SquadFusion

DNS Setup for Custom Domains

Article4 min readUpdated Feb 23, 2025View source ↗

Introduction

If you will use a custom domain which you own as the website address, there are a few DNS entries which must be made. You will also need to loosely coordinate with SquadFusion Support (support@squadfusion.com).

In the scope of this article, we will provide the DNS records which need to be created. How you actually create them is outside the scope of this article because there are many different DNS providers, and they do not have the same interface.

If needed, you should be able to use a different provider for DNS than you do for domain registration.

Before you begin

You will need to have access to your domain registrar (where you purchased the domain.

If you are unsure of your registrar, you can use a site like whois.com to get details about your domain, including the registrar.

DNS Entries

You will need 2 phases of DNS entries. 

The DNS entry in the first phase enables Amazon Web Services, where our servers reside, to validate your domain as part of issuing an SSL certificate. (The certificate is needed to assure users everything is properly encrypted.)

The DNS entries in the second phase are the ones which actually direct people to your website content. If you are using a domain which people are not currently accessing, you can make these entries at the same time you make the first DNS entry. But if you have people accessing your domain already, you will want to wait until we confirm with you Amazon has validated it using the first DNS entry. Otherwise your users may receive security warnings or access errors.

First DNS Entry -- domain validation

SquadFusion Support will provide parameters for a CNAME you will enter in your DNS service. The entries for a CNAME are Name (sometimes called "Host' or "Zone" depending on your DNS provider) and Value (sometimes called "Content" depending on your DNS provider.

You will receive something similar to the below to set up yourdomain.com:

  • Record Type: CNAME
  • Name: _3639ac514e785e898d2646601fa951d5.yourdomain.com.
  • Value: _8b825d5f04fd421e90956e8d3c834b3a.ymrbdtpxcr.acm-validations.aws.

Providers are inconsistent in their handling of the record name (or just "name") field. In some cases, you are expected to provide the entire string as shown above. Other providers automatically append the domain name to whatever string you enter, so you should only enter

_3639ac514e785e898d2646601fa951d5

If you have any of the following issues, see the AWS troubleshooting page for DNS validation.

  • Underscores prohibited by DNS provider
  • Default trailing period added by DNS provider
  • DNS validation on GoDaddy fails

Additional DNS

After your domain has been validated (Support will confirm this with you), you need to make some additional DNS entries so visitors can get to your website. The DNS entries you make depend on your DNS provider.

If your provider supports CNAME records (sometimes called Alias records) for your apex domain, the process will be easier. Not all providers do, but it is easy and free to use a provider who does support it. 

We have found Cloudflare to be popular, powerful, and free DNS provider. You can review Cloudflare DNS nameservers for custom domains to get information about switching. 

If you have a different service, it will be similar but possibly with different terminology. As long as they support apex domains for CNAME records, it should work.

The instructions below will use a domain called yourdomain.com. Make sure to replace that with your actual domain if you are copying from this article and pasting to your DNS provider.

  1. If you have an A record for yourdomain.com, delete it.
  2. Add a CNAME
    1. Name: @
    2. Value: squadfusion-app.com
  3. Optional, but recommended: Add a CNAME
    1. Name: www
    2. Value: yourdomain.com
  4. Optional, but recommended if you use Cloudflare:
    1. Go to the SSL/TLS tab and change encryption to Full (strict)
  5. Optional, but recommended: Set up a redirect. On Cloudflare, this is on the Rules tab
    1. If URL matches: www.yourdomain.com/*
    2. Settings:
      1. Forwarding URL
      2. 301 - Permanent Redirect
      3. http://yourdomain.com/$1
    3. Note: some providers have a property of redirect called masking. If so, you want to enable this. That is what the /* and /$1 part of the rules are actually doing.

If your DNS provider does not support apex domain CNAME entries

If you cannot make the entries above, we recommend switching your DNS to a provider which allows you to make them. But if for whatever reason you cannot switch, you can try the following changes:

  • For the "www" CNAME, use a value of squadfusion-app.com.  If you do this, make sure to let SquadFusion Support know, as we will need to make an adjustment in our configuration.
  • For the redirection, switch the URL Match and the setting to which you are forwarding. In other words, you want to forward from the apex domain to www.yourdomain.com. It will look something like
    • Forward from: yourdomain.com
    • Forward to: https://www.yourdomain.com
    • Redirection type: Permanent redirect (301)
    • Path forwarding: Forward path
    • SSL (or perhaps https:): ON

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