google compute engine cloud dns access issue - webpage not available - apache

Question

Instead of negative votes, how about telling my why . . .
I have set up a web server and uploaded some webpages on a LAMP stack. I am able to access via IP address. I set up my domain host to point to cloud dns. I enabled the cloud DNA api. My issue is that the domain is not loading the site, just returns "This webpage is not available / DNS lookup failed" I have read and tried a lot of different options. No Luck. Additional information:
sudo apache2ctl -S returns:
VirtualHost configuration:
wildcard NameVirtualHosts and _default_ servers:
*:80 is a NameVirtualHost
default server lamp-6kvi.c.united-yeti-790.internal (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/lamp-server:1)
port 80 namevhost lamp-6kvi.c.united-yeti-790.internal (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/lamp-server:1)
port 80 namevhost example.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/lamp-server:28)
port 80 namevhost example.com (/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/example.com:1)
Syntax OK
The config file /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.com reads:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/websitedirectory
<Directory /var/www/websitedirectory/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/mysite-error.log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/mysite-access.log common
cloud dns managed-zone list returns:
[
{
"creationTime": "2014-12-14T15:40:29.066Z",
"description": "",
"dnsName": "example.com.",
"id": "2608871832699155245",
"kind": "dns#managedZone",
"name": "exampledns",
"nameServers": [
"ns-cloud-d1.googledomains.com.",
"ns-cloud-d2.googledomains.com.",
"ns-cloud-d3.googledomains.com.",
"ns-cloud-d4.googledomains.com."
]
}]
I have not tried deleting the lamp-server, default or commenting out the other files . . . Please help.

Answer 1

To expand on your own answer, (by using web console) in general you should:
Go to your GCE Console, and
select your project.
Create the zone: In the left menu, go to Networking->Cloud DNS, then "Create Zone". Set the domain (example.com) and a name of your choice there. Once you create the zone, you will be taken to the record list of the zone.
Find the NameServer registers (the NS register type): You should see something like: ns-cloud-c1.googledomains.com, ns-cloud-c2.googledomains.com...
Set up these name servers with your Domain Registrar to make the domain accessible: go to the Registrar where this domain belongs to (NetworkSolutions/GoDaddy/Any Other), and configure the Name Servers (NS) for your domain. Set up the 4 you found in the previous step (don't just use the ones in my example, they're different for every zone you create).
Add the records you need to your zone: Go back to your GCE Console, to the Zone you just created in step 2. Click on "Add Record Set". In your case, what you need is a CNAME record: type "www" in DNS NAME, pick "CNAME" from RESOURCE RECORD TYPE, then type "example.com." as the CANONICAL NAME (notice the . at the end). Then click "Done".
You should now resolve both, example.com and www.example.com to the same IP. You also need to keep:
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
in your virtual host apache configuration.
Hope it helps clarify.

Answer 2

got it working - found out that you need to "add record set" type a for both www.example.com and example.com while pointing the ip to your server. set up virtual hosts like my question but without the section.
wish somebody would confirm that this was the proper way. anyways, added 4 more domains using the same method to the same server. :-D