Website Domains and Email Hosting
If you're planning to send more than 100,000 marketing emails in 30 days, you need to set up a campaign domain. Similarly, if you're sending more than 10,000 emails in one campaign, you'll also need a campaign domain. You can use your own domain for your email campaigns.
To set up a domain for your email campaign, you'll need to configure your Domain Name System (DNS) settings to point your domain to NetSuite's hosting servers. Most of the time, your domain provider can redirect your domain using a CNAME record (Canonical Name record). This designates your domain an alias of the NetSuite hosting domains assigned to your account. For more information about setting up a CNAME record, see Point Your Domain Name at Your Domain (DNS Settings) and for more information about using a custom domain for email campaigns, read the help topic Campaign Email Domains.
You might not need a campaign domain as described above, but you may need one to host company emails. As a best practice, you shouldn't use your domain for multiple purposes. The most common example is when you're using your root domain to host several services. As an example, the website https://wolfeelectronics.com and the company email jwolfe@wolfeelectronics.com are sharing the same root domain.
You shouldn't use the same root domain for your website and your email campaigns. Problems can occur when you assign multiple DNS records to one root domain. For example, if you set up example.com for both shopping and email marketing, you may encounter problems such as email server failures.
CNAME Flattening (Dynamic A Record)
CNAME flattening (sometimes called a dynamic A record or ANAME record) lets you use CNAME records on the root domain. In DNS, CNAME records point one domain to another, basically acting as a redirect. This means you can't have any other records in the domain's DNS. Root domains almost always have more than one DNS record, so you can't use a CNAME record there. That's where CNAME flattening comes in.
Some DNS providers offer CNAME flattening as a feature, and how you set it up depends on your provider. CNAME flattening dynamically resolves the domain to its IP address and uses that IP as an A record instead of a CNAME. The advantage of using an A record is that it can exist alongside other DNS records, so you won't have conflicts.
In NetSuite, you can use CNAME flattening to improve the performance and responsiveness of websites that are hosted on the NetSuite platform.
If NetSuite verifies your DNS setup, using CNAME flattening may cause a DNS-status error on the related DNS record.
NetSuite checks your DNS setup when you use acme-challenge, third-level domains, or automatic certificates.
When a customer visits your site through a custom domain like www.example.com, their browser usually has to perform multiple DNS lookups to find the right IP address. This can slow things down, especially if the DNS servers are slow, unresponsive, or far from the customer.
With CNAME flattening, NetSuite automatically creates a CNAME record for your custom domain, so you can point it directly to the IP address of the NetSuite server hosting your site. This eliminates the need for multiple DNS lookups, reducing the time it takes for the browser to resolve the domain name and connect to the server.
How to Set Up CNAME Flattening
You can use CNAME flattening for your root domain in a Commerce web store only if it's supported by your DNS provider. If you need to use CNAME flattening, choose a DNS provider that offers this service and set it up for your domain. Each domain provider has an online help system with detailed information about CNAME flattening.
If you need to point your domain (like example.com) to NetSuite’s hosting domain (like example.com.hosting.netsuite.com), you have to use CNAME flattening. That's because standard CNAME records aren't allowed for root domains (like example.com).
While CNAME flattening setup varies by provider, the general steps are:
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Go to your DNS provider's control panel or dashboard and find the DNS management or records page.
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Create a new DNS record for the domain, example.com. Check your DNS provider’s documentation for instructions about how to do this.
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Some DNS providers automatically flatten root-level CNAMEs. If yours does, create a DNS record of the CNAME type like this:
example.com CNAME example.com.hosting.netsuite.com -
Other DNS providers need you to add specific record types to enable CNAME flattening, usually an ALIAS, A, or ANAME record. If that's the case for your provider, select the record type that's mentioned in their help documentation. Depending on the record type, your DNS record should look like one of the following:
example.com ALIAS example.com.hosting.netsuite.com example.com ANAME example.com.hosting.netsuite.com example.com A example.com.hosting.netsuite.com
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Review and save your changes.
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Give DNS some time to update. Changes can take a few hours to a day to spread across the internet. Your DNS provider can give you an estimate.
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After DNS updates, test your domain to make sure it points to the right place. You can use dig, nslookup, or an online DNS tool for this.
Someone with DNS experience should perform these tasks. Check your DNS provider's support resources for detailed instructions, since each provider has different interfaces and options.
You should always check with your domain provider, but here are some examples of how to set up a DNS record for CNAME flattening:
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Use an ALIAS record at the root domain to point to a NetSuite hosting domain.
example.com ALIAS example.com.hosting.netsuite.com -
Use an ANAME record at the root domain to point to a NetSuite hosting domain.
example.com ANAME example.com.hosting.netsuite.com -
Use the CNAME at the root domain to point to a NetSuite hosting domain.
example.com CNAME example.com.hosting.netsuite.com -
Use the A record at the root domain with NetSuite hosting domain name instead of an IP address.
example.com A example.com.hosting.netsuite.com
In all of these examples, the DNS provider automatically converts this to an A record with the IP address for the hosting domain. From the user's perspective, the redirection is seamless and transparent.
If CNAME flattening works as expected, you’ll end up with something like this:
example.com A 2.16.153.216
Static A Record
Unlike CNAME flattening (a dynamic A record), a static A record points to a fixed IP address. NetSuite doesn't support static A records because that would create a static dependency on a specific IP address.
The advantage of CNAME flattening is that the IP resolution and A record creation happen dynamically. This means that if NetSuite changes the IP address, it’ll automatically update in your DNS.