Domain in Route53 point root to external host, keep subdomains in AWS

1
votes

I have a domain and a hosted zone in AWS Route53: mydomain.com I have configured several subdomains with a CNAME to point to resources hosted on AWS.

The main website mydomain.com I want to host on GoDaddy (or an other external hosting service). How should I configure that?

I am thinking:

  • In Route53 I update the NS record for mydomain.com to point to the GoDaddy nameservers
  • In Route53 I add a NS record for *.mydomain.com to point to the AWS nameservers
  • In Route53 I add an NS record for www.mydomain.com to point to the GoDaddy nameservers

What should I do?

1
amazon-web-servicesdnsamazon-route53nameservers
Do you want to move the DNS management of the root to an external DNS service (that's what you would accomplish with these NS records you propose)? Or do you just want to point the root domain to a website server hosted outside of AWS (you would use a CNAME or A record for that, not NS)? – Mark B
Would it give me more value to move DNS management to an external DNS service? If not just an A record looks like the easier solution! – xtra
No, there's really no reason for you to delegate DNS management just to point a single record to another server, which is why the stuff about NS records in your question is confusing. – Mark B

1 Answers

1
votes

AWS Route 53 can be used with any hosting provider, it is after all a DNS service. Unless you have explicit reasons why you can keep all of the configuration in Route 53.

For this configuration you would simply perform the following:

  • Create a record to point to the root domain (A record), this would resolve to a public IP provided by the external hosting provider.
  • Create an alias record for www.example.com that resolves to your root domain record
  • Create your wildcard record *.example.com to point to the default record value.

If you do want to split your DNS provider as well then you would as you've identified configure the registrar of your hostname to use the name servers of the target servers. Then create the NS records for domains in this configuration to resolve to the name servers from other services (such as Route 53).