NETWORK & DOMAINS

Domains and SSL

Point a domain at an application, get an automatic certificate, and route by path or subdomain.

You do not buy a domain through DockBoard — you tell DockBoard you own one. It then reserves it, configures the reverse proxy to serve it, and issues a Let’s Encrypt certificate as soon as DNS points at your server.

Adding a domain

01Domains → Add domain, then type the full hostname — example.com, or api.example.com.
02Attach it to an application. Traffic on that hostname is then routed to the application’s container port.
03Point DNS at your server at your registrar (below), then wait for the certificate to be issued.

The port you configured on the application is the port inside the container. It is never the public port — the reverse proxy terminates 80 and 443 and forwards to it.

Pointing DNS at your server

Open the domain card → DNS records & health. The dialog has two tabs: Health & recommended, a live check plus the exact records to add, and All records, everything currently detected (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS) reconciled against what is expected.

You keep your nameservers — Cloudflare, OVH, Namecheap, whoever. You change records, never nameservers.

For an apex domain example.com:

Host	Type	Value
`example.com` (or `@`)	A	`<your server’s IP>`

For a subdomain api.example.com:

Host	Type	Value
`api`	CNAME	`example.com`

Click Verify now in the Records tab to check propagation. Up to 24 hours is normal, though it is usually minutes. If DockBoard is connected to your DNS provider, it can create these records for you instead.

If you also run mail

A mail server attached to the domain needs its own records:

Host	Type	Value
`example.com`	MX (priority 10)	`mail.example.com`
`mail`	A	`<your server’s IP>`
`example.com`	TXT	`v=spf1 mx ~all`

DKIM, DMARC and the reverse DNS entry are covered on the email server page — the Email tab lists the exact values for your domain.

Subdomains

The Domains page groups subdomains under their apex. Click a card to expand them; Add subdomain pre-fills the parent, so you type api and DockBoard appends .example.com.

When the certificate will not issue

DNS has not propagated yet — wait, then Verify now.
The A record points at the wrong address — fix it at your registrar.
Ports 80 and 443 are not open on the server — check the firewall. Let’s Encrypt has to reach the server to validate the domain.

More symptoms and what to check first: troubleshooting.