Branding Domain Verification Parameters

[si_jdean]

Can someone tell me the actual DNS records to use for domain name verification?

I'm trying to verify our domain name, and it seems like there's incomplete and conflicting information. The instructions in the verification popup give me a domain-level TXT record, OK that's done. Then it says it wants a CNAME to "events-branding.zoom.us," but doesn't give me a subdomain for that CNAME record. If I try to use "events-branding" as the subdomain for the CNAME record, then in the verification failure error message it says my A record was not found. But they didn't tell me to create an A record! And over in a help document, it says to create a different TXT record for a subdomain as well as an A record, but doesn't give me an IP address to point the A record to!

So, could someone who has successfully verified their domain for branding share what DNS records they created?

[Ray_Harwood · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @si_jdean.

I assume you’re working from this Zoom Support article:

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0057580 

In my case, my main web site is GoodClix.com, and I want to use Events.GoodClix.com for the custom domain name. I’ll assume you’re doing the same by using a sub domain of your main domain.  Make the CNAME record for the sub domain name you want to use as custom. In most DNS editors, this is done by adding the CNAME record to just the subdomain name; this is from dnschecker.com, which lists the fully-qualified domain name:

Zoom doesn’t understand that having both CNAME and A records for any domain is technically invalid, and CNAME will take precedence (see this). But I’m guessing their validity-check routine requires both to pass. Use any NSLOOKUP site to get the IP address of events-branding.zoom.us, and put that in the A record for your subdomain. On nslookup.io:

then back on dnschecker:

Do you have your SSL cert yet?

Feel free to reach out to me on the Z-SPAN web site (schedule 30 minutes or fill in the name/email form). 

[si_jdean]

Thanks so much for your response. Two things you said that did it: I misunderstood what I was verifying, I was just using our domain name, not a subdomain. Our domain name obviously already has an A record! The other thing was creating an A record for the subdomain to the IP address for the Zoom events URL. It wouldn't let me add both a CNAME and an A record for the same subdomain, and when I just did a CNAME it didn't take that. Thanks again for your help!

[Ray_Harwood]

Excellent, @si_jdean.  I’m confused about which record you were actually able to create in your subdomain: CNAME or A Record? Did you pass the verification step?

[si_jdean]

It was the A record that did it. I put in the IP address for events-branding.zoom.us as you said.

We use GoDaddy and it wouldn't let me do both an A record and a CNAME for the same thing, so in the end it was just the TXT and A records that I needed. I'll dig into the rest of it sometime this week.

[Ray_Harwood]

Thanks. I’m a GoDaddy user too, and it did let me put in both CNAME and A records. It’s important to have the CNAME, if possible, since Zoom could change the IP address of the events-branding subdomain.  But at the moment, “whatever works.” 😎

[endurec]

This post has been helpful. Thank you Ray for your insight. 

I was able to also get get our Zoom subdomain verified using the above steps. We use namecheap as our registrar, and the verification only worked with the TXT and A records. When we had CNAME and A, it failed every time. 

I have a really dumb question ...

Once verified, what do we do for the SSL/Private Key Certificates? 

I'm not technical, so I'm clueless on what needs to be done for this.

[Ray_Harwood]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @endurec.

It’s not horribly technical, but you do have to acquire and upload an SSL certificate. I got an inexpensive one at SSLs.com for under $20 for 5 years, but the catch is that the issued certificate expires every 365 days and has to be reissued and reuploaded annually – not a difficult process, but definitely need to put the renewal on your calendar. Once you get the SSL files, they are uploaded to Zoom on the same page where you initiated the process.

[endurec]

Got it. Thank you for the help!

[renewd]

Hi Ray, Thanks for your help on this thread from other users. I have a question may I know please where I can upload the SSL certificate I bought on SSLs.com? I'm also using Godaddy. Hoping for your response. 

[Ray_Harwood]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @renewd.

 Look at the same place where you started the process: Admin -> Advanced -> Branding. Make sure you drop the correct files to the correct file requirement. I got mine backwards and it took 2 weeks to correct it. 😂

[renewd]

Will do that. Thank you!