is it possible to create a zone file that only contains a CNAME?
> > >
> > 
> > Some nameservers can setup that, though it's breaking the RFC.
> > 
> > quote:
> > Never one to let a RFC stand in the way of a solution to a real
> > problem, we're happy to announce that CloudFlare allows you to set
> > your zone apex to a CNAME. This allows CloudFlare users to host on
> > EC2, Rackspace's Cloud, Google App Engine, or other cloud hosts and
> > use their naked domain (e.g., yourdomain.com) without forcing a hack
> > solution to a subdomain (e.g., www.yourdomain.com).
> > 
> > http://blog.cloudflare.com/zone-apex-naked-domain-root-domain-cname-supp
> 
> While you can change what a authoritative server allows the real
> problem is what recursive servers do when they have a CNAME record
> in the cache you you actually want resolvers to see the other records
> that live beside the CNAME.

If CloudFlare is similar to Akamai's solution, recursive servers never 
see the CNAME record.  Instead, when the auth server receives the query 
for the A record of the apex, it performs its own query for the CNAME, 
and returns the result of this.

-- 
Barry Margolin
Arlington, MA