Custom Domain Publishing, And Google Apps

I've been writing about setting up a Google Custom Domain for a while, and I've described the process of setting them up, and various configurations that are produced from the setup. Most of the setup processes have focused on new domains, where the blog owner simply wants to publish the blog to a non-Blog*Spot URL, and no complications exist.

But what if you want to use different services in your domain, which you may or may not be already using? Maybe you have email, an FTP server, and / or a third party (non-Google) web site, hosted on a third party server.

Or, maybe your DNS host won't let you redirect the primary domain using a "CNAME" referral.

That's what you use Google Apps for - integrating existing and new domain components.

Let's look at this domain, "nitecruzr.net", which I setup using the "Buy A Domain" wizard. You can do the same, or use Google Apps, which will give the same results for you without a lot of work. Or, if you already have your domain, and it has existing services, you can setup the domain in Google Apps manually.

First, you setup the DNS for the domain, using the domain manager wizard provided by your DNS host. You may find Custom Domains - The Details In The DNS Settings, to help you understand the information provided in the Dig logs, presented below. You may also wish to read about proper DNS configurations, and alternately about improper DNS configurations.

Let's examine a brief Dig log for the primary domain "nitecruzr.net".

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;nitecruzr.net.   IN A
 
;; ANSWER SECTION:
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 64.233.179.121  <<== Do not include this server - See Below.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 66.249.81.121  <<== Do not include this server - See Below.
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 72.14.207.121

There are the 3 Google Apps servers - and currently, only 1 of them is active. If we directed the primary domain to "ghs.google.com", you'd lose any email, FTP, and other special services, because "ghs.google.com" doesn't provide special services. Instead, we use Google Apps.

Next, a brief Dig log for the "www" alias "www.nitecruzr.net".

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.nitecruzr.net.  IN A
 
;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
ghs.google.com.  586847 IN CNAME ghs.l.google.com.
ghs.l.google.com. 203 IN A 72.14.207.121

There we have "ghs.google.com". You will probably publish the blog to the "www" alias, and redirect the primary domain to the "www" alias, using Google Apps. See Google Custom Domains - The Two Step Domain Referral for detailed explanation.

Effectively, and showing what I call an excerpted Dig log, you should have

nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 64.233.179.121
nitecruzr.net.  3600 IN A 72.14.207.121
www.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

And, remember to setup an updated sitemap, when it is all working.

If you get the well known "Another blog is already hosted at this address." error, and your DNS is absolutely setup per the above advice, recycle the domain settings in Google Apps. If you get another well known error, "404 Server Not Found", publish the blog back to its BlogSpot URL, then re publish to the "www" alias.

Having done the above, you'll have one blog published to your domain. If you have a multiple blog domain, this will be your "home blog", similar in function to my blog "www.nitecruzr.net". If you want more blogs published to your domain, you setup a virtual hosts cluster, ala my blogs "blogging.nitecruzr.net" and "recipes.nitecruzr.net".

(Update 10/13/2008): The complement of servers, as described above, has been changed.

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