What is CNAME? How to create a CNAME?

What is CNAME? How to create a CNAME?

What is CNAME?



A Canonical Name record (abbreviated as CNAME record) is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) used to specify that a domain name is an alias for another domain, the "canonical" domain. All information, including subdomains, IP addresses, etc., are defined by the canonical domain.


CNAME stands for Canonical Name. CNAME records can be used to alias one name to another. For example, if your portal hosting is done in Foradian's server, it might normally be accessed through myportal.foradian.org. You may also want to access it through schoolname.myerp.com. One way to make this possible is to add a CNAME record that points schoolname.myerp.com to myportal.foradian.org. When someone visits schoolname.myerp.com they will see the exact same content as myportal.foradian.org.

How can I create a CNAME?
Each hosting service has slightly different ways to create CNAME records. Guidelines are provided here for some of the common services. When in doubt, check with the particular company you're using for additional help or instructions. Contact the support team of the company where you purchased the domain name.

GoDaddy.com

  1. Log in to your account at www.godaddy.com.
  2. Open the Domains tab and select My Domain Names. You'll be directed to the Domain Manager page.
  3. Click the domain that you'd like to associate with your portal installation.
  4. Click Add New CNAME Record in the box labelled CNAMES (aliases).
  5. For the Name, enter only the subdomain of the address you want to use. Eg: demo
  6. Enter ws1.portal.com as the Points to. Specify a TTL or use the default setting of 1 hour.
  7. Click OK, and then click OK again.

ix web hosting

  1. Log in to your account at ix web hosting.
  2. Click Manage below the Hosting Account section.
  3. On the left side, click the domain you'd like to use with your portal installation
  4. Next to DNS Configuration, click EDIT.
  5. Click Add DNS CNAME Record.
  6. Under Name, enter only the subdomain you want to use. Example: demo
  7. Enter ws1.portal.com under Data.
  8. Click Submit.


Other hosting services

  1. Log in to your account on your hosting service's website, and go to the DNS management page.
  2. Since CNAME records are special Domain Name Service (DNS) records, they may be in sections such as DNS Management or Name Server Management. It's possible that you will have to enable advanced settings to create a CNAME record.
  3. Delete existing CNAME entries for the address you want to use with your portal installations
  4. Before entering a new CNAME record to point to portal, you should first delete any existing entries for the same alias.

Example of how a CNAME setting looks like.
cname.png
 

Still problem unsolved?

Send the following email to the support helpdesk of the company from where you purchased the domain name. (You can tell the same also over the phone)

I recently signed up for a service. It allows me to use my online portal application with my domain name. My domain is hosted with you and I need help in creating a CNAME record. To verify that I own my domain name, I want to create a special CNAME record. Since the portal is not a domain host, they aren't able to create the CNAME record.

The information I have is a unique string for the CNAME record and a destination.
The string is demo
The destination is ws1.portal.com

Basically, there should be a CNAME record for demo.[my_domain.com] that points to ws1.portal.com
Remember to replace [my_domain.com] with your actual domain name.
Once the CNAME record is created correctly, I'll be able to use the portal application for my domain.

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