TLDR: I can’t figure out how to configure netlify to properly serve a CNAME that is supposed to resolve to a site I’ve already deployed on netlify.
I’m trying to serve a branch of one of my github repos off a custom domain name that I’ve registered elsewhere. My netlify site is https://fanciful-souffle-6a9ec8.netlify.app/ and that site is properly deployed as you can see by visiting it. My already registered cname site is http://ifd2.csail.mit.edu/ . The cname points to the netlify site, as one can see by clicking the ifd2 link, but netlify gives a 404 error because it hasn’t been configured to recognize that cname.
My problems begin when I try to configure it. Under “domain management” I choose “Add a domain” and enter “if2.csail.mit.edu” and click “verify”. I am informed
.edu domains can’t be registered through Netlify. You can still add ifd2.csail.mit.edu to your Netlify site if you already own the domain. Select Add domain to add it to your site."
“Add Domain” is not available but “Add Subdomain” is. When I click that I am told that I cannot proceed because
custom_domain mit.edu or one of its subdomains is already in use by another team on Netlify
This is unsurprising as I’m sure many of us at MIT use netlify, but I also don’t understand why it’s a problem. In fact, I am already using netlify to serve a sister site, http://ifd.csail.mit.edu/ , that I configured months ago without any problems. I’m not sure why I’m running into problems now when it worked previously.
Hiya @karger and sorry to hear about the trouble! This is all expected behavior of our system:
you receive a 404 because we do not serve the site that your CNAME points to; we serve the site that is configured for that name in our system, which no site is at present
you are not allowed to use an mit.edu subdomain because you are not authorized in our system to use such subdomains
Unfortunately, this is not a use case we support well today: using a domain (mit.edu) without an “official owner” (someone representing all of mit.edu) on a site we serve.
For a paying customer, we can make an exception to our rules and allow you to configure the domain name; but since you appear to be on a free account, we won’t be able to serve that hostname. I am not suggesting that you start paying us $19/mo for the privilege of using a name I do understand you are authorized to by MIT; but, we do not have a good facility for opting in a free account to domain sharing in this situation without a real authority taking responsibility for all of mit.edu in our system.
The site you already set up which has been working for some time happens to have been configured before we created the protections/policy around this, and I will not remove it, but I also can’t grant you a new exception to the rule (if you were to remove the name from your old site, you would not be able to re-add it).