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Adds a custom domains Capabilities page/guide #1343

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Apr 11, 2024
79 changes: 79 additions & 0 deletions content/docs/capabilities/custom-domains.mdx
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---
# cSpell:ignore mycorp
id: custom-domains
title: Custom Domains
sidebar_label: Custom Domains
description: This document describes Custom Domains in Pomerium Zero. You'll learn how to add your own domain and what Pomerium requires to do so.
---

# Custom Domains in Pomerium Zero

This document describes **Custom Domains** in Pomerium Zero.

## Overview

When you deploy a cluster in Pomerium Zero, we provision a randomly generated starter domain that's assigned to that cluster (for example, `unique-jellyfish-3578.pomerium.app`).

Each starter domain comes with its own DNS records and TLS certificates, which makes it easier for new users to quickly build and test routes and policies in Pomerium Zero.

After testing Pomerium Zero with your starter domain, you may want to add a custom domain within your cluster to secure your apps and services.

:::info

See the Clusters Concepts page for more information about clusters in Pomerium Zero.
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Assume link is coming?

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See the Clusters Concepts page for more information about clusters in Pomerium Zero.
See the [Clusters] Concepts page for more information about clusters in Pomerium Zero.

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Yes


:::

## Custom Domains

In Pomerium Zero, a valid **Custom Domain** is a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) where the domain owner can demonstrate control over the domain through DNS validation.

After you successfully add a custom domain to your cluster, Pomerium will automatically issue and renew X.509 wildcard certificates on behalf of the domain to secure the connection over TLS.
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I'd suggest removing this paragraph if you like my suggestion for the previous paragraph.

(Otherwise, I'd suggest using "TLS certificate" rather than "X.509 certificate" as that's the terminology first used in the Overview section.)


### Fully Qualified Domain Names

In the context of Pomerium Zero, an FQDN is the complete domain name of a custom domain. The example below resembles a valid FQDN, where `service` is the hostname, `mycorp` is the subdomain, and `example.com` is the domain name:

`service.mycorp.example.com`
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I'm not sure what the best example here would be. Maybe we should give some example routes?

For example, given routes like:

  • verify.mycorp.example.com
  • internal-tool.mycorp.example.com
  • authenticate.mycorp.example.com

You would want to use mycorp.example.com as the custom domain.


### DNS validation
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I'd suggest moving this section further down, after "How to add a custom domain", and possibly renaming this section to "How it works". (I expect more users will want to know "how do I do this" compared to "what's going on behind the scenes".)


In order for Pomerium to issue certificates on behalf of a custom domain, you must prove that you control the domain name specified in the certificate through DNS validation. Per the [ACME protocol](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8555#section-2), Pomerium uses its own ACME client to communicate with Let's Encrypt, a free Certificate Authority, to validate a domain's DNS records.
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I think it's a nice detail we cover how.

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one terminology nit: Pomerium doesn't "issue" certificates itself (only a "certificate authority" can do that), so if we want to be more precise I might suggest using "request" or "provision" instead of "issue".


Let's Encrypt provides several [challenge types](https://letsencrypt.org/docs/challenge-types/) to validate a domain, including the [DNS-01 challenge](https://letsencrypt.org/docs/challenge-types/#dns-01-challenge). At a high level, this challenge consists of two steps:

1. A TXT record containing a specific token value must be placed into the `_acme-challenge.<YOUR_DOMAIN>` endpoint
1. A **wildcard CNAME record** must be added under the custom domain that points to your cluster's **Starter Domain**
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It's more of an either/or.

Either a TXT record must be placed at _acme-challenge.<YOUR_DOMAIN>, or a CNAME record must be placed at _acme-challenge.<YOUR_DOMAIN> that points to another domain that has the TXT record. Since we own the .pomerium.app sub-domain, we can write the TXT record for them.

Using a *.<YOUR_DOMAIN> CNAME record also works for this. We recommend it because it also allows client requests to be forwarded to Pomerium.


Pomerium takes care of step `1` for you. Step `2` requires you to manually add the wildcard CNAME record to your domain.

Refer to the steps in [How to Add a Custom Domain](#how-to-add-a-custom-domain) for specific instructions.

## How to Add a Custom Domain

Add a wildcard CNAME record that points to your starter domain:
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I wonder if we should include a little code snippet too?

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Add a wildcard CNAME record that points to your starter domain:
Add a wildcard CNAME record that points to your starter domain, for example:
*.mycorp.example.com CNAME unique-jellyfish-3578.pomerium.app
In Google Cloud Platform, this looks something like:

For example, one of Cloudflare's help pages does something similar when giving instructions for adding a CNAME:
Screen Shot 2024-04-10 at 9 29 06 AM


![Add a CNAME record in GCP](../capabilities/img/custom-domains/gcp-cname-record.png)

:::note

The steps to add a wildcard CNAME record to your domain vary depending on your domain registrar and/or DNS provider. This guide uses Google Cloud Platform as an example.

:::

Add the custom domain in the Zero Console:

1. Select **Settings**
1. In the **Editing Clusters Settings** dashboard, select **Domains**
1. In the **Custom Domains** field, select the **+** icon to add a domain name
1. Enter your FQDN

![Entering the fully qualified domain name in the Zero Console](../capabilities/img/custom-domains/add-custom-domain.gif)

If added successfully, you will be able to build routes with your custom domain instead of the starter domain. Pomerium will automatically issue and renew X.509 certificates for this custom domain, which you can verify by the Common Name found in the certificate:

![Reviewing the Let's Encrypt certificate for a custom domain](../capabilities/img/custom-domains/custom-domain-certificates.png)

You can also review the certificate in the **Certificates** dashboard:

![Review certificate details in the Certificate dashboard in the Zero Console](../capabilities/img/custom-domains/certificate-details.gif)
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2 changes: 2 additions & 0 deletions sidebars.js
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -56,6 +56,8 @@ const sidebars = {
type: 'category',
label: 'Capabilities',
items: [
// zero
'docs/capabilities/custom-domains',
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Eventually we should probably put these all collected together with a prepended highlight like ent or something.

// core & open source
//
// Core concepts
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