Adding your first domain

Adding a domain provisions web hosting, email, DNS, DKIM keys, and an SSL certificate in a single click. Here's what happens and how to do it.

The form

Navigate to Domains → Add domain. Fill in:

• Domain name — e.g. example.co.uk. Use the bare apex, not www.
• Hosting enabled — tick if you want web (nginx vhost + httpdocs/)
• Mail enabled — tick if you want to receive mail at this domain
• DNS enabled — tick if you want TDesk to host DNS for this domain

What runs

A chain of jobs fires in order:

1. dns.deploy_zone — writes the BIND zone, reloads named, notifies secondaries
2. dkim.materialise — generates a 2048-bit RSA key, stores it for opendkim
3. mail.add_domain — adds to Postfix's virtual mailbox domains
4. web.deploy_vhost — writes the nginx vhost, creates webroot, drops a placeholder page
5. ssl.issue_letsencrypt — runs a pre-flight DNS check, then certbot, then installs the cert

Each step takes a fraction of a second except the SSL one, which typically takes 3-5 seconds end-to-end.

If something fails

The most common failure is the SSL step, because DNS hasn't propagated yet. The other steps are idempotent — you can re-run them safely from the Jobs page. See SSL troubleshooting.