Migrating DNS settings from AWS

Question

I recently registered a domain with AWS, only to later decide to move to a different provider (Dreamhost). Unfortunately I can't transfer the domain to Dreamhost yet (it's been less than 60 days), so I need to update Amazon's route 53 DNS settings to point to Dreamhost.

So I made sure that the DNS settings appearing in Dreamhost's control panel are mimicked exactly in the DNS settings in Amazon route 53 with the exception of the SOA record...

"ns-200.awsdns-25.com. awsdns-hostmaster.amazon.com. 1 7200 900 1209600 86400"

Currently though the site is responding extremely slowly on Dreamhost (even though the FTP server, DB etc are running fine on their own). The website does return results just very slowly (lag of 30 seconds).

This is my first time managing DNS settings across 2 accounts, so I'm wondering if perhaps I need to amend the SOA record on the Amazon side? Or perhaps I shouldn't have duplicate DNS records between Amazon and Dreamhost (I have no idea which takes precedence).

Answer 1

Until you're ready to do the DNS service transfer from AWS to Dreamhost, you shouldn't need to set up any DNS records at Dreamhost. With your domain's SOA and NS records at AWS, all other name servers including Dreamhost's would know where to query for your domain and refresh their cache in accordance with TTL settings. I would recommend that you undo all DNS records you've set up at Dreamhost.

If you have a website at Dreamhost using your domain serviced by AWS, just make sure an A record that points to the IP address or FQDN of the host at Dreamhost is set up at AWS, like:

dreamhostsite.yourdomain.com.  1800  IN  A  <ip/fqdn-at-dreamhost>