Custom knowledge base domains

Aha! Knowledge

This article discusses functionality that is included in the Aha! Knowledge Advanced plan. Please contact us if you would like a live demo or want to try using it in your account.

Just like your website, your knowledge base is an extension of your brand — you want your visitors to know they are in the right place. By default, your knowledge base URL is in the format: accountname.aha.site. If you prefer to use a URL with your company's own domain to create a unified brand experience for your knowledge base visitors, you will want to enter a custom domain or CNAME.

A CNAME is a DNS record that allows users to specify that a domain name is an alias — or an alternate name — for another domain. For example, instead of accountname.aha.site, you could host your knowledge base at support.yourcompany.com.

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Configure a CNAME

First configure a CNAME record with your domain host. You will likely need to work with your internal technical support team to help you to create a custom configuration of your company domain.

Your hosting provider should provide step-by-step instructions for adding a CNAME record to your domain's DNS settings. These steps are unique to each provider, so if you are not familiar with the process it is best to search their support documentation.

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Generate certificates for CAA DNS entries

If your custom domain has CAA DNS entries, you must add Letsencrypt as a Certificate Authority. For example, the following DNS entry would work for aha.io:

aha.io. 300 IN CAA 0 issue "letsencrypt.org" 

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Update your knowledge base settings

When you are ready to map your custom domain to the domain URL of your knowledge base, open your knowledge base settings. To do this, go to Settings ⚙️ -> Account -> Knowledge -> Knowledge bases and select the knowledge base you want to configure. You will need to be an administrator with customizations permissions to configure a knowledge base.

Once in your settings, navigate to Branding -> Custom Domain / CNAME. Click Add custom domain, enter a CNAME, and select whether you or Aha! Knowledge would like to manage the SSL Certificate. Click Save to add your custom domain.

To remove a custom domain, click Edit and remove the domain listed.

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Add an SSL certificate (optional)

If you decide to use a custom domain for your knowledge base, you also have the ability to choose how the SSL certificate is managed. This is an optional step.

You can opt to have Aha! Knowledge manage the certificate for you or you can provide your own custom SSL certificate. This is important because the certificate is required for the knowledge base URL to display HTTPS when using a custom domain.

If no certificate is provided — or you do not let Aha! Knowledge manage it — this may cause warnings to be displayed to your users who navigate to your knowledge base URL using certain browsers and the URL bar may also show Not Secure.

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