Using Amazon Route 53 for DNS

Overview

I have the domain name “theitguycj.com” registered with Namecheap. I want to continue using them but I don’t want to have to log into yet another console to add A or CNAME records to point a domain name (like awsproject.theitguycj.com) to an AWS project especially when AWS has a DNS solution. So we’ll create the subdomain “aws.theitguycj.com” in Namecheap for Amazon Route 53 to control. Now I can host projects using a domain like project1.aws.theitguycj.com. This Route 53 project assumes you already have a domain with a registrar that you want to use. This process will not be necessary if you buy a domain name through Route 53.

Amazon Route 53 hosted zone setup

1. Sign into your AWS account and search for the Route 53 service.
2. Click “Dashboard” on the left pane and under DNS management, click “Create hosted zone”. Please note: the cost is $0.50/month per hosted zone.
   
3. In the Hosted zone configuration:
   • Domain name – [USE YOUR DESIRED DOMAIN/SUBDOMAIN]
   • Description – [WHATEVER YOU LIKE]
   • Type – Public (if you want this publicly accessible)
4. Press “Create hosted zone”
5. Copy the 4 name server addresses listed in the row with type “NS”. You’ll need to add those into Namecheap to transfer DNS control to Route 53.
   

Namecheap name server changes

1. Log into your Namecheap account.
2. Select your domain in the domain list.
3. If you want to use your top-level (primary) domain on AWS, you can change your name servers under the “Domain” tab. If you want to use a subdomain like I did, navigate to the “Advanced DNS” tab.
4. Under “Host Records”, scroll to the last record and click “ADD NEW RECORD”.
   • Type – NS
   • Host – [SUBDOMAIN] (don’t type out the whole domain)
   • Nameserver – [PASTE THE IP ADDRESS FROM ROUTE 53]
5. Keep adding a new NS record to cover all each given Route 53 IP address. My example has 4. Click “SAVE ALL CHANGES” right below that when done.
   

Testing changes

1. It can take up to 48 hours for DNS to fully propagate but usually it only takes a few minutes. Let’s check it.
2. Go to dnschecker.org to verify that all DNS providers have received the new info.
3. Put in your full domain name that Route 53 will use. Change the record type to “NS” then search.
4. Now you can solely use Route 53 for DNS entries for your AWS services.