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Delegate a subdomain delegate-subdomain

Last update: Thu Aug 22 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

CREATED FOR:

  • Experienced
  • Admin

Domain name delegation is a method that allows the owner of a domain name (technically: a DNS zone) to delegate a subdivision of it (technically: a DNS zone under it, which can be called a sub-zone) to another entity. Basically, as a customer, if you are handling the “example.com” zone, you can delegate the sub-zone “marketing.example.com” to ۶Ƶ. Learn more on subdomain delegation

NOTE
By default, Journey Optimizer allows you to delegate up to 10 subdomains. However, depending on your license contract, you may be able to delegate up to 100 subdomains. Reach out to your ۶Ƶ contact to learn more about the number of subdomains you are entitled to.

You can fully delegate a subdomain, or create a subdomain using CNAMEs to point to ۶Ƶ-specific records.

CAUTION
The full subdomain delegation is the recommended method. Learn more on the differences between both subdomain configuration methods.
Subdomain configuration is common to all environments. Therefore any modification to a subdomain will also impact the production sandboxes.

Full subdomain delegation full-subdomain-delegation

Journey Optimizer allows you to fully delegate your subdomains to ۶Ƶ directly from the product interface. By doing so, ۶Ƶ will be able to deliver messages as a managed service by controlling and maintaining all aspects of DNS that are required for delivering, rendering and tracking of email campaigns.

You can rely on ۶Ƶ to maintain the DNS infrastructure required to meet industry-standard deliverability requirements for your email marketing sending domains, while continuing to maintain and control DNS for your internal email domains.

To fully delegate a new subdomain to ۶Ƶ, follow the steps below:

  1. Access the Administration > Channels > Email settings > Subdomains menu, then click Set up subdomain.

  2. Select Fully delegated from the Set up method section.

  3. Specify the name of the subdomain to delegate.

    note caution
    CAUTION
    Delegating an invalid subdomain to ۶Ƶ is not allowed. Make sure you enter a valid subdomain which is owned by your organization, such as marketing.yourcompany.com.

  4. The list of records to be placed in your DNS servers displays. Copy these records, either one by one, or by downloading a CSV file, then navigate to your domain hosting solution to generate the matching DNS records.

  5. Make sure that all the DNS records have been generated into your domain hosting solution. If everything is configured properly, check the box “I confirm…”.

  6. Set up DMARC record. If the subdomain has an existing DMARC record, and if it is fetched by Journey Optimizer, you can use the same values or change them as needed. If you do not add any values, the default values will be used. Learn more

  7. Click Submit.

    note note
    NOTE
    You can create the records and submit the subdomain configuration later on using the Save as draft button. You will then be able to resume the subdomain delegation by opening it from the subdomains list.

  8. The subdomain displays in the list with the Processing status. For more on subdomains’ statuses, refer to this section.

    Before being able to use that subdomain to send messages, you must wait until ۶Ƶ performs the required checks, which can take up to 3 hours. Learn more in this section.

    note note
    NOTE
    Any missing records, meaning the records not yet created on your hosting solution, will be listed out.

  9. Once the checks are successful, the subdomain gets the Success status. It is ready to be used to deliver messages.

    note note
    NOTE
    The subdomain will be marked as Failed if you fail to create the validation record on your hosting solution.

Once a subdomain is delegated to ۶Ƶ in Journey Optimizer, a PTR record is automatically created and associated with this subdomain. Learn more

CAUTION
Parallel execution of subdomains is currently not supported in Journey Optimizer. If you try to submit a subdomain for delegation when another one has the Processing status, you will get an error message.

CNAME subdomain set up cname-subdomain-delegation

If you have domain-specific restriction policies and you want ۶Ƶ to have only partial control over DNS, you can choose to carry out all DNS-related activities on your side.

CNAME subdomain set up enables you to create a subdomain and use CNAMEs to point to ۶Ƶ-specific records. Using this configuration, both you and ۶Ƶ share responsibility for maintaining DNS in order to setup environment for sending, rendering and tracking emails.

CAUTION
The CNAME method is recommended if your organization’s policies restrict the full subdomain delegation method. This approach requires you to maintain and manage DNS records on your own. ۶Ƶ will not be able to assist in changing, maintaining or managing DNS for a subdomain configured through the CNAME method.

➡️ Learn how to create a subdomain using CNAME to point to ۶Ƶ-specific records in this video

To set up a subdomain using CNAMEs, follow the steps below:

  1. Access the Administration > Channels > Email settings > Subdomains menu, then click Set up subdomain.

  2. Select the CNAME set up method.

  3. Specify the name of the subdomain to delegate.

    note caution
    CAUTION
    Delegating an invalid subdomain to ۶Ƶ is not allowed. Make sure you enter a valid subdomain which is owned by your organization, such as marketing.yourcompany.com.

  4. The list of records to be placed in your DNS servers displays. Copy these records, either one by one, or by downloading a CSV file, then navigate to your domain hosting solution to generate the matching DNS records.

  5. Make sure that all the DNS records have been generated into your domain hosting solution. If everything is configured properly, check the box “I confirm…”.

  6. Set it up DMARC record. If the subdomain has an existing DMARC record, and if it is fetched by Journey Optimizer, you can use the same values or change them as needed. If you do not add any values, the default values will be used. Learn more

  7. Click Continue.

    note note
    NOTE
    You can create the records later on using the Save as draft button. You will then be able to resume the subdomain delegation at this stage by opening it from the subdomains list.

  8. Wait until ۶Ƶ verifies that the records are generated without errors on your hosting solution. This process can take up to 2 minutes.

    note note
    NOTE
    Any missing records, meaning the records not yet created on your hosting solution, will be listed out.

  9. ۶Ƶ generates an SSL CDN URL validation record. Copy this validation record into your hosting platform. If you have properly created this record on your hosting solution, check the box “I confirm…”, then click Submit.

  10. Once the CNAME subdomain delegation has been submitted, the subdomain displays in the list with the Processing status. For more on subdomains’ statuses, refer to this section.

    Before being able to use that subdomain to send messages, you must wait until ۶Ƶ performs the required checks, which usually takes 2 to 3 hours. Learn more in this section.

  11. Once the checks are successful, the subdomain gets the Success status. It is ready to be used to deliver messages.

    note note
    NOTE
    The subdomain will be marked as Failed if you fail to create the validation record on your hosting solution.

Upon validating the record and installing the certificate, ۶Ƶ automatically creates the PTR record for the CNAME subdomain. Learn more

CAUTION
Parallel execution of subdomains is currently not supported in Journey Optimizer. If you try to submit a subdomain for delegation when another one has the Processing status, you will get an error message.

Subdomain validation subdomain-validation

The checks and actions below will be performed until the subdomain is verified and can be used to send messages.

NOTE
These steps are performed by ۶Ƶ and can take up to 3 hours.

  1. Pre-validate: ۶Ƶ checks whether the subdomain has been delegated to ۶Ƶ DNS (NS record, SOA record, Zone setup, ownership record). If the pre-validation step fails, an error is returned along with the corresponding reason, otherwise ۶Ƶ proceeds to the next step.

  2. Configure DNS for the domain:

    • MX record: Mail eXchange record - Mail server record that processes inbound emails sent to the subdomain.
    • SPF record: Sender Policy Framework record - Lists the mail servers’ IPs that can send emails from the subdomain.
    • DKIM record: DomainKeys Identified Mail standard record - Uses public-private key encryption to authenticate the message to avoid spoofing.
    • A: Default IP mapping.
    • CNAME: A Canonical Name or CNAME record is a type of DNS record that maps an alias name to a true or canonical domain name.

  3. Create tracking and mirror URLs: if the domain is email.example.com, the tracking/mirror domain will be data.email.example.com. It is secured by installing the SSL certificate.

  4. Provision CDN CloudFront: if CDN is not setup already, ۶Ƶ provisions it for the your organization’s ID.

  5. Create CDN domain: if the domain is email.example.com, the CDN domain will be cdn.email.example.com.

  6. Create and attach CDN SSL certificate: ۶Ƶ creates the CDN certificate for the CDN domain and attaches the certificate to the CDN domain.

  7. Create forward DNS: if this is the first subdomain that you are delegating, ۶Ƶ will create the forward DNS which is required to create PTR records - one for each of your IPs.

  8. Create PTR record: PTR record, also known as reverse DNS record, is required by the ISPs so that they do not mark the emails as spam. Gmail also recommends having PTR records for each IP. ۶Ƶ creates PTR records only when you delegate a subdomain for the first time, one for each IP, all IPs pointing that subdomain. For example, if the IP is 192.1.2.1 and the subdomain is email.example.com, the PTR record will be: 192.1.2.1 PTR r1.email.example.com. You can update the PTR record afterwards to point to the new delegated domain. Learn more on PTR records

How-to video video

Learn how to create a subdomain using CNAME to point to ۶Ƶ-specific records.

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