Amazon Route 53 — DNS and domains

Prerequisites

• An AWS account with access to Route 53 and billing enabled for domain registration where required.
• Optional: an EC2 instance with a stable public IPv4 (for example via Elastic IP) or an Application Load Balancer DNS name.

Register a domain (optional)

You can register a new domain directly in Route 53 or transfer an existing one. Pricing and TLD availability vary.

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console.
2. Open Route 53 and choose Register domain (or Registered domains → Register domain).

3. 

4. Search for an available name and pick a TLD (for example .com or .net), then complete registration and contact-handle prompts.

Create a public hosted zone

1. In Route 53, choose Hosted zones in the left navigation.

   

2. Choose Create hosted zone.

   

3. Configure the zone:

   1. Domain name — the apex domain you will serve (for example example.com).
   2. Description — optional note for operators.
   3. Type — Public hosted zone for internet-facing DNS.

   

4. Create the hosted zone. Route 53 assigns a set of four authoritative name servers.

   

5. Copy the four NS records and enter them at your registrar as the delegation set for the domain. If the domain is registered in Route 53, confirm the delegation page already references these servers; otherwise update the external registrar.

   

Point DNS at an EC2 public IPv4

Use this path when a single instance (with a stable Elastic IP) terminates TLS or plain HTTP directly. Skip to the next section if you front the site with an ALB instead.

1. Open your hosted zone and choose Create record.

   

2. Optional www hostname: create a CNAME (or a second A if you prefer) where the record name is www and the value is your apex hostname (for example example.com) or another canonical target you document for your app.

   

   Choose Create records.

3. Create an A record for the apex:

   1. Record name — leave blank for example.com apex.
   2. Record type — A.
   3. Alias — off for a raw IPv4 address.
   4. Value — the public IPv4 address (preferably your Elastic IP) of the instance.

   

   Save the record and wait for resolver caches to refresh.

Point DNS at an Application Load Balancer

For production web stacks, an ALB usually receives browser traffic. In Route 53, use an alias A (and AAAA if you enable IPv6) to the load balancer DNS name so AWS can keep targets healthy when addresses change.

1. In the same hosted zone, choose Create record.

   

2. Optional www record: same pattern as above—a CNAME (or alias) for www pointing at your chosen canonical name.

   

   Choose Create records.

3. Create an alias A for the apex:

   1. Record name — blank for apex.
   2. Record type — A.
   3. Alias — enabled.
   4. Route traffic to — Alias to Application and Classic Load Balancer, pick the Region, then select your ALB DNS name from the list.

   

Test resolution

1. From a browser or with dig / nslookup, query your apex and www names.

2. Open https://your-domain.example (after TLS is configured) and confirm the expected site loads.

   

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