Manage Domains

What to do When it’s Time to Launch

Making your website project live is normally completed by pointing a custom domain name (e.g., domain.com) at your Cloud. You can assign one or more custom domains to any Cloud instance in MODX Cloud. There are three primary steps to complete:

1. Enable Custom Domains
2. Assign a Custom Domain
3. Point Your Domain
4. Remove a Domain

Enable Custom Domains

Custom domains are enabled and applied to an individual Cloud. To use a domain on a different Cloud, you will repeat this same process to enable custom domains for the other Cloud.

1. In the list of Clouds on your Clouds page, find the Cloud you wish to add the domain name to and click on the name of the Cloud to go to the Cloud Edit page
   
   
2. Click the Domains tab then click on the toggle to the right of the screen.
   
   
3. Complete the purchase for enabling the custom domains. You now have Custom Domains enabled for this Cloud and you can now Assign a Custom Domain to it.
    

Assign a Custom Domain to a Cloud

Once you have enabled custom domains, you need to assign it to your Cloud.

1. To add the custom domain to your Cloud, go to the Cloud Edit Page, and select the Domains tab.
   
   
2. Click Add Domain and a dialogue will open for entering the details.
    
3. Enter the domain name in the Name field.
   
   

Once you've assigned the custom domain, follow the steps in the section on Pointing Your Domain at your Cloud.

Pointing Your Domain at Your Cloud

Pointing your custom domain name to your Cloud requires you to create an "A" Record for your domain at your domain management or registrar website. This is not done in the MODX Cloud dashboard unless you wish to use MODX Cloud as your DNS provider.

1. Before heading to your DNS manager or registrar website, go to the Cloud Edit Page on the Summary tab and locate the IP address that is listed on the right side of the General Information tab.
   
   
2. Copy this IP address or write it down.
   
   
3. Go to your DNS Manager or registrar site and set the A record for @ for the domain to the IP you copied. Once the DNS change has propagated to DNS servers, your Cloud will be available at your custom domain.
   
   

Adding A Subdomain

Creating a subdomain is simple and you can add as many to a domain pointed at your Cloud as you'd like.

1. Go to the Cloud Edit Page and click on the Domains tab.
2. From the list of domains, click on the domain you wish to add the subdomain to. 
   
   
3. If you clicked on a custom domain. You will see a list of entries under the Subdomains heading that includes the primary domain and an entry for the www subdomain in the Host column.
4. Click on the Create Subdomain button which will open a dialog box.
   
   
5. Enter the subdomain you'd like (e.g. "manage") and enter a time to live (TTL) for the subdomain or leave it at the recommended setting.
   
   

You now have a subdomain configured in Cloud. You may need to use a third party tool (e.g. ContextRouter) or an nginx web rule to route traffic to a context in your MODX install, or to a sub-directory of your web root.

Remove a Domain

If you need to move a Cloud to another instance or shut down a site, removing domains from your Cloud will allow you to save a few dollars every month.

1. Go to the Cloud Edit Page and click on the Domains tab.
   
   
   
   
2. From the list of domains, right-click on the domain from which you wish to remove the domain.
3. Choose the Unassign domain option to complete the process.
   
   

If you no longer wish to be charged the cost for a production cloud each month, remove all domains and then disable the Custom Domains option at the top of the Domains tab.