Mapping Your Custom Domain to CERVIS

This article covers the technical steps required to utilize the Custom Domain option for your CERVIS account. 

If you are interested in mapping a custom domain for your CERVIS account, it is necessary to modify your DNS hosting information to correctly point your custom domain to your CERVIS account. Creating a full custom domain mapping provides you a simple link to share with your volunteers, and it will also allow you to embed CERVIS directly into your website using an iframe. For more information about the website integration process, please refer to Integrating CERVIS Into Your Existing Website.

Note: Before you can proceed to the steps below, you must have already completed the steps for the “Fully Custom Domain” option found in the Knowledge Base Article: Domain Mapping Options for CERVIS.

Updating your DNS records to use the CERVIS subdomain

To set up custom domain mapping in your CERVIS account, you will first need to create two separate CNAME records within your DNS hosting account. The CERVIS Customer Support team will provide you with the specific details needed to create these records after you have opened a ticket and requested a fully custom domain for your account.

Note: Working with domain names can be confusing because it's something most of us rarely do. Consult your system administrator, if you have one, before proceeding. The UI and terminology may vary depending on your registrar, but the concepts are the same.

To add the CNAME entry to your DNS records

1. Log in to your domain registrar's control panel.
   • Use the login name and password that you created when you registered the domain name.
2. Look for the option to change DNS records.
   • The option might be called something like DNS Management, Name Server Management, or Advanced Settings.
3. Locate the CNAME records for your domain.
   • A CNAME record, or Canonical Name record, is a type of alias used by the Domain Name System (DNS).
4. Look for an option to add a CNAME record.
5. Create a CNAME record with the values provided by CERVIS Customer Support.
6. The first CNAME record is used to map your custom domain to the CERVIS system and will look similar to this example:
7. The second CNAME record allows us to generate a security certificate for your custom domain and will look similar to this example:

Note: It takes time for changes to the DNS system to be implemented. Typically, it can take anywhere from a few hours to a day, depending on your Time To Live (TTL) settings in the registrar's control panel.

Completing the process

Once the steps above have been completed, please contact CERVIS Customer Support to finalize the mapping of your custom domain within CERVIS.