Hostnames

The Hostnames page is where you manage the domains and subdomains routed to a zone. Every hostname attached here inherits the zone's configuration -- proxy and origin, caching, security, optimization, and routing. A hostname goes live the moment its DNS CNAME record points to smoxy: from then on, incoming requests for it are handled with the zone's settings.

The Hostnames page, where you attach domains to a zone.

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Adding a Hostname

1. Open your Zone and go to Hostnames
2. Enter the hostname you want to route to this zone (e.g., www.example.com)
3. Add it -- the hostname now appears in the Configured hostnames table
4. At your DNS provider, point the hostname's CNAME record at the CNAME target smoxy shows for it in the table

Once the CNAME resolves to smoxy, traffic for the hostname is served by the zone -- with all of the zone's settings applied automatically.

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Note: A hostname also needs a valid SSL certificate before it can serve HTTPS traffic. smoxy can issue one automatically -- see How SSL Works.

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Automatic DNS Setup

If the hostname belongs to a domain whose DNS is managed by smoxy, you can skip step 4: right after the hostname is added, a Set up DNS automatically? dialog offers to create every required DNS record for you. It first checks the current DNS configuration and shows exactly what will happen:

• Traffic routing -- the hostname's CNAME record pointing at its CNAME target.
• SSL certificate -- when the domain's certificate is auto-managed by smoxy:
  • If the hostname is not yet covered by one of the certificate's SANs, it is added to the certificate as a new SAN, and the _acme-challenge validation CNAME for it is created.
  • Missing validation CNAME records for the certificate's existing SANs are created as well.
  • When a new SAN is added, a certificate renewal is triggered automatically once the DNS records have propagated.

Each entry is marked as will be created, already configured, or conflict, left untouched. Confirm with Set up automatically to apply everything, or choose Set up manually to close the dialog and set the records yourself.

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Existing records are never modified. If a record with the same name already exists but doesn't match, smoxy leaves it untouched and flags it as a conflict -- review it on the domain's DNS page. If the conflict affects the validation record of a newly added SAN, the automatic certificate renewal is skipped until the conflict is resolved.

A few things to know:

• The dialog appears only for domains added to your organization whose DNS is managed by smoxy.
• The SSL step is skipped when the domain has no certificate yet, when its certificate is self-managed (SANs are not managed automatically), or when the hostname is covered by a shared certificate.
• If the domain's nameservers don't point to smoxy yet, the records are created anyway and take effect as soon as the nameserver switch is complete.

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The Configured Hostnames Table

The Configured hostnames table lists every hostname attached to the zone, with the following columns:

Column	What It Shows
Hostname	The domain or subdomain routed to this zone
CNAME target	The value to point the hostname's DNS CNAME record at
DNS status	Whether the hostname's CNAME currently points to smoxy
CDN	Whether the CDN (caching & optimization) is active for this hostname -- Enabled or Disabled

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Per-Hostname Actions

Each hostname has an actions menu:

Action	What It Does
Visit site	Opens the hostname in your browser
Enable CDN / Disable CDN	Toggles whether the CDN is active for this hostname
Move to zone	Moves the hostname to a different zone
Convert to redirect	Turns the hostname into a redirect instead of serving content
Delete hostname	Removes the hostname from the zone

The per-hostname actions menu.

Enable CDN / Disable CDN

This toggle controls whether the CDN -- caching and optimization -- is active for the hostname. Disable it when you want smoxy to pass traffic through without caching or optimizing it.

Enabling the CDN requires a usable certificate: a hostname on a shared domain, or on a domain whose certificate is expired or incomplete, cannot enable the CDN (the API rejects the change with 422). The check only applies when turning the CDN on -- a certificate that expires while the CDN is already enabled does not block other changes.

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Note: Disabling the CDN turns off caching and optimization only. Security and proxy handling can still apply to the hostname even with the CDN disabled.

Move to Zone

Moving a hostname to another zone reattaches it to the destination zone you select. The hostname immediately inherits that zone's settings -- no need to reconfigure anything manually.

This action appears only when your organization has at least one other zone to move the hostname to.

Convert to Redirect

When a hostname should forward traffic to another address instead of serving content, convert it to a redirect. See Redirects for how redirects work.

The Convert hostname to a redirect dialog: redirect target and redirect mode.

Delete Hostname

Removes the hostname from the zone. If the hostname's apex domain has its DNS managed by smoxy, deleting it also removes the hostname's traffic-routing CNAME -- the record created by Automatic DNS Setup -- so no orphaned record is left behind. Only the CNAME whose name and value match the hostname's CNAME target is removed; every other record, including any you created yourself, is left untouched. The certificate's SAN and its _acme-challenge validation record stay in place.

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Best-effort cleanup. Removing the CNAME never blocks the deletion: if the record can't be removed, the hostname is still deleted and smoxy tells you to remove the leftover record yourself on the domain's DNS page. The step is skipped for hostnames whose domain uses external DNS or is a shared domain, and when no matching record exists.

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DNS Status

The DNS status reflects whether the hostname's CNAME record correctly points to smoxy. smoxy runs a per-hostname DNS check, so you can confirm at a glance which hostnames are routed correctly and which still need their CNAME updated.

TIP

If a hostname's DNS status indicates it is not pointing to smoxy, re-check that its CNAME record matches the CNAME target shown in the table. DNS changes can take some time to propagate before the status updates.

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Hostnames, Zones, and SSL

Hostnames are how a zone's configuration reaches live traffic. The connection is the CNAME-points-to-smoxy mechanism: as long as a hostname's CNAME resolves to smoxy, every request for it is served with the zone's settings. Change the zone's configuration and the change applies to all of its hostnames at once.

Two things have to be in place for a hostname to serve traffic over HTTPS:

Requirement	Why It Matters
CNAME to smoxy	Routes incoming requests for the hostname through smoxy so the zone's settings apply
SSL certificate	Lets the hostname serve HTTPS -- smoxy can issue one automatically

For more on how zones group hostnames under one configuration, see What is a Zone?. For certificates, see How SSL Works.