baffled by DNS Resolver host aliases

[dawn_dreader]

This is my first post here. 

I spun up the latest OPNsense two weeks ago and got basic functionality working right away.  The intent is to displace firewall duties from my main server, so that I still have Internet access on my LAN when my main server goes through a fresh-install, major version upgrade Real Soon Now. 

All my client workstations are configured with static DHCP reservations.  Once I entered in all my MAC address / IP associations and clicked the right button, I very nearly had a working DNS server for my local domain.  Two birds for the price of one.

But then on a test switch-over my wiki failed instantly, because wiki.localdomain was set up as a CNAME alias to the real server. 

So I put an explicit host record into the DNS Resolver page for bigfatserver.localdomain with a host alias for wiki.localdomain (in adding this item, I wished "@" was allowed as a synonym for the default domain as in many panel-like DNS administration tools, but I digress). 
 
Then I saved and reloaded (reloaded ten times over in my fiddling and frustration) and never once did the host alias resolve as a DNS name. 

I tried nslookup and dig in several modes, both with and without FQDN syntax.

If this doesn't work as I wish it to, what the heck is the host alias field for, anyway?  Or is something simply wrong with this feature in this version?  Or are CNAME style records even supported by the managed unbound service at this time?  The documentation of this feature subset is presently fairly thin, to the degree that I can't conclude with certainty what some of the fields are for.

Otherwise, I've had a very good first-time experience.  And I certainly like what I've read so far about the architectural goals and process.