🌐 How to Point a GoDaddy Subdomain to Your VPS (With Nginx + SSL)

🌐 How to Point a GoDaddy Subdomain to Your VPS (With Nginx + SSL)

Hosting your app on a VPS is a great step toward full control and performance. If you’ve already deployed your app (like a Next.js app) on a VPS and want to connect it to a subdomain like abhinav.rohatech.site, here’s a complete guide to help you get it done.

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🔧 Step 1: Add a Subdomain in GoDaddy DNS

1. Log in to GoDaddy and go to your domain dashboard (e.g., rohatech.site).
2. Click DNS or "Manage DNS".
3. Scroll down and click Add under DNS Records.

Add the following A record:

Type	Name	Value	TTL
A	abhinav	Your VPS IP address	1 Hour

This points abhinav.rohatech.site to your VPS server.

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🖥️ Step 2: Configure Nginx on Your VPS

SSH into your VPS server and create a new Nginx configuration file for your subdomain:

nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/abhinav.rohatech.site.conf

Paste the following Nginx configuration:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name abhinav.rohatech.site;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;  # Adjust if your app runs on a different port
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
    }
}

Then test and reload Nginx:

nginx -t
systemctl restart nginx

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🔐 Step 3: Add Free SSL with Let's Encrypt

To secure your subdomain with HTTPS, use Certbot:

dnf install epel-release -y
dnf install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
certbot --nginx -d abhinav.rohatech.site

Follow the prompts to install the SSL certificate.

🔁 Optional: Force HTTPS Redirect

If you want to automatically redirect all HTTP traffic to HTTPS, update your Nginx config:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name abhinav.rohatech.site;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

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⏳ Step 4: Wait for DNS Propagation

It may take anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour for DNS changes to take effect globally. You can check with:

• ping abhinav.rohatech.site
• Online DNS tools like dnschecker.org

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✅ Your Subdomain Is Now Live!

Once the DNS has propagated and Nginx is properly configured, visiting https://abhinav.rohatech.site will show your deployed app from your VPS.

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💡 Tips

• Use pm2 to manage your app process on the server
• Place environment variables in a .env.production file
• Use pm2 save and pm2 startup to keep your app running after reboot
• Secure your server with a firewall (like firewalld or ufw)

Enjoy your powerful, subdomain-powered deployment! 🚀