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Domain DNS Runbook — paulprae.com

This runbook is the canonical DNS operations guide for paulprae.com. It intentionally excludes sensitive values (verification tokens, internal panel URLs, account IDs).

Scope

  • Configure apex and www to point at Vercel
  • Preserve email and blog records
  • Verify propagation and service health
  • Troubleshoot and roll back safely

Deployment workflow details (build/push behavior) are documented in README.md.

Service Boundaries

Role Service Notes
Site hosting Vercel Server-rendered Next.js + CDN
DNS DreamHost Authoritative DNS for paulprae.com
Email Office 365 / Outlook Mail flow for @paulprae.com
Blog Ghost (prae.ghost.io) blog.paulprae.com endpoint

Target DNS State

Records for web routing

Name Type Value source Purpose
@ A Vercel Domains settings Apex domain to Vercel
www CNAME Vercel Domains settings www to Vercel (redirect to apex)

Use the exact values shown in Vercel under project Settings -> Domains.

Records to keep unchanged

Name Type Value (pattern) Why
@ MX *.mail.protection.outlook.com Inbound email
@ TXT MS=ms... Microsoft domain verification
@ TXT v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all SPF sender authorization
autodiscover CNAME autodiscover.outlook.com. Mail client auto-config
blog CNAME prae.ghost.io. Blog routing
@ NS DNS provider nameservers Authoritative DNS

Legacy records to remove

Remove stale test/cdn/portfolio records that no longer point to active infrastructure. Do not remove anything tied to MX, SPF, autodiscover, blog, or NS.

Verification

In Vercel

  1. Open project Settings -> Domains.
  2. Refresh both paulprae.com and www.paulprae.com.
  3. Confirm both report Valid Configuration.
  4. Confirm SSL certificate is active after validation.

CLI checks

# Apex resolves
dig paulprae.com A

# www resolves via CNAME
dig www.paulprae.com CNAME

# Redirect behavior
curl -I https://www.paulprae.com

# Apex response
curl -I https://paulprae.com

# Resume artifact is served
curl -I https://paulprae.com/Paul-Prae-Resume.pdf

Email and blog checks

dig paulprae.com MX
dig paulprae.com TXT
dig blog.paulprae.com CNAME
curl -I https://blog.paulprae.com

Also send a real inbound and outbound email test to verify deliverability.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Check
Domain still invalid in Vercel Confirm apex A and www CNAME exactly match Vercel targets
SSL not active Wait for DNS validation to complete, then re-check Vercel
Mail issues Confirm MX/SPF/autodiscover are present and unchanged
Blog unavailable Confirm blog CNAME still points to prae.ghost.io.

If propagation seems inconsistent, compare responses from local resolver and public resolver (e.g., @8.8.8.8).

Rollback

If routing must be reverted quickly:

  1. Restore previous apex A record from DNS history/provider logs.
  2. Restore previous www CNAME target from DNS history/provider logs.
  3. Do not alter MX, SPF, autodiscover, blog, or NS during rollback.