There are two steps involved in pointing a custom domain to your website. The first step requires the cPanel administrator to associate the custom domain with your website. Once the domain has been associated, the second step requires an IT Professional in your unit to create or edit a DNS entry.

cPanel Configuration Step 

Submit a ticket at https://go.illinois.edu/cpanelhelp asking for your custom domain to be associated with your cPanel account.

For production sites, this email should be sent at least a few days in advance to ensure that the service team is available to park your domain at the time when your DNS changes become live. The email should include both the custom domain name and the name of your cPanel domain (i.e. yoursite.web.illinois.edu), and the date and time you would prefer to schedule the change. If there is not a team member available at your requested time, we will work with you to find a time that works for everyone involved.

Make sure you include both the custom domain and the name of your cPanel domain (ie. yoursite.web.illinois.edu). 

DNS Configuration Step, to be completed by your Unit IT Professional

For Domains that already exist, such as when moving an existing website to cPanel from a different hosting platform

If the domain is registered at UIUC

• Your unit IT Pro will be able to edit the domain.  Ask your IT Pro to point your domain to the campus cPanel service using the following:
  • For CNAMEs, point to web.illinois.edu
  • For A Records point to 18.220.149.166

If your domain is registered outside of UIUC, such as through GoDaddy, you will need to follow the vendor's instructions to manage your DNS records. 

• If your record is a CNAME, update it to point to web.illinois.edu
• If your record is an A Record, update it to point to 18.220.149.166

For new domain requests

At the University of Illinois there are two types of custom domains you can request: a fourth[or greater]-levelsubdomain beneath an existing subdomain or a new third-level subdomain beneath illinois.edu. For example, if you would like yoursite.cs.illinois.edu, that would be a custom domain beneath the existing subdomain of cs.illinois.edu. If you would like newsite.illinois.edu, then that is a new third-level subdomain. New third-level subdomains are restricted to campus wide initiatives or centers and are not available for individual websites, single research group sites, etc.

Domain in Existing Subzone

For a custom domain in an existing subzone (ie: yoursite.dept.illinois.edu), ask you IT Pro to create the record for the domain in IPAM using the following steps:

1. From your subzone, add a new CNAME Record.
2. For the “Alias” enter the custom domain for your cPanel  site. For example, enter yoursite as your alias if you want your custom domain to be yoursite.yourzone.illinois.edu.
3. For the “Canonical Name” enter web.illinois.edu.
4. Click “Save & Close”.

New Subdomain of Illinois.edu

Third-level subdomains of illinois.edu can be implemented in one of two ways, as described in DNS Standards.

CNAME Records

In most web hosting use cases, new subdomains of illinois.edu should be created as CNAME records. These records will need to be managed directly by the host manager and should be changed infrequently. 

 One of your unit's IT Professionals will need to fill out the Technology Services Domain Request form.  For the domain specific questions, enter the following:

• For question 12, Would you like a separate DNS zone, or a third-level CNAME record in the illinois.edu zone?, Select CNAME record.
• For question 13, Third-level CNAME record target (what the new domain should point to), follow the example given to enter
  
  • sitename.illinois.edu. CNAME web.illinois.edu
• For question 14, Fourth-level subdomains: (optional), follow the example to also create a www.sitename.illinois.edu record if desired
  • www.sitename.illinois.edu. CNAME web.illinois.edu

Continue with the administrative questions and submit the form. The host manager will reach out when the domain has been created or if there are any questions.

Subzone Records

In some cases, it might make sense to have your subdomain created as its own subzone. This is mostly useful if you expect to have many fourth-level subdomains of your requested third-level domain.  For the domain specific questions, enter the following:

• For question 12, Would you like a separate DNS zone, or a third-level CNAME record in the illinois.edu zone?, Select Separate zone.
• For question 15, IP address for same-as-zone A record: (optional), enter 18.220.149.166
• For question 16, Create a "www" CNAME record pointing to the same-as-zone A record? select Yes if you would like visitors to be able to reach your site at www.sitename.illinois.edu

Continue with the administrative questions and submit the form. The host manager will reach out when the domain has been created or if there are any questions.

Additional Considerations

1. If your website uses a content management system, you may need to update your configuration to tell the CMS about your new domain name.
2. AutoSSL certificates normally take only a few minutes to update but may take up to 24 hours. 
   1. You should run AutoSSL manually by logging in to your cPanel account and choosing SSL/TLS Status then clicking Run AutoSSL
3. If you plan to use a certificate from the Campus Certificate Manager, you should request this certificate a few days ahead of your go-live date and have it in hand and ready to install once the domain is parked.
4. If you currently receive email at your custom domain, cPanel does not handle that functionality. Please open a ticket at https://go.illinois.edu/cPanelHelp so that we can link to your externally provided mail exchanger. Until this is completed, email sent from your website to your custom domain email address will not be delivered.