SSL with Google App Engine custom domain - google-app-engine

Does anyone know if it is going to be possible anytime soon to setup SSL for a custom domain without a Google App account directly from the Google cloud developers console? Signing up for yet another Google account is bordering on making me insane.
I have setup a custom domain via the Google cloud developers console for my app project, and this is serving as a naked url...no problem.
Then I tried to setup a Google App account with an existing account linked to my Google App Engine project as an owner, but it didn't like it. So I setup a new one (deleted now) and re-verified the custom domain, which then stopped the serving of the custom domain. I then deleted the Google App account and it started serving the custom domain again. I have no idea why, what or how...
I have purchased an SSL certificate from Comodo, not yet activated, and all I want to do is set it up without giving myself an emotional hernia, I get enough of those from coding! And, yes, read the docs, but you know, they suck! A step by step idiots example would be great!
Does anyone have a guide other than a google doc on how to setup SSL for a custom domain including activating the SSL cert etc. etc.
Thanks one and all

Ok, I have discovered that Google are moving the SSL setup to their developers cloud console at the end of August 2015. So I shall wait until then to see what that process is like and then decide to go with it or perhaps use Cloudflare or some other alternative if there is one.

See https://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=777
We have added support for custom domains for App Engine from the
Google Developers Console, meaning you can now associate a custom
domain without first associating that domain with Google Apps.
To access the feature, visit https://console.developers.google.com/
and you will find the option to add a custom domain under App Engine >
Settings.
NOTE: Currently we do not support SSL on custom domains created
through this method (although we expect to rectify this in a future
release). In the meantime, we continue to support SSL (via VIP or SNI)
for custom domains that are created through Google Apps, and we
continue to provide free HTTPS for all *.appspot.com domains.

Related

Is there a way of checking if a Web Application or Website using the Google App Engine?

I am trying to figure out whether to use Google App Engine or other available PaaS. During my research, I am trying to figure out if a particular website using google app engine or not - Is there any known method to figure this out ?
Sorry for the basic question, but appreciate any help. Thanks.
You can recognize a GAE-based site based on the server's domain:
*.appspot.com - default domain of standard GAE apps
*.appspot-preview.com - default domain of newer flex GAE apps
custom domains mapped to ghs.google.com or ghs.googlehosted.com. See step 5 in the Adding a custom domain for your application procedure and how does ghs.google.com work?. Note that I'm unsure if this doesn't also apply to other Google products, not only to GAE.
There may be other such domains as well.
You can also check the Server header in the responses coming from the site. From Headers added or replaced:
Server
Set to Google Frontend. The development server sets this to
Development/x, where x is the version number.
ping the domain and if you have something with ghs.googlehosted.com:
PING ghs.googlehosted.com (216.58.213.147): 56 data bytes
It's a GAE application. You can also check the headers in requests from your browser's dev tools.

Google App Engine, custom domain and SSL error

I'm trying to setup Google App Engine with custom domain and SSL.
I've added the certificates to Google Apps and added the custom domains to Google App Engine.
I can successfully access http://domain.com and https://domain-com.appspot.com but when I try to access https://www.domain.com I got the following error: This webpage is not available
The domain is lonardiDOTorg
Any suggestions?
After some research, my findings show that this isn't supported for the moment being.
Issue 10802 on the Google App Engine issue tracker seems to confirm that it isn't yep available at the moment.
This stackoverflow post seems to contain the different workarounds that other users have used.
I hope this helps.
It is very challenging to help with this kind of issue without being able to inspect the domain and app itself.
Are there any privacy concerns in sharing the domain name so that we can see if the page is being returned by Google or by your DNS provider? It may be possible that the DNS records aren't set correctly.
Keep in mind that as this configuration is done on the Google Apps side, the Apps team may be able to assist if you have a Apps for Business account. This could help get assistance without sharing any information.
Apps Help Center: https://support.google.com/a/answer/2644334
Apps Contact Page: https://support.google.com/a/answer/2644334#contact=1

App Engine SSL - Apps not allowing SSL

Overview of problem. Site was running on a Free version of Google Apps for over a year as a simple web page. We started developing it we deleted the old Google Apps and and migrated it to our primary App Engine account to avoid billing issues of two+ accounts. We couldn't get App Engine to recognize the Custom Domain even though it was in the Domains tab of our Google Apps Account. In searching I found Google limits using domains on App Engine (http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=182081 scroll down to App Engine) I had to recreate a separate Google Apps account to verify ownership of the domain. Site is up and operational now outside of SSL. The issue is that when I go to https://admin.google.com/CPanelHome#DomainSettings/subtab=domains and type the app id to enable SSL on the domain Apps account it routes me to create an App Engine app instead of to billing. Because the app is running on the primary App Engine account not the Domain account.
It seems someone must have ran across this and solved it. How do I enable my primary Google Apps account to verify ownership of the domains and allow App Engine to use it? I have a lot of domains that will be hosted on App Engine and a lot of integration between the sites that would really need to be all under a single account to facilitate.
I noticed in searching that Google is offering a free year of Google Apps for customers using App Engine to host a application. Is Google expecting every domain to have a full Google Apps account and host on separate App Engine accounts? If so that would really limit our ability to use App Engine.
After waiting for three days for an answer I am moving on. I believe I tried every way imaginable to accomplish getting multiple domains on a primary Google Apps account to be verified and have SSL enabled. I went so far as to try it with a domain that has never had any Google services. Just in case there were some settings that were causing issues from left over configuration.
So the resolution of this at this time is Google expects you to have a full Google Apps account per domain to enable SSL, or Google App Engine on it. I believe they will be removing the Free Google App Account in the near future. This effectively means that hosting on App Engine will get expensive as a Google App Account is $50/year, and if you use a CloudSQL instance it will be at minimum $9/mo. That is on top of the bandwidth and usage fees.
I have already deactivated billing and disabled the apps on those accounts and have moved them over to a VPS. This is the third year I have spent a lot of time trying to get basic sites using SSL established on Google. While this year it is possible to do it, in the end you pay an arm and a leg for it.
I love Google and really want App Engine to be viable. But I just don't think they will pull it together. All my friends have went with Azure, RackSpace, and the granddaddy Amazon. It really makes me sad that Google is so far from viable and even worse that Azure just works.
If anyone at Google wishes to contact me feel free to do so. If there is something I missed feel free to open this and give directions on how to host multiple domains on a single App Engine / Apps account with SSL. I would greatly appreciate it.

Does hosting an appengine app on custom domain force me to be a google apps customer?

I have a domain I bought (via godaddy.com) - let's call it xyz.com
I have an gae app - let's call it xyzweb.appspot.com
I added a masked redirect at godaddy dns management console and now xyz.com gets redirected to xyzweb.appspot.com (even though the address bar shows xyz.com)
This stops working well in some cases like when I give a direct url redirect like href='/static/url/tohelppage.html' or when I attempt to redirect for OAuth authorization. So I read other posts on what I need to do and the most referred one was https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/domain.
Based on that page it appears that it is necessary to sign up for a new Google Apps account with the new domain name?
So I Have to pay for Google Apps separately beyond what I am paying for Google AppEngine?
And also manage a separate apps domain and its services? I already have google apps domains and this seems more overhead to run a small app on gae.
Could you please help me understand if I've understood this right? And if there is a way to avoid the additional overhead of an extra google apps account?
The way that I do this, is I set up a basic google apps account (which is free), and I link the GAE app to my google apps account. Then you can set google apps to alias "www" to the appengine app, and now your appengine app works on www.yourdomain.tld
It's explained more here, which I know you already looked at, but it explains it well. Try reading it again.

Connecting domain to google app engine without google apps

Actualy, It's a couple of questions:
Is it possible to somehow avoid registering google apps if I just want to connect google app engine applications to non-naked domain (www.example.com for example:)
If described above is impossible, than do I have a right to register Google Apps Education Edition. And how can I proof that I'm non-profit if I'm not US resident?
If I need to connect a couple of domains to a couple of google app instances must I use a couple of google appss as well?
Here is a couple of answers:
No, Google App Engine uses Google Apps to manage domains. See the Deploying your Application on your Google Apps URL article.
Yes, if you are a School or University as explained here. If you aren't, why don't you just go for the Standard Edition?
Yes, for a couple of domains and a couple of GAE instances, you'll need a couple of Google Apps AFAIK. But this shouldn't be an issue as the Google Apps Standard Edition is free. No. As pointed out by Nick, you can add multiple domains to an Apps account as aliases, then map them to different App Engine apps.
Edit: The 3rd answer has been updated with the input provided by Nick Johnson in a comment.
With the the (new?) developer console it is possible add domains to apps for free without using Google Apps. But you will not be able to use HTTPS without registering the domain with Google Apps.
So the answer to the first question is "Yes" (presuming TLS is not required). The second question is not relevant. And as for the third question, multiple domains can be linked with the same application (without using Google Apps).
Select your project in the developer console (https://console.developers.google.com/project)
Navigate the side menu to access App Engine domain settings (App Engine -> Settings)
After verifying your domain (which may take some time) you can add the domain to the app.
I can't currently find Google-blessed documentation to support this. But I am currently serving an App Engine application on a domain that is not registered with Google Apps.
Another option commonly used is to use a reverse proxy to map customer domains to your AppEngine app. I'm using this because I can't add them as Google Apps domain aliases on my primary domain, since some customers run Google Apps by their own.
Details here: http://devblog.ronoaldo.net/2013/09/mapping-multiple-domains-to-google.html

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