Guide

Custom domains

Serve your status page from a subdomain you own, with one DNS record and a certificate Drumbeats manages.

One DNS record:

Type:   CNAME
Name:   status.acme.com
Value:  cname.drumbeats.io
TTL:    Default, or 300 seconds

Type:   CNAME
Name:   status.acme.com
Value:  cname.drumbeats.io
TTL:    Default, or 300 seconds

Your status page then serves from status.acme.com instead of status.drumbeats.io/your-slug. Drumbeats provisions and renews the TLS certificate.

Available on Pro, Business, and Enterprise. One custom subdomain per advanced status page.

Set it up#

Open the advanced status page, go to Settings, and find Custom domain.
Enter the subdomain, such as status.acme.com, and click Add domain. The hostname is validated straight away and you get either the CNAME instruction or an error explaining what is wrong.
Add the CNAME at your DNS provider using the values Drumbeats shows you.
Wait. Once the CNAME resolves, Drumbeats verifies ownership and issues the certificate, usually within 1 to 5 minutes.

The dashboard moves through Verifying, then Active, or Failed.

What hostnames work#

Subdomains with at least three labels: status.acme.com, status.eu.acme.com, health.acme.com. Internationalised names such as stätus.acme.com are accepted and stored as punycode.

Four things are not supported. Apex domains such as acme.com, because most DNS providers will not allow a CNAME at the root. More than one domain per page. Bringing your own certificate. And wildcards such as *.acme.com.

What happens when it breaks#

The settings panel names the state. Each one has a distinct cause.

State	Meaning	Fix
`dns_no_records`	The CNAME is missing or still propagating	Wait. Most providers update in 5 to 10 minutes, though DNS can take 24 hours globally
`dns_pointing_elsewhere`	The hostname resolves, but not to us	A stale CNAME from a previous provider, an A record with the same name overriding it, or a proxied Cloudflare record
`cert_validation_failed`	The CNAME points at us but issuance failed	Almost always a CDN intercepting validation. Set the record to direct and unproxied
`hostname_blocked`	Cloudflare's hostname-block list rejected it	Rare, and usually a high-risk pattern. Contact support

Check the record yourself:

dig +short CNAME status.acme.com
# expect: cname.drumbeats.io.

dig +short CNAME status.acme.com
# expect: cname.drumbeats.io.

What stays true once it is live#

The canonical URL keeps working. status.drumbeats.io/your-slug serves the same content and there is no redirect from one to the other.

HSTS is enabled with a one-year max-age. The noindex toggle applies on both hostnames. RSS and Atom feeds work at https://status.acme.com/feed.xml and /feed.atom.

The sitemap stays on the canonical host. Custom domains do not advertise one.

Confirmation and unsubscribe links in subscription emails always point at status.drumbeats.io, even for visitors who arrived through your domain.

Remove one#

Click Remove in the settings panel. The status moves to removing, the hostname and certificate are unregistered, and the row clears within about 30 seconds. Deleting the status page removes the domain too.

Your page stays reachable at status.drumbeats.io/your-slug throughout.

Next#

Status pages for the page itself. Email subscriptions for notifying visitors.