How can I get SSL setup before I transfer the domain to my account?
If I can’t set this up beforehand, how long does it take for this process to happen? I’m coming from cPanel and the auto SSL on those accounts can take up to 24 hours…which is less than ideal.
I don’t want to have any downtime / time where browsers are complaining about SSL.
Personally, I’ve been shocked at how fast Netlify’s domain pickup and SSL issuance happens. It can be just a couple of minutes from the time you issue the DNS change – but understand that DNS propagation isn’t absolute and every layer has its own caching, so just because Netlify picks up the change and gets your cert squared away doesn’t mean that other providers, browsers, ISPs, etc. aren’t caching the older DNS record.
Now, you can get SSL setup before you change the DNS record for your domain, you would just need to upload your own valid cert instead of relying on Netlify to generate one for you. If you do that correctly, DNS propagation is still a thing, but folks looking at the site from the old record and the new record should effectively see the same thing and not have SSL errors. If you decide to go this route, I strongly recommend going ahead with Netlify’s cert issuance process after a couple of days so that the auto re-issue works in 3 months. Managing your own certs and updating them periodically is no fun
Hi, @johnnboy1, this other community topic talks about live DNS migrations with external DNS (not Netlify DNS):
It covers changing the DNS and getting the SSL certificate provisioned quickly.
You can also purchase an SSL certificate from a third-party and upload that beforehand. That will allow SSL to work while we are provisioning the Let’s Encrypt certificate.
