Issue with CNAME record for root domain naijahub.co - Hostname not permitted

Product Support

AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around resolving an issue with a CNAME record for the root domain naijahub.co hosted on Cloudflare, where the error “Hostname not permitted” is encountered when trying to connect the custom domain to a Discourse forum. Wissamyah has set up a CNAME record with the target naijahub.hosted-by-discourse.com and proxy status set to “DNS only” but is seeking help to understand if the configuration is correct. Heliosurge suggests setting up an “A” Record instead, providing an example of how to configure it, and mentions that additional setup is required to make Cloudflare work properly with the Discourse forum.

1

Hello,

I’m trying to connect my Discourse forum to my custom domain that’s managed through Cloudflare.

I’ve set up a CNAME record in Cloudflare with:

However, when trying to configure this in Discourse, I’m receiving a “Hostname not permitted” error even though Discourse recognizes that the site is pointing to my domain.

Could you please help me understand:

  1. Is my CNAME configuration correct for a root domain?
  2. Should I be using CNAME Flattening or another Cloudflare feature?
  3. Are there any DNS propagation issues or additional settings I need to configure?

I’ve attached screenshots of both my Cloudflare DNS settings and the Discourse error for reference.

Thank you for your assistance.

Screenshot 2025-03-31 180135
Screenshot 2025-03-31 180135795×729 47.6 KB

3

To connect your discourse forum you need to setup an “A” Record.

The image displays text fields for "Host", "Value," and "Actions," with "Host" partially visible, marked by a red waveform, "Value" entered with a hyphen, and "Service" blank, while there are checkboxes and a delete option next to "Type." (Captioned by AI)
The image displays text fields for "Host", "Value," and "Actions," with "Host" partially visible, marked by a red waveform, "Value" entered with a hyphen, and "Service" blank, while there are checkboxes and a delete option next to "Type." (Captioned by AI)863×657 37.9 KB

The one name is your sub domain name. In my example above it is “community”. The value I have redded out is your VPs server IP address.

With cloudfare you will want to search as there are somethings you need to setup to make cloudfare play nice