University Blog Service

Custom Domain Retirement

Custom domain mapping will be turned off completely after January 31, 2023. At that time, custom domain sites that remain on UBS will only be reachable by their sites.utexas.edu URL.

As previously shared, UBS will no longer be able to fulfill requests to host custom domains on the service. This change is due to WPMUDev, the developer of the plugin that makes that functionality possible, retiring the Domain Mapping plugin and no longer offering support.

We will be reaching out to site administrators informing them of alternatives if a custom domain is needed. Sites currently using custom domains are welcome to remain on the service with their “default URL” on site.utexas.edu.

Alternatives

There are options available to host WordPress sites that require custom domains. The two options we can advise and support are our Redirect Service, and Pantheon Web Hosting.

The Redirect service is the easiest option:

We’ll set up a redirect in our redirect service for your custom name,
You will need to change the IP address for your custom domain name to point to our redirect service instead of the UBS service.
Done!
The only caveat here is that after the redirect is complete, the web browser URL bar will have your UBS site address (https://sites.utexas.edu/<your site path/) rather than your custom domain name – but the name will still get your customers to your UBS site.

Pantheon Web Hosting

Pantheon is a subscription-based service that allows web developers to maintain their own sites as well implement their own customizations. Costs depend on the volume of traffic that a site sustains month-to-month.

We understand the inconvenience that these changes will cause. We do so reluctantly but we are obligated to maintain a secure service on behalf of the campus. Please feel free to reach out to stewards with any questions that you may have about these changes.

FAQ

What’s Pantheon?

Pantheon is a third-party service that supports the Drupal and WordPress content management systems, and access through UT Austin includes the availability of the UT Drupal Kit and WordPress for Texas custom distributions. In addition to cloud hosting, Pantheon provides a suite of tools for website development, deployment, and management. Learn more about the Pantheon service here.

What if I don’t want to move my site?

Your site is free to remain on UBS indefinitely, however, visitors will need to go to the “default” sites.utexas.edu URL for the site instead of the custom domain it was using previously. Please consider the redirect service, described above.

We can help! Please contact us at help@sites.utexas.edu to get started, and help us to retire the unsupported domain-mapping plugin.