Web Forwarding

A Web Forwarding/Forwards record redirects queries to another site. Utilizing this feature, you can denote a domain, site, directory, or page that you want to redirect.

HTTPS Web Forwards with Certificate Management

UltraDNS supports both HTTP and HTTPS forwarding. Historically, HTTPS forwarding has not been supported. However, if the Certificate Management feature is enabled on your account, you can now create HTTPS Web Forward records by uploading your SSL/TLS certificates, and then applying them to your Web Forwards records.

HTTPS Web Forwards with UltraDNS Automated Certificates

As an alternative to manually providing and maintaining certificates, customers can choose to enabled our Managed Certificate feature, which issues an Encrypted Everywhere certificate for HTTPS Web Forwarding that provides a fully managed and automated certificate experience.

Utilizing our integration with the DigiCert CertCentral service, we handle the issuance, deployment, and renewal of your certificates, as well as creating the necessary CAA and DNS-based Domain Control Validation (DCV) TXT records.

To enable this feature on your account, use the Contact Us page to reach out to our Customer Support team. Additional details about Automated Certificate Management can be found here.

 

For accounts with Certificate Management enabled--when creating a Web Forwards record with an HTTPS forwards, CAA records are automatically created for digicert.com if no existing CAA records are detected. These records are managed by the user once created, instead of being system-owned.

 

Create a Web Forwards Record

Creating a Web Forwarding record also creates a system-generated A/AAAA record. Additional details can be found here.

The Web Forwarding record is comprised of the following fields:

  • HTTPS Forward - Enabling this feature allows you to apply a certificate to ensure secure, reliable, and efficient redirection of web traffic.

    • If HTTPS Forward is enabled, search for your certificate and select it from the drop-down menu. Your list of certificates can be found on the Certificate Management page.

    • If HTTPS Forward is enabled, and the Automated Certificate Management service is enabled, you can select the Use an UltraDNS Managed Certificate option to have UltraDNS and DigiCert create, maintain, and renew a certificate to validate the HTTPS forwards.

  • Requests To – The domain, site, directory or page that you want to redirect. This field can be left blank, and will by default, use your zone/domain name.

    • You can use the wildcard character (*) in the string. Using a wildcard on a redirection record tells the server to match the most specific string, and then append any unmatched portion of the source URL to the target URL.

    • If you have enabled the HTTPS Forward, the Requests To field can contain an HTTPS URL.

  • Redirects To – The location that you want to redirect to. This can be a domain, site, directory or a page.

    • You can use the wildcard character (*) in this field as well.

  • Type – Select a redirect type from the drop-down menu.

    • 301 Redirect - Permanent Redirect

    • 302 Redirect - Found (unspecified reason redirect)

    • 303 Redirect - See Other

    • 307 Redirect - Temporary Redirect

    • Framed - Creates an invisible frame set and loads the destination URL in the frame, thus making it more difficult to determine that a redirection has occurred. The disadvantage to this approach is that any bookmarks created by the user while navigating the site will point to the home page of the original URL.

  • Relative Forward – When enabled, appends a portion of the incoming URL to the Redirects To URL provided by using one of the following options:

    • Path – The incoming Parameter will be discarded.

    • Parameter – The incoming Path will be discarded.

    • Parameter & Path (Both) - Both the Path and Parameter are both appended appropriately.

 

The following example demonstrates how each Relative Forwarding Type works.

If your Requests To field is www.foo.biz/documents?a=userguide#supp, and your Redirects To field is www.foo.biz/support?c=sales#home, then:

  • Path will append the response to - www.foo.biz/documents/support?a=userguide#supp. The Path /Support is appended to the Requests To /documents. The incoming parameter is removed.

  • Parameter will append the response to - www.foo.biz/documents?a=userguide&c=Sales#supp. The incoming path is removed.

  • Parameter and Path will append the response to - www.foo.biz/documents/support?a=userguide&c=sales#supp. The incoming parameter AND path are both appended.

Web Forwarding Matching Rules

Relative web forwards apply only when the incoming request matches the Request To value.

If the incoming request includes a path (/something) or query string (?a=b) that is not covered by your Request To pattern, the rule will not match and you may see a "Not Found" response.

To forward all paths and query strings for a host, use a wildcard ( * ) in the Request To.

Below are some examples showcasing the expected response behavior based on the configuration.

 

Example A: Host-only requestTo doesn't match path/queries

  • Requests To = www.sourcedomain.com/,

  • Redirects To = www.targetdomain.com/support?c=sales#home,

  • Relative Forward = Yes | Path OR Parameter OR Path & Parameter

If the request is : www.sourcedomain.com/documents?a=userguide#supp

Then response is: 404 Not Found

 

Example B: Wildcard matches all paths/queries and forwards

Requests To = www.sourcedomain.com/*,

Redirects To = www.targetdomain.com/,

Relative Forward = Yes | Path & Parameter

If the request is: www.sourcedomain.com/documents?a=userguide#supp

Then the response is: www.targetdomain.com/documents?a=userguide#supp

 

URL fragments (anything after #) are not included in HTTP requests and are not forwarded by server-side redirects.

Do not configure a web forward where Request To and Redirects To use the same hostname, unless the rule is intentionally scoped and you fully understand the matching behavior.
Do you want to match everything? checklist

If you want to forward all traffic for a hostname:

  1. Set Request To to https://hostname/*

  2. Set Relative Forward = Yes

  3. Select Path & Parameter if you want both preserved

 

If you only want the exact hostname root to forward:

  1. Use https://hostname/ (no wildcard)

 

If you have enabled HTTPS Forward with Certificate Management, your Web Forwarding record appears with these configuration options.

 

If you have enabled HTTPS Forward with Automated Certificate Management, your Web Forwarding record appears with these configuration options.