CDN:Transfer a domain name to another Alibaba Cloud CDN account

Limitations and notes

• Resource plans cannot transfer with the domain name. The source account's resource plans will not offset traffic fees generated by the domain after transfer.

• Security requirement: You can transfer only one domain name at a time.

• Monitoring: Disable monitoring, logs, and reports for the source account to avoid continued billing.

• Quotas: Increase domain quota in the destination account if needed.

• OSS authentication: If using STS tokens with Private OSS bucket origin fetch, switch to permanent tokens after transfer.

Scenarios

You can use the domain name transfer tool to transfer domain names between Alibaba Cloud accounts in the following scenarios:

• You have multiple Alibaba Cloud accounts and want to transfer domain names from Account A to Account B.

• When adding a domain name to Alibaba Cloud CDN, you may be prompted that it already exists. You want to transfer the domain name to your account.

Prerequisites

• Two Alibaba Cloud accounts (source and destination) with no overdue payments

• Attach the AliyunCDNFullAccess policy to the RAM user if you transfer a domain name as a RAM user. For more information, see Grant permissions to the RAM user.

• Same root domain names (wildcard and exact-match) under the same account to avoid conflicts.aliyundoc.com and example.aliyundoc.com). Exact-match configurations take precedence to avoid conflicts.

Notes before transfer

• You can transfer only one domain name at a time for security reasons.

• Disable monitoring data, logs, and operations reports for the source account. Otherwise, logs and reports continue to be delivered to the source account and billed.

• Increase the domain name quota in the Quota Center if the number of CDN domain names in the destination account has reached the upper limit.

• If the origin server is Alibaba Cloud OSS and the CDN domain name uses the Private OSS bucket origin fetch feature with Security Token Service (STS) tokens, authentication may fail after transfer. Switch the authentication method to permanent security tokens.

• If your domain name is restricted from being transferred, you'll be notified when you trigger the transfer. Submit a ticket for more information.

Actions after transfer

• Configure monitoring data, logs, and operations reports for the domain name in the new account.

• Re-upload SSL certificates to the new account to receive expiration alerts; HTTPS access remains available after the transfer.

• Set up resource groups and tags in the new account if these were used to manage the domain.

Procedure

1. Log on to the CDN console.

2. In the left navigation pane, click Domain Names.

3. In the upper-right corner of the Domain Names page, click Transfer Domain Names.

4. Read and select the transfer notice, and then click OK.

5. Enter the domain name to be transferred, and complete the domain name ownership verification using one of the following methods:

   Method 1: DNS resolution verification

   1. In the Verify Domain Names section, click Method 1: DNS Settings.

      

   2. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud DNS console.

   3. On the Public Zone page, find the root domain name example.com of the accelerated domain name, and click DNS Settings on the right.

   4. Click Add Record, select TXT for Record Type, and fill in the Hostname and Record Value provided by Alibaba Cloud CDN in Step 1. Keep the other parameters as default.

   5. Click OK to complete the addition.

   Method 2: File verification

   1. In the Verify Domain Ownership section, click Method 2: Verification File.

   2. Click verification.html to download the verification file.

   3. Upload the verification file to the root directory on the server of the root domain name. The server can be an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, an Object Storage Service (OSS) bucket, a Cloud Virtual Machine (CVM) instance, a Cloud Object Storage (COS) instance, or an Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance. For example, if the domain name is image.example.com, you need to upload the file to the root directory of example.com.

      Note

      The Alibaba Cloud CDN backend will access the http://example.com/verification.html file link on your server for verification.

      • If the record value in the file is the same as the record value in the verification file, the verification is successful.

      • Otherwise, the verification fails. Make sure that the preceding URL is accessible and the file that you uploaded is valid.

6. Return to the CDN console and click Transfer.

   Note

   If the transfer fails, check the configuration in Step 5. Correct any mistakes and try again. If the configuration is correct but the transfer still fails, submit a ticket.

Post-transfer actions

After the domain transfer completes, complete the following steps in the new account:

Production considerations

• Gradual transition: For business-critical domains, consider testing with temporary subdomains before executing the transfer

• Monitoring continuity: Set up log delivery configurations before completing the transfer to avoid reporting gaps

• Document changes: Record both old and new configurations for troubleshooting purposes

• Communication: Update internal documentation to reference the new account ownership

Common issues and troubleshooting