Domain Recipes
This guide provides a few recipes for registering and purchasing necessary domains before creating your Hub Cloud stack.
Site domains: Site Domain Name, Internal Domain, and Short Link Domain
Email domains: Outgoing Email Domain and Outgoing Email Subdomain Prefix
To simplify setup, it's highly recommended you setup external domains to use Route 53 Hosted Zones as the DNS provider, since Hubs Cloud will then be able to manage DNS and SSL certificate renewals for you.
Setup external domains to use Route 53 as the hosting/DNS provider
NOT USING the domains registered on Namecheap/GoDaddy/HostGator/etc or another external domain registrar? To make HC set up easier, we recommend setting up your domain's nameservers to point to AWS Route 53 as the hosting/DNS provider (AWS Route 53 Hosted Zones). Follow How to setup on Route 53 in next section.
USING the domains already? Already hosting something and can't change nameservers? Then use Recipe 3 for deployment.
How to setup on Route 53
You'll need to follow instructions in Route 53 Hosted Zones to "Create Hosted Zone" then update the domain nameservers in your domain registrar to point to AWS ones.
For specific instructions for YOUR DOMAIN REGISTRAR and changing your domain registrar's domain nameservers to Route 53, web search:
- Keywords: <YOUR DOMAIN REGISTRAR>, DNS hosting, setup Route 53 Hosted Zones, change YOUR DOMAIN REGISTRAR nameservers
How to change my nameservers on <YOUR DOMAIN REGISTRAR> websiteChange <YOUR DOMAIN REGISTRAR> DNS for a domainPoint my <YOUR DOMAIN REGISTRAR> domain to Route 53 Hosted Zones
Your domain is set up on Route 53, if/when it meets one of two criteria:
- It was purchased on AWS. It's nameservers point to AWS, it shows up on Route 53 Hosted Zones and Registered Domains.
- Your domains are set up to use AWS Route 53 DNS Hosting via Hosted Zones and the nameservers have been changed to point to AWS Route 53. These domains were purchased in a domain registrar like Namecheap or GoDaddy.
When should I use Recipe 3?
Use Recipe 3 when your website is already hosting something or used elsewhere for other purposes already and you can NOT change the nameservers.
OR you have a SECOND LEVEL domain that is ".co.uk" or ".com.fr", there's a known bug that you need to follow the Recipe 3 for these domains.
You do NOT need to (but you CAN), if your domains are not being used by anything, in that case follow How to setup on Route 53 above section.
For example, for us to use mozilla.com (and not break the pre-existing site), we had to follow Recipe 3 and NOT change nameservers to point to AWS for hubs.mozilla.com to work as a subdomain.
Using a second level domain (.co.uk, .com.fr, etc)?
Use domain Recipe 3 regardless of whether you bought the domains on Route 53 (we have a known bug).
Recipe 1: Dedicated domain on Route 53
myhub.comOR subdomainhub.myhub.comconnects to your hub - Warning! Do not create a new Hosted Zone forhub.myhub.comon Route 53! The Cloudformation template will manage the connections on your root domain,myhub.com, hosted zone.myhub.comis NOT used for any other purpose or sitesmysite.comset up on on Route 53 (?)anothersubdomain.myhub.comcould be used for any other purposes or sites
Instructions:
Set up or purchase 2 domains on Route 53
myhub.com- Houses Hub site domain name + internal server domainmyhub.link- Short link domain name
Known bug + fix: Using a second level domain (.co.uk, .com.fr, etc)? Use Recipe 3.
Next, specify the following when creating the stack:
| STACK OPTIONS | RECIPE 1 |
|---|---|
| Site Domain Name | myhub.com OR hub.myhub.com |
| Site is Set Up On Route 53 | Yes |
| Internal Domain | myhub.com |
| Short Link Domain | myhub.link |
| Outgoing Email Domain | myhub.com |
| Outgoing Email Subdomain Prefix | mail |
Recipe 2: Domain is in-use, configure subdomain for hub on Route 53
hub.mysite.comconnects to your hub. - Warning! Do not create a new Hosted Zone forhub.mysite.comon Route 53! The Cloudformation template will manage the connections on your root domain,mysite.com, hosted zone.mysite.comIS used for other sites or purposesmysite.comset up on on Route 53 (?)anothersubdomain.myhub.comcould be used for any other purposes or sites
Known bug + fix: Using a second level domain (.co.uk, .com.fr, etc)? Use Recipe 3.
Instructions:
Set up or purchase 3 domains on Route 53
mysite.com- Houses subdomain as Hub site domain name + the other sites or purposes at the rootmyhub.link- Short link domain namemysite-internal.com- Internal server domain. This can be any name you want, and will not be seen by users.
Warning! Do not create a new Hosted Zone for the subdomain hub.mysite.com on Route 53. The Cloudformation template will create CNAME records on the Hosted Zone for your root domain, mysite.com, to manage the subdomain connections for you.
Next, specify the following when creating the stack:
| STACK OPTIONS | RECIPE 2 |
|---|---|
| Site Domain Name | hub.mysite.com |
| Site is Set Up On Route 53 | Yes |
| Internal Domain | mysite-internal.com |
| Short Link Domain | myhub.link |
| Outgoing Email Domain | mysite.com |
| Outgoing Email Subdomain Prefix | mail |
Recipe 3: Domain CAN NOT be on Route 53
- When should I use Recipe 3?
mysite.comCAN NOT be set up on Route 53 (?)mysite.comconnects to your hub ORhub.mysite.comconnects to your hub
Instructions:
Set up or purchase 2 domains on Route 53 (optional 3 domains)
myhub.link- Short link domain namemysite-internal.com- Internal server domain + email domain. This can be any name you want, and will not be seen by users.- (optional)
mysite-mail.com- Email domain, if usingmysite-internal.comfor emails is not what you want.
To use an existing email provider, read through our Using an Existing Email Provider Guide
First, follow Using an Existing Domain: SSL Certificates instructions
Next, specify the following when creating the stack:
| STACK OPTIONS | RECIPE 3 |
|---|---|
| Site Domain Name | mysite.com OR hub.mysite.com + SSL certificates |
| Site is Set Up On Route 53 | No |
| Internal Domain | mysite-internal.com |
| Short Link Domain | myhub.link |
| Outgoing Email Domain | mysite-internal.com OR mysite-mail.com |
| Outgoing Email Subdomain Prefix | mail |
Lastly, after the stack is successfully deployed, follow Using an Existing Domain: DNS Setup instructions
If you run into any issues:
- Check Site Domain Name is typed correctly with no typos.
- Check AWS Console > Route 53 > Hosted Zones and all of the domains you listed above are registered on Route 53 or you've updated the nameservers for your domains to point to AWS Route 53 as the DNS host
- Find the rollback error in the stack output for your region AWS Troubleshooting: see first stack error event
- Troubleshoot any common errors via AWS Troubleshooting documentation
- If you can't find what you need in the rest of our documentation, see the help page for ways to get in touch.