In 1995, I registered my inaugural domain name and took my first steps online. At that time, the process was both costly and complicated. Before even registering a domain, one had to persuade at least two friends to manage the Domain Name Service (DNS) records. Fast forward to today, and domain registration is now both affordable and straightforward. While DNS hosting has become simpler, it still requires manual intervention via forms.
We are excited to announce Amazon Route 53, a programmable Domain Name Service. This service allows you to create, update, and remove DNS zone files for any domain you own. With Route 53, you have complete programmatic control, enabling you to easily adjust DNS entries as circumstances change. For instance, you can set up a new sub-domain for each customer of a Software as a Service (SaaS) application. DNS queries will be directed through a global network of 16 edge locations optimized for high availability and performance.
Route 53 also introduces a new concept known as a Hosted Zone. A Hosted Zone acts as a DNS zone file, beginning with the standard SOA (Start of Authority) record and potentially including other records such as A (IPv4 address), AAAA (IPv6 address), CNAME (canonical name), MX (mail exchanger), NS (name server), and SPF (Sender Policy Framework). Users maintain full control over the records within each Hosted Zone.
To get started, you create a new Hosted Zone for your domain. This zone will include one SOA record and four NS records. After that, you can submit batches of changes (additions, deletions, and updates) to the Hosted Zone and receive a change ID for each batch. You can then check Route 53 to confirm that the changes (identified by the change ID) have propagated to all name servers, which typically happens within 60 seconds. The zone’s status will switch from PENDING to INSYNC once all changes are applied, at which point you can update your domain registration with the new nameservers. For more details, our Route 53 Getting Started Guide offers a comprehensive overview of setting up a new Hosted Zone.
Each record in a Hosted Zone can point to both AWS and non-AWS resources, allowing you to utilize Route 53 for any desired mix of traditional and cloud-based resources and switch between them effortlessly.
Accessing Route 53 is possible through a concise set of REST APIs. While support for the AWS Management Console and Toolkit is still in the works, we are also addressing the “Zone Apex” issue.
Pricing for Route 53 is set at $1 per month for each Hosted Zone, $0.50 per million queries for the first billion queries each month, and $0.25 per million queries beyond that. Most websites typically see far fewer DNS queries than page views. For instance, if your site garners one million page views monthly, expect around 100,000 DNS queries. Thus, one billion queries represent a significant volume, and many sites won’t approach this threshold. DNS query results are cached by clients, and setting a high TTL (Time to Live) on records in your Hosted Zone can minimize the number of queries and associated costs.
Route 53 allows for up to 100 Hosted Zones per AWS account. If you require more, feel free to reach out to us, and we will gladly assist.
Additionally, the Route 53 and CloudFront teams are looking to fill several software developer and senior development manager positions. For more insights on this topic, you can visit this blog post, as they provide valuable information. Also, consider this resource on employee training and career skills, which is an excellent guide for those interested in furthering their skills.
— Michael;
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