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.
Related
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.
Does anyone know if there is a way to map more than 20 domains to a Google App Engine application?
Currently, I'm hitting a limit of 20 domain aliases in my Google Apps account and thus am unable to map more domains.
I confirmed with Google customer service that this is simply not possible. I had to move to Heroku because of this limitation, which is underwhelming.
I have managed to get my new Google App Engine APp hosted on my domain. TO do this I had to sign up to a "free" google apps account.
The google apps account is asking for money and I have a free 30 day trial. Will my domain name that Google App Engine is using stop working when this 30 day trial is up?
Do I have to pay $5 a month or whatever it is just to have my google app engine app hosted on a domain?
Thanks
You do not have to pay.
You can get a free single-user Google Apps account. See "Serving Your App on a Custom Domain" at https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/domain?hl=en
Yes,
To serve your app on a custom domain, you must first associate that domain with a Google Apps account.
From
https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/domain
Yes you do need a Google Apps Account, and No you don't need to pay for it.
When you sign up for a new AppEngine account you should go for an option to create a new Apps Account, where you will be given an apps account with one user. This will be free. See this: http://www.labnol.org/internet/google-apps-free/26926/
NO, You can use a cname to go your app engine domain (www.example.com --> example.appspot.com)
But, this does not work for a naked domain, like example.com Your provider (most providers) can redirect all your domain traffic to your app_id.
As of now it seems that you have to sign up for a business account and get a $50 credit for 1 year, after which time Google will have a better solution.
See this thread for sympathetic dissatisfaction.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/google-appengine/pVZfdeky-ow/TO1SmipM2Y0J
(Wish the Google support person told me that before I deleted the business account I already had...)
I know that it's an old question, but the marked answer is not right anymore. Google is pushing everybody who want a custom domain to pay for business account.
However there is one workaround:
Go to AppEngine -> Application Settings -> Add domain -> Sign up for Google Apps
Start a free 30 day trial - Do not add the billing options
Setup your domain
Add the domain to your app engine project
When the 30 day trial expire the domain will still work.
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.
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