Site Factory subscribers must use the Site Factory domains functionality to add more domains to their subscriptions. Domains added using the Cloud Platform user interface won’t work, and may be deleted by automated processes.
After you create or import your application into Cloud Platform, you can access each of your application’s environments using its default domain name. An environment’s default domain name is based on its application name (or sitename) and realm (for example, the domain name for a Production environment could be examplesite.devcloud.acquia-sites.com). You should then configure a DNS domain name for the Production environment, such as www.example.com, and configure DNS records using the information located at the top of your Domains page.
Limitations on default domain names
The default acquia-sites.com domain name provided with your subscription has the following limitations:
Don’t route production traffic to your acquia-sites.com domain unless it is explicitly listed under the DNS section of your Domains page.
After creation, your acquia-sites.com domain can’t be changed or removed.
You can’t add more custom acquia-sites.com domains to an environment.
SSL certificates must not pin to the SSL certificate provided by Acquia for
Viewing your IP address or CNAME
To view the domain information for an environment, go to the Applications > [Environment] > Domains page, and then scroll to the DNS information card.
The DNS information card displays the CNAMEs and IPv4 addresses (A records). You must configure DNS settings for your domains.
After an environment is created, Cloud Platform provisions the environment with a custom Cloud Platform subdomain with a name ending in acquia-sites.com. For limits on these default domain names, see Limitations on default domain names.
After you add a custom domain name to an environment, the Cloud Platform can route incoming requests for that domain name to the environment selected. You must then configure your DNS settings with your DNS provider to ensure all requests for that domain are routed to Cloud Platform.
IPv6 Support
The Cloud Platform supports IPv6 in certain infrastructure configurations. DNS endpoints listed on the Domains page with ‘dualstack’ at the beginning are IPv6 compatible. Please contact Acquia Support if your organization requires IPv6 support and your environment does not currently support it.
Adding a domain name
Important
The first bare domain name you add to Cloud Platform, with or without the www prefix, is known as the active domain, and will be used in Acquia’s automated monitoring systems.
To add a domain to one of your application’s environments:
On the Domains page for the environment into which you want to add a domain, click Add Domain in the upper right.
The Add a domain dialog box appears.
In the Domain to add field, enter the domain name without the protocol header. For example, use mysite.com instead of http://mysite.com.
Note
You can use the wildcard character ( * ) to make your environment available for several subdomains (for example, *.example.com).
Wildcard characters only match a single word but cannot match multiple words separated by a dot (for example, *.example.com can match a.example.com, but does not match a.b.example.com or www.a.example.com). You can also only use a single asterisk.
Click Add domain.
If you want to make your application available to multiple related domain names (such as example.com and www.example.com), individually add each domain name. Otherwise, you can use the wildcard character ( * ) in a single domain entry to allow for subdomains.
Note
You can’t use the same domain name for two different environments or codebases at the same time, unless one environment is part of an Cloud Platform Professional subscription and the other is part of an Cloud Platform Enterprise subscription.
Subscribers with many domains may have several pages of domain names displayed on their Domains page. You can either use the pager to browse for a domain, or use the Filter field to search.
Adding domains with non-Latin characters
By default, the domain name you use must be composed of Latin-based characters. If you have a domain that uses non-Latin characters, you can use Punycode to convert these characters into values recognized by standard DNS.
After converting your characters with Punycode and using them with your domain name in place of the non-Latin characters, you should be able to configure your DNS entries normally.
Checking domain status
You can determine whether your domain name is properly resolving to your Cloud Platform website by clicking click the Status link for the domain on the Applications > [Environment] > Domains page. Acquia performs a DNS lookup for your domain name and displays one of the following status messages:
DNS resolves to Acquia: Your DNS settings and Cloud Platform are properly configured.
DNS doesn’t resolve directly to Acquia: Your DNS provider is pointing your domain name to an IP address or CNAME different from the one assigned to that application’s environment. The Domain Status report displays the DNS data and any aliases found for the domain name. This status is normal if you use a CDN with your website. Otherwise, your domain name and DNS settings may be misconfigured.
DNS does not resolve: You haven’t set up the domain name with any DNS provider.
If your domain name doesn’t resolve to your Acquia application, or if it doesn’t resolve at all, ensure you have followed the instructions in Configuring DNS records for your application.
Cloud Platform can’t determine the status of wildcard (*) domains; it disables the Status link for these domains.
Find the domain you want to delete, and click Remove for that domain.
To confirm your selection, click Remove.
Note
The acquia-sites.com default domain name can’t be removed–it is necessary to enable Acquia Support and Operations to reach your application (even if DNS is not working). For more information, see Limitations on default domain names.
Managing your application’s Varnish cache
Note
This section doesn’t apply to Node.js environments, as they don’t have a Varnish® cache.
Each domain name associated with your account has its own Varnish cache to speed page access.
If your application supports Varnish caching, clearing these caches ensures that anonymous website visitors get the most up-to-date version of your application after you make any changes.
To clear the Varnish cache for a domain name, click the Clear Caches link for the domain. For more information, see Using Varnish.
Crawling is blocked for acquia-sites.com domains
Applications that use the default domain name ending in acquia-sites.com are not intended to be publicly available. Therefore, Cloud Classic uses a robots.txt file to disallow crawling of those domains by search engine robots. Robots that reach your application using your DNS domain name, such as www.example.com, operate normally. These robots can crawl your application for searches. Note that the robots.txt file does not necessarily prevent content indexing or content inclusion in the search results of acquia-sites.com domains. For more information, see Limitations on default domain names and robots.txt.
Site Factory subscribers must use the Site Factory domains functionality to add more domains to their subscriptions. Domains added using the Cloud Platform user interface won’t work, and may be deleted by automated processes.
After you create or import your application into Cloud Platform, you can access each of your application’s environments using its default domain name. An environment’s default domain name is based on its application name (or sitename) and realm (for example, the domain name for a Production environment could be examplesite.devcloud.acquia-sites.com). You should then configure a DNS domain name for the Production environment, such as www.example.com, and configure DNS records using the information located at the top of your Domains page.
Limitations on default domain names
The default acquia-sites.com domain name provided with your subscription has the following limitations:
Don’t route production traffic to your acquia-sites.com domain unless it is explicitly listed under the DNS section of your Domains page.
After creation, your acquia-sites.com domain can’t be changed or removed.
You can’t add more custom acquia-sites.com domains to an environment.
SSL certificates must not pin to the SSL certificate provided by Acquia for
Viewing your IP address or CNAME
To view the domain information for an environment, go to the Applications > [Environment] > Domains page, and then scroll to the DNS information card.
The DNS information card displays the CNAMEs and IPv4 addresses (A records). You must configure DNS settings for your domains.
After an environment is created, Cloud Platform provisions the environment with a custom Cloud Platform subdomain with a name ending in acquia-sites.com. For limits on these default domain names, see Limitations on default domain names.
After you add a custom domain name to an environment, the Cloud Platform can route incoming requests for that domain name to the environment selected. You must then configure your DNS settings with your DNS provider to ensure all requests for that domain are routed to Cloud Platform.
IPv6 Support
The Cloud Platform supports IPv6 in certain infrastructure configurations. DNS endpoints listed on the Domains page with ‘dualstack’ at the beginning are IPv6 compatible. Please contact Acquia Support if your organization requires IPv6 support and your environment does not currently support it.
Adding a domain name
Important
The first bare domain name you add to Cloud Platform, with or without the www prefix, is known as the active domain, and will be used in Acquia’s automated monitoring systems.
To add a domain to one of your application’s environments:
On the Domains page for the environment into which you want to add a domain, click Add Domain in the upper right.
The Add a domain dialog box appears.
In the Domain to add field, enter the domain name without the protocol header. For example, use mysite.com instead of http://mysite.com.
Note
You can use the wildcard character ( * ) to make your environment available for several subdomains (for example, *.example.com).
Wildcard characters only match a single word but cannot match multiple words separated by a dot (for example, *.example.com can match a.example.com, but does not match a.b.example.com or www.a.example.com). You can also only use a single asterisk.
Click Add domain.
If you want to make your application available to multiple related domain names (such as example.com and www.example.com), individually add each domain name. Otherwise, you can use the wildcard character ( * ) in a single domain entry to allow for subdomains.
Note
You can’t use the same domain name for two different environments or codebases at the same time, unless one environment is part of an Cloud Platform Professional subscription and the other is part of an Cloud Platform Enterprise subscription.
Subscribers with many domains may have several pages of domain names displayed on their Domains page. You can either use the pager to browse for a domain, or use the Filter field to search.
Adding domains with non-Latin characters
By default, the domain name you use must be composed of Latin-based characters. If you have a domain that uses non-Latin characters, you can use Punycode to convert these characters into values recognized by standard DNS.
After converting your characters with Punycode and using them with your domain name in place of the non-Latin characters, you should be able to configure your DNS entries normally.
Checking domain status
You can determine whether your domain name is properly resolving to your Cloud Platform website by clicking click the Status link for the domain on the Applications > [Environment] > Domains page. Acquia performs a DNS lookup for your domain name and displays one of the following status messages:
DNS resolves to Acquia: Your DNS settings and Cloud Platform are properly configured.
DNS doesn’t resolve directly to Acquia: Your DNS provider is pointing your domain name to an IP address or CNAME different from the one assigned to that application’s environment. The Domain Status report displays the DNS data and any aliases found for the domain name. This status is normal if you use a CDN with your website. Otherwise, your domain name and DNS settings may be misconfigured.
DNS does not resolve: You haven’t set up the domain name with any DNS provider.
If your domain name doesn’t resolve to your Acquia application, or if it doesn’t resolve at all, ensure you have followed the instructions in Configuring DNS records for your application.
Cloud Platform can’t determine the status of wildcard (*) domains; it disables the Status link for these domains.
Find the domain you want to delete, and click Remove for that domain.
To confirm your selection, click Remove.
Note
The acquia-sites.com default domain name can’t be removed–it is necessary to enable Acquia Support and Operations to reach your application (even if DNS is not working). For more information, see Limitations on default domain names.
Managing your application’s Varnish cache
Note
This section doesn’t apply to Node.js environments, as they don’t have a Varnish® cache.
Each domain name associated with your account has its own Varnish cache to speed page access.
If your application supports Varnish caching, clearing these caches ensures that anonymous website visitors get the most up-to-date version of your application after you make any changes.
To clear the Varnish cache for a domain name, click the Clear Caches link for the domain. For more information, see Using Varnish.
Crawling is blocked for acquia-sites.com domains
Applications that use the default domain name ending in acquia-sites.com are not intended to be publicly available. Therefore, Cloud Classic uses a robots.txt file to disallow crawling of those domains by search engine robots. Robots that reach your application using your DNS domain name, such as www.example.com, operate normally. These robots can crawl your application for searches. Note that the robots.txt file does not necessarily prevent content indexing or content inclusion in the search results of acquia-sites.com domains. For more information, see Limitations on default domain names and robots.txt.
Unless your acquia-sites.com domain is listed under DNS on the Domains page, or you are an Site Factory subscriber, pointing your CNAME to an acquia-sites.com domain can make your application load inefficiently, and can cause unpredictable results or even downtime during platform maintenance activities.
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If this content did not answer your questions, try searching or contacting our support team for further assistance.
*.acquia-sites.com
domains.
Unless your acquia-sites.com domain is listed under DNS on the Domains page, or you are an Site Factory subscriber, pointing your CNAME to an acquia-sites.com domain can make your application load inefficiently, and can cause unpredictable results or even downtime during platform maintenance activities.
Did not find what you were looking for?
If this content did not answer your questions, try searching or contacting our support team for further assistance.
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