Migrating Custom Domains to CloudFront
To increase security, reliability, and speed of tracking, the Voluum team decided to upgrade its domain handling solution from the old one to CloudFront. This requires users that are using custom domains pointing to Voluum dedicated domains to migrate their setup. The following document describes all steps necessary to make the switch.
Who is affected?
Affected are all customers that have set up custom domain using the old way. The old setup required to create only one CNAME record in a domain provider.
You will notice the list of domains that need to be migrated to the new setup when you got to Voluum Settings / Domains.
What action is needed?
All custom domains will need to be migrated to the new setup eventually. Unfortunately, this cannot be done by Voluum but our Customer Support team and Account Managers will help you along the way. The migration will have to be performed by the user themselves for each custom domain individually.
To reiterate: migration is mandatory.
Will I lose any traffic during the migration process?
No, we have designed the migration process in such a way that you won't lose any traffic. Just follow instructions from this document and your campaign will be safe. Remember about those two things before the migration:
- Do not remove your custom domain from Voluum.
- Do not remove the old CNAME record. You will edit it to a CloudFront domain at the right time when you are prompted to do so.
Following these two rules will ensure continuous operation.
What will happen if the migration is skipped?
Currently, we support both ways of handling Voluum domains. At some point in time that will be communicated to all users that didn't make the switch, Voluum will stop supporting the old setup. After that, we won't be able to guarantee smooth operations of tracking domains. Once this transition period is over, what will also be communicated to users that still didn't make the switch, non-migrated custom domains will stop working with Voluum.
How the migration process looks like in short?
The migration process is very similar to adding a new custom domain using CloudFront setup. You will need to create two CNAME records in your domain provider:
- Certificate CNAME record
- Domain CNAME record
The difference is that steps need to be made in a specific order. The quick version of the process looks like this:
- Copy the certificate record name and value from Voluum.
- Add a certificate CNAME record by providing the certificate name and value in your domain provider and wait until Voluum checks the certificate setup. It may take up to 1 hour.
- Copy the CloudFront domain name and value from Voluum.
- Edit the old CNAME record that pointed out to Voluum dedicated domain and replace the value of this record with the CloudFront domain name and value.
Adding a CNAME record differs between domain providers. We have prepared instructions on how to add both CNAME record for the most popular ones:
The benefits of CloudFront setup
CloudFront is a CDN-type of service run by Amazon. It offers unparalleled speed and security to all systems that use it. Migrating domain handling from a proprietary solution to CloudFront-based setup brings these benefits to all Voluum users:
- Speed. CloudFront uses Edge Network with 550 nodes scattered around the globe. All redirections and requests to Voluum domains will be lightning-fast.
- Security. CloudFront brings advanced DDoS protection on an unmatched scale.
- Anonymity. Connection with Voluum is hidden behind CloudFront network.
- Reliability. CloudFront offers numerous fallback mechanisms that ensure uninterrupted tracking operations no matter what.
I. Creating a certificate CNAME record
- In Voluum, go to Settings / Domains.
- Click the
button next to the domain you want to migrate.
- Copy the two values for the first CNAME record to any text editing tool:
- Certificate record name.
- Certificate record value.
- Go to your domain provider.
- Log in, select your domain and search for DNS settings.
- Create a new CNAME record (without removing the existing record pointing to the Voluum dedicated domain!) and provide the certificate record name and certificate record value in the appropriate fields.
Wait until Voluum verifies the certificate. It may take up to 1 hour. Until then, Voluum will show the certificate status as 'Pending'.
The certificate status can have the following statuses:
- Pending - certificate is awaiting verification.
- Expired - certificate is expired.
- Failed - certificate verification failed.
- Timeout - certificate verification timed out.
- Issued - certificate is correctly set.
You will get an email and in-panel notification once the certificate gets status 'Issued'. Go to the next step.
II. Editing a domain CNAME record
- In Voluum, go to Settings / Domains.
- Click the button next to the domain you want to migrate. Make sure that the certificate status is 'Issued'.
- Copy the CloudFront domain record value of the second CNAME record to any text editing tool.
- Go to your domain provider.
- Log in, select your domain and search for DNS settings.
- Edit the CNAME record that previously was pointing to the Voluum dedicated domain and replace the name and value with the CloudFront domain record name and CloudFront record value that you have copied from Voluum.
Once you do so, check the domain status in Voluum. At first, the domain status will be 'Pending'.
Voluum will check if the record was set correctly. If the migration was succesful, the domain status will change to 'Connected'.
There are three possible domain statuses:
- Connected - both CNAME record are ok, the domain has been migrated
- Pending - Voluum didn't verify the second CNAME record yet
- Timeout – Voluum couldn’t verify domain status in 3 days
Final remarks
Repeat the steps above for all custom domains that you have in Voluum.
If you have problem with the migration process, contact us by email: support@voluum.com
