- **Part 3: Setting Up Custom Domains - DNS Records and SSL/TLS Certificates**
- [Part 4: Creating and tweaking `.gitlab-ci.yml` for GitLab Pages](getting_started_part_four.md)
## Setting Up Custom Domains - DNS Records and SSL/TLS Certificates
As described in the previous part of this series, setting up GitLab Pages with custom domains, and adding SSL/TLS certificates to them, are optional features of GitLab Pages.
These steps assume you've already [set your site up](getting_started_part_two.md) and and it's served under the default Pages domain `namespace.gitlab.io`, or `namespace.gitlab.io/project-name`.
> - **Do not** use a CNAME record if you want to point your
`domain.com` to your GitLab Pages site. Use an `A` record instead.
> - **Do not** add any special chars after the default Pages
domain. E.g., **do not** point your `subdomain.domain.com` to
`namespace.gitlab.io.` or `namespace.gitlab.io/`.
> - GitLab Pages IP on GitLab.com [has been changed](https://about.gitlab.com/2017/03/06/we-are-changing-the-ip-of-gitlab-pages-on-gitlab-com/) from `104.208.235.32` to `52.167.214.135`.
### Add your custom domain to GitLab Pages settings
Once you've set the DNS record, you'll need navigate to your project's
**Setting > Pages** and click **+ New domain** to add your custom domain to
GitLab Pages. You can choose whether to add an [SSL/TLS certificate](#ssl-tls-certificates)
to make your website accessible under HTTPS or leave it blank. If don't add a certificate,
your site will be accessible only via HTTP:
Once you have added a new domain, you will need to **verify your ownership**
(unless the GitLab administrator has disabled this feature). A verification code
will be shown to you; add it as a [DNS TXT record](#dns-txt-record), then press
the "Verify ownership" button to activate your new domain:
Once your domain has been verified, leave the verification record in place -
your domain will be periodically reverified, and may be disabled if the record
is removed.
You can add more than one alias (custom domains and subdomains) to the same project.
An alias can be understood as having many doors leading to the same room.
All the aliases you've set to your site will be listed on **Setting > Pages**.
From that page, you can view, add, and remove them.
Note that [DNS propagation may take some time (up to 24h)](http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/domain-names/dns-nameserver-changes/domain-names-dns-changes),
although it's usually a matter of minutes to complete. Until it does, verification
will fail and attempts to visit your domain will respond with a 404.
Read through the [general documentation on GitLab Pages](introduction.md#add-a-custom-domain-to-your-pages-website) to learn more about adding
[you'd rather issue a certificate than generate a self-signed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-signed_certificate),
for security reasons and for having browsers trusting your
site's certificate.
There are several different kinds of certificates, each one
with certain security level. A static personal website will
not require the same security level as an online banking web app,
for instance. There are a couple Certificate Authorities that
offer free certificates, aiming to make the internet more secure
to everyone. The most popular is [Let's Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/),
which issues certificates trusted by most of browsers, it's open
source, and free to use. Please read through this tutorial to
understand [how to secure your GitLab Pages website with Let's Encrypt](https://about.gitlab.com/2016/04/11/tutorial-securing-your-gitlab-pages-with-tls-and-letsencrypt/).
With the same popularity, there are [certificates issued by CloudFlare](https://www.cloudflare.com/ssl/),
which also offers a [free CDN service](https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflares-free-cdn-and-you/).
Their certs are valid up to 15 years. Read through the tutorial on
[how to add a CloudFlare Certificate to your GitLab Pages website](https://about.gitlab.com/2017/02/07/setting-up-gitlab-pages-with-cloudflare-certificates/).
### Adding certificates to your project
Regardless the CA you choose, the steps to add your certificate to
- A public key is an encrypted key which validates
your PEM against your domain.
#### Now what?
Now that you hopefully understand why you need all
of this, it's simple:
- Your PEM certificate needs to be added to the first field
- If your certificate is missing its intermediate, copy
and paste the root certificate (usually available from your CA website)
and paste it in the [same field as your PEM certificate](https://about.gitlab.com/2017/02/07/setting-up-gitlab-pages-with-cloudflare-certificates/),
just jumping a line between them.
- Copy your public key and paste it in the last field
>**Note:**
**Do not** open certificates or encryption keys in
regular text editors. Always use code editors (such as
Sublime Text, Atom, Dreamweaver, Brackets, etc).
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|[**← Part 2: Quick start guide - Setting up GitLab Pages**](getting_started_part_two.md)|[**Part 4: Creating and tweaking `.gitlab-ci.yml` for GitLab Pages →**](getting_started_part_four.md)|
