---
layout: docs
page_title: Configure Consul DNS behavior
description: ->
    Learn how to modify the default DNS behavior so that services and nodes can easily discover other services and nodes in your network.
---

# Configure Consul DNS behavior

This topic describes the default behavior of the Consul DNS functionality and how to customize how Consul performs queries.

## Introduction
The Consul DNS is the primary interface for querying records when Consul service mesh is disabled and your network runs in a non-Kubernetes environment. The DNS enables you to look up services and nodes registered with Consul using terminal commands instead of making HTTP API requests to Consul. Refer to the [Discover Consul Nodes and Services Overview](/consul/docs/services/discovery/dns-overview) for additional information.

## Configure DNS behaviors
By default, the Consul DNS listens for queries at `127.0.0.1:8600` and uses the `consul` domain. Specify the following parameters in the agent configuration to determine DNS behavior when querying services:

- [`client_addr`](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#client_addr)
- [`ports.dns`](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#dns_port)
- [`recursors`](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#recursors)
- [`domain`](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#domain)
- [`alt_domain`](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#alt_domain)
- [`dns_config`](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#dns_config)

### Configure WAN address translation
By default, Consul DNS queries return a node's local address, even when being queried from a remote datacenter. You can configure the DNS to reach a node from outside its datacenter by specifying the address in the following configuration fields in the Consul agent:

- [advertise-wan](/consul/docs/agent/config/cli-flags#_advertise-wan)
- [translate_wan_addrs](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#translate_wan_addrs)

### Use a custom DNS resolver library
You can specify a list of addresses in the agent's [`recursors`](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#recursors) field to provide upstream DNS servers that recursively resolve queries that are outside the service domain for Consul.

Nodes that query records outside the `consul.` domain resolve to an upstream DNS. You can specify IP addresses or use `go-sockaddr` templates. Consul resolves IP addresses in the specified order and ignores duplicates.

### Enable non-Consul queries
You enable non-Consul queries to be resolved by setting Consul as the DNS server for a node and providing a [`recursors`](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#recursors) configuration.

### Forward queries to an agent
You can forward all queries sent to the `consul.` domain from the existing DNS server to a Consul agent. Refer to [Forward DNS for Consul Service Discovery](/consul/tutorials/networking/dns-forwarding) for instructions.

### Query an alternate domain
By default, Consul responds to DNS queries in the `consul` domain, but you can set a specific domain for responding to DNS queries by configuring the [`domain`](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#domain) parameter.

You can also specify an additional domain in the [`alt_domain`](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#alt_domain) agent configuration option, which configures Consul to respond to queries in a secondary domain. Configuring an alternate domain may be useful during a DNS migration or to distinguish between internal and external queries, for example.

Consul's DNS response uses the same domain as the query.

In the following example, the `alt_domain` parameter in the agent configuration is set to `test-domain`, which enables operators to query the domain:

```shell-session
$ dig @127.0.0.1 -p 8600 consul.service.test-domain SRV

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;consul.service.test-domain.  IN  SRV

;; ANSWER SECTION:
consul.service.test-domain. 0 IN  SRV 1 1 8300 machine.node.dc1.test-domain.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
machine.node.dc1.test-domain. 0 IN  A 127.0.0.1
machine.node.dc1.test-domain. 0 IN  TXT "consul-network-segment="
```
#### PTR queries
Responses to pointer record (PTR) queries, such as `<ip>.in-addr.arpa.`, always use the [primary domain](/consul/docs/agent/config/config-files#domain) and not the alternative domain.

### Caching
By default, DNS results served by Consul are not cached. Refer to the [DNS Caching tutorial](/consul/tutorials/networking/dns-caching) for instructions on how to enable caching.