Verifying Internet domains

Internet domain name verification is a standard industry practice among domain hosting services to confirm domain name ownership and to prevent abuse of user accounts. You need to verify only the domain names that correspond to Internet addresses of users that you are provisioning.

Before you begin

Complete the tasks Downloading and running the Domain Configuration tool and Preparing Global Domain documents. Also make sure that directory synchronization has completed to replicate the Global Domain documents to the service.

About this task

There are different methods to verify domain names. The service uses a CNAME record for this purpose by requiring you to create a CNAME record to prove ownership. Your domain hosting service should provide instructions for creating a CNAME record; however, if they do not, contact them directly.

A CNAME record is an entry in the Domain Name System that is used to define a host name alias for an Internet domain. To prove ownership of a domain, you sign in to your domain hosting service and use the DNS Management settings to create a temporary CNAME record for the domain. Then the service uses the alias in the CNAME record to query your domain. A successful query proves that you were able to create the CNAME record and therefore that you own the domain.

If you do not have the authority to create a CNAME record for your domain, extra time may be required to contact your domain hosting service and have them create the record for you.

Verifying a root domain also verifies any subdomains of it that are listed. For example, verifying renovations.com verifies west.renovations.com if listed in the Internet Domain Verification window. After you verify a root domain, no other company can use it or any subdomain of it.

You can perform this procedure even if you are in the process of switching domain hosting services.

The list of Internet domain names that populate the Internet Domain Verification window is derived from your on-premises Global Domain documents. These documents replicate during directory synchronization of your on-premises server with the service servers. If the list is incomplete or includes unwanted Internet domains, edit your Global Domain documents on premises to include the correct domain name information. After directory synchronization has completed, return to this window and verify that the correct domain names are listed.

Procedure

  1. Log on to http://www.ibmcloud.com/social using the email address and password of a user with the Administrator role.
  2. If your account also has the User role, click Admin > Manage Organization.
  3. In the System Settings section of the navigation pane, click IBM SmartCloud Notes and then click Account Settings.
  4. In the navigation pane, click Internet Domain Verification.
  5. In the Internet Domain Verification window, click Verify Ownership next to the domain to verify.
  6. Sign in to your domain hosting service and use the DNS management settings to create a new CNAME record. Use the information that is shown in the Internet Domain Verification window to create the CNAME record.
    • Put the unique key that is shown into the first field of the CNAME record. The name of this field varies by vendor, but it is sometimes named prefix or alias.
    • Put collabserv.com into the second field of the CNAME record. This field is sometimes named destination or target host.
  7. After you create the CNAME record, click Begin Verification to begin verification of the domain.

    The unique key continues to be shown in the Internet Domain Verification window until verification completes successfully.

Results

To verify domain ownership, the service uses the alias in the CNAME record to query your domain. For example, if the CNAME key is domino-1jkkiaojd-rules and your domain name is renovations.com, the service queries domino-1jkkiaojd-rules.renovations.com.

If verification is not successful, check that the unique key shown exactly matches the one added to the CNAME record. If the values are different, do not restart verification. Rather, update the CNAME record with the correct key and simply wait again for verification to complete.

Domain verification can take up to 48 hours, although usually it takes much less time. If after 48 hours domain verification has not completed, click Restart Verification. Restarting verification generates a new unique key and you must then replace the old key with the new key in the CNAME record. Only restart verification if 48 hours have passed since you clicked Begin Verification.

After a domain is verified, you can remove the CNAME record you created.

What to do next

Perform the task Activating your account.