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DNS for Pages domains

I was trying to set up GL Pages again for https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/47585 and https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ee/issues/302#note_79893273, as part of the meta issue https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/39978, but I'm having some issues here.

  1. We say in the docs that I should use an A record for a root domain:

    Screen_Shot_2018-07-04_at_16.59.42

  2. When we add a new root domain to GitLab Pages, the UI says I should use a CNAME record (not an A record):

    Screen_Shot_2018-07-04_at_16.04.24

  3. When I add an A record poiting marcia.ml to 52.167.214.135, I see this error:

    Screen_Shot_2018-07-04_at_16.17.50

  4. When I change that to CNAME, it does work, but CloudFlare gives me an alert: Screen_Shot_2018-07-04_at_17.05.23

  5. When I change it back to an A record instead of the CNAME apex, it keeps working 🤔

  6. Then, I want to redirect www.marcia.ml to marcia.ml. When I add a CNAME record to point www to the root domain, it does work out-of-the-blue, there's no need to set up anything in GitLab: 👍

    Screen_Shot_2018-07-04_at_17.34.32

  7. Then I want to do the same thing again, redirect hello.marcia.ml to marcia.ml. But, when I add another CNAME record poiting hello to the root domain, it does not work as the previous one:

    Screen_Shot_2018-07-04_at_17.09.06

    Screen_Shot_2018-07-04_at_17.17.55

  8. I tried to add hello.domain.com to my Pages settings, and I verified it with the TXT record, and it still doesn't work, but GL Pages says it should be working: 😕

    Screen_Shot_2018-07-04_at_17.18.54

  9. Then the UI says I should use a CNAME from hello.marcia.ml to marcia.gitlab.io, and when I do that in Cloudflare, nothing changes, I get the same error "This site can’t be reached - hello.marcia.ml’s server IP address could not be found. - DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN":

    Screen_Shot_2018-07-04_at_17.20.54

  10. UPDATE: Okay, https://hello.marcia.ml is working now, so prob was a matter of DNS propagation.

  11. UPDATE (1): As hello is working now, I added another domain (hello-world.marcia.ml) as I did for www, using just a CNAME to marcia.ml. Not working, waiting a while to see if the DNS propagates.

Testing environment:

Questions

  1. What should we do about the A record (item 1 above)? Fix the docs or fix GitLab? I mean, the apex domain thing is not widely supported, is it?
  2. Do we still support multiple subdomains for the same website? If so, what should I do to make www.marcia.ml and hello.marcia.ml work?
  3. Why does www work without the TXT record? 🤔

cc/ @nick.thomas @bikebilly @axil

Edited by Marcia Ramos