Delegate a subdomain delegate-subdomain
Domain name delegation is a method that allows the owner of a domain name (technically: a DNS zone) to delegate a subdivision of it (technically: a DNS zone under it, which can be called a sub-zone) to another entity. Basically, as a customer, if you are handling the “example.com” zone, you can delegate the sub-zone “marketing.example.com” to ۶Ƶ.
You can either:
The full subdomain delegation is the recommended method. Learn more about the differences between the different subdomain configuration methods in this section.
Guardrails guardrails
When setting up subdomains in Journey Optimizer, follow the guardrails and recommendations outlined below.
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By default, Journey Optimizer allows you to delegate a maximum of 10 subdomains. However, depending on your license contract, you may be able to delegate up to 100 subdomains. Reach out to your ۶Ƶ contact to learn more about the number of subdomains you are entitled to.
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Parallel submission of subdomains is not supported in Journey Optimizer. If you try to submit a subdomain for delegation when another one is in the Processing status, you get an error message.
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Delegating an invalid subdomain to ۶Ƶ is not allowed. Make sure you enter a valid subdomain which is owned by your organization, such as marketing.yourcompany.com.
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You cannot use the same sending domain to send out messages from ۶Ƶ Journey Optimizer and from another product, such as ۶Ƶ Campaign or ۶Ƶ Marketo Engage.
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Delegating both a parent and a subdomain is not supported. For example, if you delegated subdomain.domain.com, you cannot delegate email.subdomain.domain.com. Similarly, if you delegated email.subdomain.domain.com, you cannot delegate subdomain.domain.com.
Access delegated subdomains access-delegated-subdomains
All your delegated subdomains display in the Administration > Channels > Subdomains menu. Filters are available to help you refine the list (delegation date, user or status).
The Status column provides information on the subdomain delegation process:
- Draft: The subdomain delegation has been saved as a draft. Click the subdomain name to resume the delegation process,
- Processing: The subdomain is going through several configuration checks before it can be used,
- Success: The subdomain has gone through the checks successfully and can be used to deliver messages,
- Failed: One or several checks have failed after the subdomain delegation was submitted.
To access detailed information about a subdomain with the Success status, open it from the list.
You can:
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Retrieve the subdomain name (read-only) configured during the delegation process, as well as the generated URLs (resources, mirror pages, tracking URLs),
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Add a Google site verification TXT record to your subdomain to ensure that it is verified (see Add a Google TXT record to a subdomain).
Set up a subdomain in Journey Optimizer set-up-subdomain
To set up a new subdomain in Journey Optimizer, follow the steps below.
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Access the Administration > Channels > Email settings > Subdomains menu, then click Set up subdomain.
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From the Set up method section, select either:
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Fully delegated - Learn more
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CNAME set up - Learn more
Learn how to set up subdomains with CNAMEs in this dedicated section
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Specify the name of the subdomain to delegate.
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Set up DMARC record in the dedicated section. If the subdomain has an existing DMARC record, and if it is fetched by Journey Optimizer, you can use the same values or change them as needed. If you do not add any values, the default values will be used. Learn how to manage DMARC record
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In the DNS record section, the list of records to be placed in your DNS servers is displayed. Copy these records, either one by one, or by downloading a CSV file, then navigate to your domain hosting solution to generate the matching DNS records.
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Make sure that all the DNS records have been generated into your domain hosting solution. If everything is configured properly, check the box “I confirm…”.
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If you are setting up a subdomain with CNAMEs, go to this section.
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Click Submit to have ۶Ƶ perform the required checks. Learn more
Set up a subdomain with CNAMEs cname-subdomain-setup
When setting up a subdomain, you can use CNAMEs to point to ۶Ƶ-specific records. Using this setup, both you and ۶Ƶ share responsibility for maintaining DNS.
To set up a subdomain using CNAMEs, follow the steps below.
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Perform all the steps described in this section.
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Before submitting your subdomain setup, you have one more step to complete - click Continue. Wait until ۶Ƶ verifies that the records are generated without errors on your hosting solution. This process can take up to 2 minutes.
note note NOTE Make sure that all the records are properly created before proceeding. -
۶Ƶ generates an SSL CDN URL validation record. Copy this validation record into your hosting platform. If you have properly created this record on your hosting solution, check the box “I confirm…”.
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Click Submit to have ۶Ƶ perform the required checks. Learn more
➡️ Learn how to create a subdomain using CNAME to point to ۶Ƶ-specific records in this video
Submit your subdomain set up submit-subdomain
To complete your subdomain delegation, follow the steps below.
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Click Submit.
note note NOTE If an error occurs while trying to submit a custom subdomain, refer to this section. -
You can create the records and submit the subdomain configuration later on using the Save as draft button.
note note NOTE You will then be able to resume the subdomain delegation by opening it from the subdomains list. -
The subdomain displays in the list with the Processing status. For more on subdomains’ statuses, refer to this section.
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Before being able to use that subdomain to send messages, you must wait until ۶Ƶ performs the required checks, which can take up to 3 hours. Learn more.
note note NOTE Make sure that all the records are properly created before proceeding.
Subdomain validation subdomain-validation
The checks and actions below are executed until the subdomain is verified and can be used to send messages.
These steps are performed by ۶Ƶ and can take up to 3 hours.
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Pre-validate: ۶Ƶ checks whether the subdomain has been delegated to ۶Ƶ DNS (NS record, SOA record, Zone setup, ownership record). If the pre-validation step fails, an error is returned along with the corresponding reason, otherwise ۶Ƶ proceeds to the next step.
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Configure DNS for the domain:
- MX record: Mail eXchange record - Mail server record that processes inbound emails sent to the subdomain.
- SPF record: Sender Policy Framework record - Lists the mail servers’ IPs that can send emails from the subdomain.
- DKIM record: DomainKeys Identified Mail standard record - Uses public-private key encryption to authenticate the message to avoid spoofing.
- A: Default IP mapping.
- CNAME: A Canonical Name or CNAME record is a type of DNS record that maps an alias name to a true or canonical domain name.
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Create tracking and mirror URLs: if the domain is email.example.com, the tracking/mirror domain will be data.email.example.com. It is secured by installing the SSL certificate.
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Provision CDN CloudFront: if CDN is not setup already, ۶Ƶ provisions it for the your organization’s ID.
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Create CDN domain: if the domain is email.example.com, the CDN domain will be cdn.email.example.com.
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Create and attach CDN SSL certificate: ۶Ƶ creates the CDN certificate for the CDN domain and attaches the certificate to the CDN domain.
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Create forward DNS: if this is the first subdomain that you are delegating, ۶Ƶ will create the forward DNS which is required to create PTR records - one for each of your IPs.
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Create PTR record: PTR record, also known as reverse DNS record, is required by the ISPs so that they do not mark the emails as spam. Gmail also recommends having PTR records for each IP. ۶Ƶ creates PTR records only when you delegate a subdomain for the first time, one for each IP, all IPs pointing that subdomain. For example, if the IP is 192.1.2.1 and the subdomain is email.example.com, the PTR record will be: 192.1.2.1 PTR r1.email.example.com. You can update the PTR record afterwards to point to the new delegated domain. Learn more about PTR records
Once the checks are successful, the subdomain gets the Success status. It is ready to be used to deliver messages.
The subdomain will be marked as Failed if you fail to create the validation record on your hosting solution.
Upon validating the record, ۶Ƶ automatically creates the PTR record for the subdomain. Learn more
Undelegate a subdomain undelegate-subdomain
If you wish to undelegate a subdomain, contact your ۶Ƶ representative.
However, you need to perform several steps in the user interface before reaching out to ۶Ƶ.
First, perform the following steps in Journey Optimizer:
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Deactivate all the channel configurations associated with the subdomain. Learn how
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Undelegate any landing page subdomains, SMS subdomains, and web subdomains associated with this subdomain.
You need to raise a dedicated request for each landing page, SMS, or web subdomain.
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Stop the active campaigns associated with the subdomains. Learn how
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Stop the active journeys associated with the subdomains. Learn how
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Point the PTR records linked to the subdomain to another subdomain.
If this is the only delegated subdomain, you can skip this step.
Once done, reach out to your ۶Ƶ representative with the subdomain you want to undelegate.
After you request is handled by ۶Ƶ, the undelegated domain is no longer displayed on the subdomain inventory page.
- You cannot reactivate the channel configurations which were using that subdomain.
- You cannot delegate the same subdomain again through the user interface. If you want to do so, reach out to your ۶Ƶ representative.
How-to video video
Learn how to create a subdomain using CNAME to point to ۶Ƶ-specific records.