This topic answers frequently asked questions about adding your website to Edge Security Acceleration (ESA).
Benefits of connecting your website
ESA provides a more effective way for you to manage your websites through its website management feature. The main benefits of connecting a website are as follows:
Centralized management, simplified operations
ESA uses "website" as the primary management unit. A website contains a root domain and all related information and configurations for its subdomains. Compared to traditional acceleration service providers that handle each subdomain individually, this centralized management method significantly simplifies the process. You can view and manage all root domains from the website management page, avoiding the complexity and hassle of handling subdomains one by one.
Configure once, apply globally
Within an ESA website, configuration changes, such as DNS records, cache settings, and security rules, automatically apply to all subdomains of that website. You do not need to configure each subdomain individually, which saves time and reduces the risk of configuration errors. This bulk configuration also ensures consistency in settings, guaranteeing that all subdomains have uniform performance and security policies.
Efficient DNS management
With ESA, you can configure, modify, and manage DNS records within the website. This centralizes all DNS-related operations on a single interface, greatly improving management efficiency. You can complete all necessary settings in one place without switching between multiple platforms, which significantly reduces operational complexity.
Enhanced security
Adding a website with a root domain name, such as
example.com, also helps you better manage security configurations. ESA provides robust security measures, including DDoS protection and Web Application Firewall (WAF), which apply to all subdomains within the website, offering comprehensive security protection.
Improved website performance
By distributing user requests to the nearest points of presence (POPs) through ESA's global distributed network, ESA significantly reduces loading times and improves your website's access speed. All subdomains benefit from the performance enhancements of this acceleration network, improving user experience and increasing the overall efficiency and conversion rate of your website.
Easy monitoring and analysis
ESA provides powerful monitoring and analysis tools for your websites. You can track access data, traffic, and performance metrics in real time. This centralized monitoring lets you quickly detect potential performance bottlenecks or security threats and take prompt action to ensure the healthy operation of the website.
In summary, connecting your website to ESA provides advantages such as centralized management, global configuration, efficient DNS management, enhanced security, improved website performance, and easy monitoring. We strongly recommend connecting your website using a root domain (such as example.com) to manage DNS records, caching, and security comprehensively for an efficient, simple, and secure web experience.
How do I add a subdomain as a website?
Currently, only Enterprise plans support adding a subdomain (such as api.example.com) as a website. You can contact us to customize an Enterprise plan.
If you have subscribed to an Enterprise plan, follow these steps to add a subdomain:
Add your subdomain
api.example.comas a website to ESA using the NS type. For more information, see Add a website to ESA.After adding the site, navigate to the Overview page. ESA will assign you two NS record values.
Add these two NS records at your domain name's DNS provider. The following steps use Alibaba Cloud DNS as an example. The configuration process is similar for other providers:
Log on to the Alibaba Cloud DNS console.
On the Public Zone page, find the root domain name
example.comand click Settings in the Actions column.Click Add Record. Set Record Type to NS, Hostname to
api, and Record Value to the NS record value that ESA assigned to you in Step 2. Keep the default settings for other parameters.
Click OK.
Repeat the preceding steps to add the second NS record.
After you add the NS record at your DNS provider, return to the ESA console, go to the Overview page, and click Verify Nameserver. After the verification is successful, you can add the subdomain
api.example.comto ESA as a website.
What are the differences between the NS and CNAME setup types?
What are the differences between service regions?
ESA allocates POPs based on the region that you select. Generally, choose a region based on your user distribution. For example, if your users are distributed worldwide, select Global. If your users are distributed only in the Chinese mainland, select Chinese Mainland.
Global: ESA provides global acceleration and protection for your website by assigning secure acceleration POPs from around the world. This region requires your domain name to have an ICP filing for the Chinese mainland.
Chinese Mainland: ESA uses secure acceleration POPs located only in the Chinese mainland to accelerate and protect your services within the region. This is suitable when your online services cater only to users in the Chinese mainland. This region requires your domain name to have an ICP filing for the Chinese mainland.
Global (Excluding The Chinese Mainland): ESA assigns global secure acceleration POPs outside the Chinese mainland. This region does not require an ICP filing.
How do I switch the acceleration region for a website?
When connecting a website, you can choose from three acceleration regions: Global, Global (Excluding The Chinese Mainland), and Chinese Mainland. If your business scope changes, switch the region as needed.
Log on to the ESA console.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Websites.
On the Websites page, find the website that you want to manage, and click the name of the website.
On the website details page, in the navigation pane on the left, click Overview.
On the right side of the Overview page, in the Basic Information section, click Change.
On the acceleration region selection page, choose the region you want to switch to, and click Change to complete the process.
How do I pause the proxy acceleration service for a website?
If you connected your website using the NS setup and want to pause the proxy acceleration service for the entire website without turning off the proxy acceleration switch for each record on the page, enable the DNS passthrough mode. This switch does not affect your configurations on the page.
Log on to the ESA console.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Websites.
On the Websites page, find the website that you want to manage, and click the name of the website.
On the website details page, in the navigation pane on the left, click Overview.
On the right side of the Overview page, in the Advanced Actions section, click to enable DNS Passthrough Mode.
In the confirmation dialog box that appears, click OK.
After enabling DNS passthrough mode, all traffic goes directly to your origin server, bypassing proxy acceleration. This action will expose your origin server's address. Proceed with caution.
How do I prevent my website from being added by other accounts?
The ESA service allows a website to be active in only one account at a time.
In large enterprises, departments may have different Alibaba Cloud accounts. If multiple accounts add the same domain name as a website, the website may be activated by different accounts sequentially, which can cause service faults. Use the site hold feature to prohibit other accounts from adding your website and its subdomains.
This feature is available only for Enterprise plans.
Log on to the ESA console.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Websites.
On the Websites page, find the website that you want to manage, and click the name of the website.
On the website details page, in the navigation pane on the left, click Overview.
On the right side of the Overview page, in the Quick Actions section, click to enable Site Hold.
For a website connected using the NS setup, how can I verify that the service is normal before officially enabling the website?
If you want to perform an online service verification test before you officially switch the service to ESA, you can test different records:
DNS-only records: You can run the
digcommand for your record and specify the NS record assigned to you by ESA (@ESA-assigned-NS-record). This retrieves the DNS resolution from the specified ESA NS server. Then, check whether the resolved record value is the same as the one you configured in ESA. Example command:dig DNS-only-record @ESA-assigned-NS:
You can obtain the NS record assigned to you by ESA from the website overview in the console:
Proxied records: Pre-testing is not supported.
If a root domain name website and a subdomain website exist at the same time, which website's configuration takes precedence?
What are the differences between service scenarios?
How do I resolve a website addition failure in ESA?
Cause
All domain names added to ESA must undergo content moderation. If your domain name fails to be added to ESA, it may be because your domain name does not comply with ESA's connection rules. For more information about the standards and limits for adding domain names to ESA, see Limits.
Solution
On the Websites page, confirm that the Status of the domain name is Review Failed. Click Review Failed to view the reason for the failure.
Select the domain name that failed the review, click the
icon on the right, and select Delete to delete the domain name.Based on the reason for the review failure, adjust your website content and resubmit the domain name for review.
About domain name resolution
What is domain name resolution?
When you purchase an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, the system assigns an IP address to the server by default. Because IP addresses consist of numbers and are difficult to remember, domain names are used instead. For example, example.aliyundoc.com is a domain name that corresponds to an IP address. Domain name resolution is a service that points a domain name to a website's IP address, which allows users to access your website through that domain name.
Alibaba Cloud provides domain name resolution services through Alibaba Cloud DNS. DNS is a secure, fast, stable, and scalable authoritative DNS service. Alibaba Cloud DNS converts human-readable domain names into numerical IP addresses that computers use to connect to each other. This routes user access to the appropriate websites or application servers. For more information, see Alibaba Cloud DNS.
Why is domain name resolution necessary?
External users can access a website only after domain name resolution is complete. When you build your own website, domain name resolution is a mandatory step. After you purchase an ECS instance, deploy your website, purchase a domain name, and complete the ICP filing, you must perform domain name resolution.
How do I perform domain name resolution?
Most domain name registrars in the Chinese mainland have their own DNS servers.
What is an A record
An A record, also known as an IP pointer, maps a domain name to an IP address. When you configure DNS, you set the host (like www) and point it to your server's IP address. If you want multiple domains or subdomains to point to the same server, you create A records for each of them.
If you have purchased multiple domain names and want to point all of them to the same website server, you must configure these subdomains to point to your website server. Second-level and third-level domains under a top-level domain are all considered subdomains.
To change your ECS instance, the domain names that originally pointed to this server must be reconfigured to point to the new server. This can be a significant amount of work. In this case, using a CNAME record is more convenient.
What is a CNAME record
A CNAME record, or Canonical Name, record maps a domain name to another domain name. It is commonly used for mailbox resolution and ESA acceleration.
After you enable the ESA service and successfully add a domain name, ESA assigns a corresponding CNAME. You must point your domain name to the CNAME so that requests to access the accelerated domain name can be forwarded to ESA.
The domain name that a CNAME points to must also ultimately point to an A record.
What is the difference between A and CNAME records
A Record: Points a domain to an IP address.
CNAME Record: Points a domain to another domain.
For long-term website hosting, using a CNAME record is recommended because it facilitates services like ESA and helps protect your origin server's IP from direct attacks.
Principle of CNAME in ESA acceleration
The main feature of ESA is to cache the content of your origin server on the edge zone (cache server) closest to your website's visitors. This enables users to access website resources more quickly. For more information about the principle of CNAME in ESA acceleration, see Acceleration principle.