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Point your browser to a server

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Point your browser to an edge server

You can do the testing by changing the hosts file on a local computer to point your site or application hostnames to the IP address of a staging edge server associated with either the production or test hostname. The hosts file controls the DNS resolution of the browser and overrides production DNS records.

  1. Access Property Manager configurations associated with the selected ​Akamai Control Center​ account. Go to ☰ > CDN > Properties (or just enter Properties in the search box).

    The Property Groups page opens.

  2. Click the Property Name link for your property.

  3. On the Property Details page, click the Version of your configuration that you want to access in Manage Versions and Activations.

  4. On the Property Manager Editor page, do one of the following steps:

    • For a non-EIB configuration, make note of the production edge hostname in Property Hostnames.

      The edge hostname associated with your production hostname

      edge-hostname-production-hostname

    • For an EIB configuration, make note of the test edge hostname in Property Hostnames.

      The edge hostname associated with your test hostname

      edge-hostname-test-hostname

  5. Get the IP address of the staging edge hostname:

    1. Depending on your computer, perform an nslookup or dig of the production or test edge hostname.

    2. In the response, make note of the CNAMEd hostname for your production or test edge hostname.

      For nslookup, this value is in the Name: field.

      e1111.x.akamaiedge.net

    3. Edit the CNAMEd hostname by adding the -staging.net ending.

      e1111.x.akamaiedge-staging.net

    4. Depending on your computer, perform an nslookup or dig of the edited CNAMEd hostname.

      The IP of the staging edge hostname appears.

      The above examples are only snippets of entire responses where you might find the IP address of a staging edge server.

      • For nslookup:
      Non-authoritative answer:
Name: e1111.x.akamaiedge-staging.net
Address: 192.0.2.1
      • For dig:
      ANSWER SECTION:
iot.ota.example.akamaiedge-staging.net 21600 IN CNAME  e1111.x.akamaiedge-staging.net
e1111.x.akamaiedge-staging.net 20 IN A 192.0.2.1

    For more information, see the Edge Staging Network (ESN) User Guide.

  6. Open your local hosts file in a text editor:

    • For Windows, go to: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drives\etc\hosts

    • For MacOS X, go to: /etc/hosts

    • For UNIX/Linux, go to: /etc/hosts

    The above paths are only examples of where you might find the hosts files. For more information, see the relevant user documentation for the location of the hosts file for your operating system.

  7. At the end of the hosts file, add an entry for your website that includes the IP address of the staging edge hostname and the domain of your property.

    192.0.2.1 ota-downloads.automotive-company.com

  8. Save and close the hosts file.

    All requests from your computer to your domain go to an edge server.

Point your browser to the EIB edge server

After testing EIB-unrelated features of you configuration in the staging environment, you can now switch your traffic to the EIB edge server associated to your property hostname. You can do so by changing the hosts file on a local computer to point your site or application hostnames to the anycast IP address of the edge server associated to the production hostname.

  1. Access Property Manager configurations associated with the selected ​Akamai Control Center​ account. Go to ☰ > CDN > Properties (or just enter Properties in the search box).

    The Property Groups page opens.

  2. Click the Property Name link for your property.

  3. On the Property Details page, click the Version of your configuration that you want to access in Manage Versions and Activations.

  4. On the Property Manager Editor page, make note of the production edge hostname of you property hosntame in Property Hostnames.

    eib-edge-server-property-hostnames

  5. Perform an nslookup or dig of the EIB edge hostname.

    The anycast IP of the edge hostname appears.

    The above examples are only snippets of entire responses where you might find the anycast IP address of the edge server.

    • For nslookup:

      Non-authoritative answer:
Name: eip-ntt.ota.production-hostname.com.akahost.net.
Address: 23.0.1.178

    • For dig:

      ANSWER SECTION:
ota.production-hostname.com.  600 IN CNAME  ota.production-hostname.com.edgekey.net.
ota.production-hostname.com.edgekey.net.  900  IN CNAME  ota.production-hostname.com.eip.akadns.net.
ota.production-hostname.com.eip.akadns.net. 300 IN CNAME eip-ntt. ota.production-hostname.com.akahost.net.
eip-ntt.ota.production-hostname.com.akahost.net. 30 IN A 23.0.1.178

    For more information, see the Edge Staging Network (ESN) User Guide.

  6. Open your local hosts file in a text editor:

    • For Windows, go to: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drives\etc\hosts

    • For MacOS X, go to: /etc/hosts

    • For UNIX/Linux, go to: /etc/hosts

    The above paths are only examples of where you might find the hosts files. For more information, see the relevant user documentation for the location of the hosts file for your operating system.

  7. At the end of the hosts file, do the steps:

    1. Delete an entry for your website that includes the IP address of the staging edge hostname and the test domain of your property.

      192.0.2.1 ota.test-hostname.com

    2. Add an entry for your website that includes the anycast IP address of the EIB edge hostname and the production domain of your property.

      23.0.1.178 ota.production-hostname.com

  8. Save and close the hosts file.

    All requests from your computer to your domain go to the EIB edge server.

Updated 5 months ago