Understanding subdomains and the general setup

ericxob

I'm having trouble understanding how things string together.

Correct me on these:

An App is what is presented on a web site. It could be a WordPress installation, it could be a directory structure of static html files, etc.

A Domain is an address like "google.com" or mysubdomain.myusername.opalstacked.com" (A external domain I control will not work at Opalstack until I specify the Opalstack Name Servers at my Domain Registrar.)

A Site Route associates one or more Domains with a web server (mine is opal3.opalstack.com). It also causes an App to be presented at the domain address. You call this setup "Site Routes." (The Edit page is titled "Site Details").

So. I'm moving files from Webfaction and want to test sites before changing my DSN info.

I should be able to do this by using a subdomain in the "Domain Info" section of a Site Routes entry. Yes?

But I read that I need a DNS A record for the subdomain. Supposedly, this will happen automagically when I specify a subdomain in a Site Routes entry. Which I have done.

But the subdomain does not work and I do not see any new records in the DNS Records page. (I would be happy to create the A record myself, if I had some guidance.)

Your thoughts will be appreciated!

sean

ericxob An App is what is presented on a web site. It could be a WordPress installation, it could be a directory structure of static html files, etc.

Correct.

ericxob A Domain is an address like "google.com" or mysubdomain.myusername.opalstacked.com"

Correct.

ericxob A external domain I control will not work at Opalstack until I specify the Opalstack Name Servers at my Domain Registrar.

Almost! The requirement is that the domain's A record resolves to your Opalstack web server IP. If you point your NS at us we'll generate the A and MX records and publish them in DNS. If you want to use some other NS you can do that, you just need to create the DNS records manually there.

ericxob A Site Route associates one or more Domains with a web server (mine is opal3.opalstack.com). It also causes an App to be presented at the domain address. You call this setup "Site Routes." (The Edit page is titled "Site Details").

All correct, with the addition that a site route (or simply "a site") can have multiple app routes served from different URI paths.

ericxob But the subdomain does not work and I do not see any new records in the DNS Records page. (I would be happy to create the A record myself, if I had some guidance.)

If you created a subdomain of a domain managed by our NS then we'll publish the A record automatically. The records that we manage automatically do not appear with your manual records in the dashboard.

All things DNS take time, so you'll need to wait at least a few minutes before the new name will resolve to your Opalstack server. If it's been a while and it's still not resolving then try flushing your local DNS cache: https://www.wikihow.com/Flush-DNS

Hope this helps! 🙂

ericxob

Fabulous!

Yes, today my subdomains point to my site, so this should work again when I move more apps/sites/stuff.

OK, the DNS info for a subdomain at opalstacked.com will not appear in my Dashboard.

As for DNS, I was planning to simply enter Opalstack's name servers with the "Use custom name servers" (Google Domains' term) option at Google Domains. In which case the DNS info at Opalstack will be created automatically.