External DNS - Resolving to root domain

This guide provides an overview of how to set up a custom domain on a Production Instance using an external DNS web service, as well as create and provision an AWS SSL certificate for your Instance.

Requirements

To be able to set up a production domain on the Partner Portal, you have to have access to the Partner Portal, have a production Instance, and you should be familiar with the recommended development workflow.

• Register on the Partner Portal
• Create an Instance
• Development Workflow

There are a couple things to consider before you add a custom domain to your platformOS production Instance:

1. A domain can only be added on a production data center. This means that you cannot set up an additional domain on a staging data center Instance.
2. PlatformOS Instances require the ability to apply a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) to a DNS record. If your DNS management service does not allow for that, you will need to change providers or opt to use the free fully integrated hosted zone that is provided to you as a benefit of hosting with platformOS. When setting up your custom domain, this is the first decision you must make.
3. We automatically provision and deploy AWS SSL certificates when you add a domain to a platformOS Instance. To apply custom SSL certificates, please contact support@platformOS.com and we will assist further.

Let's begin.

External DNS and resolving to the root domain and using EXTERNAL DNS service (example: https://example.com)

1. In our example, we are assuming that your domain has already been set up before with your DNS provider and all records are in place from previous usage.
2. Go to the Instance detail page in the platformOS Partner Portal: https://partners.platformos.com
3. Click Domains.
4. Click Add new domain to your Instance.
5. Click External DNS management.
6. Add your root domain name (do not add www), will this be your default domain, click Create External DNS management
7. Refresh your page a few times until the status on the Domains page changes to ownership_verification_pending. Once it does, click view.
8. We need to validate ownership of the domain so, in your DNS provider, please add the required CNAME record.
9. Once you have added the CNAME, you can click Ok. Done. I added requested records.
10. Refresh the page a few times (this may take longer) to allow for our system to verify the CNAME. Once it's done, you'll be provided with a couple options for FQDN's depending if your DNS provider is AWS or another provider. You'll also be asked to add the www CNAME record if you have not done so already for your domain. The reason for this is we automatically set up the www subdomain and redirect the root domain to it.

When you are ready to "Go Live", please continue.

11. Add the provided FQDN to DNSMadeEasy as an ANAME record.
12. Currently this process will create a www subdomain and a redirect from the root domain to the subdomain. We need to remove that. From the instance detail page, click on Domains.
13. We will improve this shortly, but for now, in the URL that appears, remove the /pp_dns. Example, https://partners.platformos.com/instances/5253/pp_dns/domains we would change to https://partners.platformos.com/instances/5253/domains - From this page, we will remove the redirect from root to www, and add a redirect from www to root. Click Edit on the root domain.
14. Make sure that Use as default is checked and that redirect is unchecked. Then click Update Domain.
15. Next, click on edit for the www subdomain.
16. Finally, make sure Use as default is unchecked and check redirect. Add the direct URL to the root domain and then choose your redirect code. Once completed, click Update Domain.

Congratulations! An SSL certificate has been created and applied to your instance and your domain is now LIVE!