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AWS Documentation » AWS SFTP » User Guide » Editing Servers » Working with Custom Host Names

Working with Custom Host Names

Your server host name is the host name that your users enter in their SFTP client when they connect to your AWS SFTP server. You can use a custom domain that you have registered for your server host name when you work with AWS SFTP. For example, you might use a custom host name like mysftpserver.mysubdomain.domain.com.

To redirect traffic from your registered custom domain to your server endpoint, you can use Amazon Route 53 or any DNS provider. Route 53 is the DNS service that AWS SFTP natively supports.

On the console, you can choose one of these options for setting up a custom host name:

  • Amazon Route 53 DNS alias – if the host name that you want to use is registered with Route 53. You can then enter the host name.

  • Other – if the host name that you want to use is registered with another DNS provider. You can then enter the host name.

  • None – to use the SFTP server's endpoint and not use a custom host name.

You set this option when you create a new SFTP server or edit the configuration of an existing SFTP server. For more information on creating a new SFTP server, see Create an SFTP Server. For more information on editing the configuration of an existing SFTP server, see Configuring Your Server.

For more details about using your own domain for the server host name and how AWS SFTP uses Route 53, see the following sections.

Working with Custom Host Names Using Amazon Route 53

When you work with AWS SFTP, you can use Amazon Route 53 as your DNS provider. Before you use a domain with Route 53, you register the domain. For more information about doing so, see How Domain Registration Works in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

When you use Route 53 to provide DNS routing to your SFTP server, AWS SFTP uses the custom host name that you entered to extract its hosted zone. When SFTP extracts a hosted zone, three things can happen:

  1. If you're new to Route 53 and don't have a hosted zone, AWS SFTP adds a new hosted zone and a CNAME record. The value of this CNAME record is the endpoint host name for your SFTP server. A CNAME is an alternate domain name.

  2. If you have a hosted zone in Route 53 without any CNAME records, AWS SFTP adds a CNAME record to the hosted zone.

  3. If the service detects that a CNAME record already exists in the hosted zone, you see an error indicating that a CNAME record already exists. In this case, you need to change the value of the CNAME record to the host name of your AWS SFTP server. For more information, see Using Custom URLs for Files by Adding Alternate Domain Names (CNAMEs) in the Amazon CloudFront Developer Guide.

    Note

    If this step is part of a server creation workflow, your server is successfully created and your custom host name is set to None.

For more information on hosted zones in Route 53, see Hosted Zone in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

Working with Custom Host Names Using an Alternative DNS Provider

When you work with AWS SFTP, you can also use DNS providers other than Amazon Route 53. If you use an alternate DNS provider, you need to make sure that traffic from your domain is directed to your AWS SFTP server endpoint.

To do so, set your domain to the endpoint host name for the SFTP server. An endpoint host name looks like this in the console: serverid.server.transfer.region.amazonaws.com.