Tumblr

Tumblr is a micro-blogging service.

One of its features is replacing your Tumblr URL with an external domain. It requires you to change the DNS A record for your registered domain to Tumblr's IP address.

Configure Tumblr for a custom domain registered with Dreamhost

1. In the Panel go to Manage Domains
2. Find the domain you'd like to use and click on "Edit" under "Web Hosting".
3. At the bottom of the page, click the "Host DNS only!" button.
4. Now click on the "DNS" link under the domain's name.
   • Name should be left blank
   • Type should be A
   • Value' should be 66.6.44.4, Tumblr's IP Address
5. Note: If you would like the www domain to work as well, you'll have to add a CNAME DNS record in the Dreamhost Panel.
6. Click on the "DNS" link under the domain's name.
   • Name should be www
   • Type should be CNAME
   • Value should the domains.tumblr.com
7. Go to Customize Tumblr
8. Check off "Use a custom domain name"
9. Below the check box, fill in the custom domain i.e. yourdomain.com

Adding Additional Tumblr DNS Records For Round-Robin DNS Protection

Please note - this also applies to adding Tumblr DNS records for a sub domain (because you can't set a new sub-domain to "Host DNS only!").

To illustrate the pictorial example, YOUR_DOMAIN.TLD will be represented by 'junk.com' and DESIRED_SUB_DOMAIN will be represented by 'tumblr'. To add Tumblr micro-blogging services to 'tumblr.junk.com', simply add five (5) "Type" 'A' record with the "Name" 'tumblr' and the "Value" set to the 5 IP addresses³. You can test that it's working at Tumblr's connection site, just keep hitting "Check domain" until it cycles through the IP addresses listed to the main address (you'll see a "This domain is configured correctly" message) and you should be good to go! Then just finish following the directions¹ and you should be good to go!

Footnotes

1. http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/custom_domains
2. http://www.internmentcamp.com/2008/01/02/technology/custom-domain-names-with-tumblr/
3. http://baohouse.net/post/9154272995/making-your-custom-domain-tumblr-a-little-more-robust