Website Domains and Email Hosting
If you intend to send more than 100,000 email messages through marketing campaigns within a 30-day period, you must set up a campaign domain. Similarly, if you intend to send out more than 10,000 email messages in any single campaign event (blast) you must also set up a campaign domain. You can use your own domain name for your email campaigns.
To set up a domain for your email campaign, you must configure Domain Name System (DNS) settings to point your domain name at NetSuite website hosting servers. In most cases, your domain provider can redirect your domain name using a CNAME record (Canonical Name record). This approach designates your domain name as 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 may not need a campaign domain as described above but you may need a domain to host company emails. As per standard best practice, you should never use your domain for multiple purposes. The most common occurrence of this situation is when you are 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 should not use the same root domain for your website and to setup email campaigns. Problems can occur when multiple DNS records are assigned to one root domain name. 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 (also known as a dynamic A record or ANAME record) is a kind of DNS construct that permits CNAME records on the root domain. In DNS, CNAME records point one domain to another (redirection). This requires that no other records are present in the domain's DNS. Root domains almost always contain more than one DNS record. Therefore, the CNAME record cannot be used. This is where CNAME flattening comes in.
CNAME flattening is usually provided as a feature by some DNS providers and the way to it is set up varies from provider to provider. CNAME flattening dynamically resolves the domain name to the IP address and then uses that IP address as an A record instead of the CNAME. The advantage of using the A record is that it can co-exist with different DNS records, so there are no conflicts in DNS resolutions.
In NetSuite, CNAME flattening can be used to improve the performance and responsiveness of websites that are hosted on the NetSuite platform.
When a website is accessed through a custom domain, such as www.example.com, your customer’s browser typically needs to perform multiple DNS lookups to resolve the domain name to the correct IP address. This can add latency to the request, especially if the DNS servers are slow, unresponsive, or geographically distant from the customer.
With CNAME flattening, NetSuite automatically creates a CNAME record for the custom domain that you can point directly to the IP address of the NetSuite server hosting your website. 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 is 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 that gives detailed information about CNAME flattening.
If you need to point your domain (for example, example.com) to NetSuite’s hosting domain (for example, example.com.hosting.netsuite.com) you have no other option than to use CNAME flattening. This is because standard CNAME records are not permitted for root domains (second-level domains such as example.com).
While CNAME flattening setup varies from provider to provider, the general steps are:
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Go to your DNS provider's control panel or dashboard and locate the DNS management area or the DNS records page.
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Create a new DNS record for the domain, example.com. Refer to 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 that is the case for your provider, create a DNS record of the CNAME type like this:
example.com CNAME example.com.hosting.netsuite.com -
Other DNS providers require the addition of specific DNS record types to enable CNAME flattening for you. This is usually done with an ALIAS record, A record, or ANAME record. If this is the case for your provider, you should select the record type that is mentioned in their help documentation. Depending on the DNS record type, the DNS record should then 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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Allow for DNS propagation. DNS changes can take time to propagate across the internet. Typically, this process takes from a few hours to a day. Your DNS provider can provide an estimate of the propagation time.
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After DNS propagation, test your domain to ensure it now points to the correct destination. This can be tested either using dig or nslookup tools, or an online DNS resolution tool.
Someone with DNS experience should perform these tasks. Refer to your DNS provider's support resources for detailed instructions tailored to their platform. Each DNS provider has different interfaces and options for managing DNS records.
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, the final result should be something like the following:
example.com A 2.16.153.216
Static A Record
As opposed to CNAME flattening (a dynamic A record), a static A record points to a fixed IP address. Static A records are not supported in NetSuite because this would create static dependency on the given IP address.
The advantage of CNAME flattening is that the resolution to the IP address and creation of the A record is done dynamically. This means that changes to IP addresses by NetSuite will be reflected on the customer's DNS.