Amazon Route 53
Developer Guide (API Version 2012-12-12)
AWS Documentation » Amazon Route 53 » Developer Guide » Migrating an Existing Domain to Route 53
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Migrating an Existing Domain to Route 53

You can use Route 53 as the DNS service for any registered domain name. The procedures in this section explain how to migrate an existing domain to use Route 53 as the DNS service.

Important

You can create a hosted zone only for a domain that you have permission to administer. Typically, this means that you own the domain, but you may also be developing an application for the domain owner.

The following table summarizes the process.

Process for Migrating an Existing Domain to Route 53

1

Create a Route 53 hosted zone for your domain. See Creating a Hosted Zone.

2

Get resource record sets from the current DNS service for the domain that you are migrating. See Getting Resource Record Sets from Your DNS Service Provider.

3

Add resource record sets to your Route 53 hosted zone. See Creating Resource Record Sets.

4

API only: Confirm that your changes have propagated to all Route 53 DNS servers. See Checking the Status of Your Changes (API Only).

Note

Currently, the only way to verify that changes have propagated is by using the GetChange API action. Changes generally propagate to all Route 53 name servers in a couple of minutes. In rare circumstances, propagation can take up to 30 minutes.

5

Update the name server records with your current DNS service to use the Route 53 name servers assigned to your hosted zone. See Updating Your DNS Service's Name Server Records.


Creating a Hosted Zone

To migrate a domain from your existing DNS service, start by creating a Route 53 hosted zone. Route 53 stores information about your domain in the hosted zone.

Note

When you create a hosted zone, Route 53 automatically creates four name server (NS) records and a start of authority (SOA) record for the zone. The NS records identify the name servers that you give to your registrar or your DNS service so that queries are routed to Route 53 name servers. For more information about NS and SOA records, see NS and SOA Records that Route 53 Creates for a Hosted Zone.

To create a hosted zone using the Route 53 console, perform the following procedure. To create a hosted zone using the Route 53 API, use the CreateHostedZone action. For more information, see POST CreateHostedZone in the Amazon Route 53 API Reference.

To create a hosted zone using the Route 53 console

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/.

  2. In the Route 53 console, above the left pane, click Create Hosted Zone.

    Creating a hosted zone: tooltip for Domain Name.

  3. In the right pane, enter a domain name and, optionally, a comment. For more information about a field, see the tool tip for the field.

  4. Below the right pane, click Create Hosted Zone.

Getting Resource Record Sets from Your DNS Service Provider

To simplify the process of migrating an existing domain to Route 53, get resource record sets from the DNS service provider that is currently servicing the domain. You can use this information as a basis for creating Route 53 resource record sets; you will continue to use most of the same records after you transfer your domain to Route 53.

How you get the existing resource record sets depends on which company you are currently using as your DNS service provider. Typically your DNS service provider will give you a zone file, but they might also give you the information in another format. Try asking customer support for your records list or zone file information.

Records that you are likely to migrate include:

  • A (Address) records, which associate a domain name (example.com) with the IP address of the home page for the domain (192.0.2.3)

  • Mail server (MX) records

  • CNAME records, which reroute queries for one domain name (www.example.com) to another domain name (example.com)

  • Other A records, CNAME records, or other supported DNS record types. For a list of supported record types, see Supported DNS Resource Record Types.

Creating Resource Record Sets

Using the resource record sets that you got from your current DNS service provider as a starting point, create corresponding resource record sets in the Route 53 hosted zone. The resource record sets that you create in Route 53 will become the resource record sets that DNS uses after you update your current DNS service's name server records, as explained in Updating Your DNS Service's Name Server Records, later in the process.

Caution

Do not create additional name serve (NS) or start of authority (SOA) records in the Route 53 hosted zone, or delete the existing records.

To create resource record sets using the Route 53 console, perform the following procedure. To create resource record sets using the Route 53 API, use the ChangeResourceRecordSets action. For more information, see POST ChangeResourceRecordSets in the Amazon Route 53 API Reference.

To create resource record sets using the Route 53 console

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/.

  2. On the Hosted Zones page, do one of the following:

    • Click the row for the hosted zone in which you want to create record sets, and click Go to Record Sets.

    • Double-click the row for the hosted zone.

    Creating a resource record set: Go to Record Sets button on the Hosted Zones page.

  3. On the Record Sets page, above the left pane, click Create Record Set.

    Creating a resource record set: Create Record Set button on the Record Sets page.

  4. In the right pane, enter the applicable values. For information about a field, see the tool tip for the field.

    Creating a resource record set: tooltip for the Name field.

  5. Below the right pane, click Create Record Set.

Checking the Status of Your Changes (API Only)

Creating a new hosted zone and changing resource record sets take time to propagate to the Route 53 DNS servers. If you used POST ChangeResourceRecordSets to create your resource record sets, you can use the GetChange action to determine whether your changes have propagated. (ChangeResourceRecordSets returns a value for ChangeId, which you can include in a subsequent GetChange request. ChangeId is not available if you created the resource record sets by using the console.) For more information, see GET GetChange in the Amazon Route 53 API Reference.

Note

Changes generally propagate to all Route 53 name servers in a couple of minutes. In rare circumstances, propagation can take up to 30 minutes.

Updating Your DNS Service's Name Server Records

After your changes to Route 53 resource record sets have propagated to the Route 53 DNS servers (see Checking the Status of Your Changes (API Only)), update your previous DNS service's name server (NS) records to refer to the Route 53 name servers. Perform the following procedure.

To update your DNS service's name server records to refer to Route 53 name servers

  1. Optional: Using the method provided by your previous DNS service, back up the zone file for the domain.

  2. If your previous DNS service has a method to change the TTL settings for their name servers, we recommend that you reset the settings to 900 seconds. This limits the time during which client requests will try to resolve domain names using obsolete name servers. You will need to wait for the duration of the previous TTL for resolvers and clients to stop caching the DNS records with their previous values. A common default setting is 172800 seconds (two days). After the TTL settings expire, you can safely delete the records that are stored at the previous provider and make changes only to Route 53.

  3. In the Route 53 console, get the name servers in the delegation set for your Route 53 hosted zone:

    1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/.

    2. On the Hosted Zones page, click the name of the hosted zone.

    3. In the right pane, make note of the four servers listed for Delegation Set.

    Alternatively, you can use the GetHostedZone action. For more information, see GetHostedZone in the Amazon Route 53 API Reference.

  4. Using the method provided by your DNS service, replace the name servers in your previous DNS service's NS records with the four Route 53 name servers that were returned when you submitted the GetHostedZone request in the previous step.

    Depending on the TTL settings in your previous DNS service's NS records, the propagation of your changes to DNS resolvers can take 48 hours or more. During this period, DNS resolvers may still answer requests with the name servers for your previous DNS service. In addition, client computers may continue to have the previous name servers for the domain in their cache.

To learn more about working with your hosted zone, see the following related topics.

Related Topics

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