Very Siberian's picture

Hello! I just signed up for a TKL account with Amazon. I want to use a subdomain to host an instance of WordPress, but the settings seem to imply that I must change my domain nameservers to those of Amazon. That's going to be difficult since the domain is already configured for a production site on the TLD with various associated records. Is there not a way to simply create a new A record with my current domain host to point to the TKL WordPress instance?

Best regards,

Rob

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Jeremy Davis's picture

In theory what you want should be possible. But I've never tried it, so can't 100% confirm, but I will detail how I think it should work. Fingers crossed it works. But please let me know either way. If it does work, I'll open a new feature request to write up a docs for that configuration and update the Hub's wording so it's clearer. If it doesn't work, then I'll open a new feature request to make it work.

The process would go something like this: Add your desired new subdomain to your existing DNS management (i.e. where you have all your existing records configured), but only create NS records for the new subdomain (no A records, etc). Point the new subdomain NS records to the AWS nameservers as recommended by the Hub. Then set up the Hub's domain management as if your subdomain were a TLD.

Then to manually create an A record for this subdomain, leave the hostname field within the Hub (i.e. where it says "Hostname (e.g. www)") blank. AFAIK, you should be able to update the IP address via HubDNS.

Please note though, that if you intend to use this with a Hub server, there is a somewhat related bug. If you want to link the subdomain to an existing Hub server, you'll need to initially do that manually via the domain page, rather than adding it to the server via the servers page.

Let me know how you go...

Very Siberian's picture

Thank you! I did all of these things and it does work. I am not sure if it's related, but I am not able to (1) associate an elastic IP or (2) associate a hostname. 

For the elastic IP, the error message is:

Error associating Elastic IP '34.231.226.234' (The instance 'i-00652d0b8cd687175 belongs to a VPC).

For the hostname, I'm able to select the subdomain from the dropdown list, but the Associate button is greyed out (perhaps because there's nothing to enter in the left-hand text box).

I would appreciate further input,

Rob

Jeremy Davis's picture

That's a bug that I'd really like to see resolved. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the Hub suggests that it can add existing elastic IPs to servers and/or add elastic IPs to existing servers, the Hub can currently only add a new elastic IP to a new server at launch time. If you wish to reuse an existing elastic IP and/or add an elastic IP to an existing server, unfortunately, you'll need to do that via the AWS console.

I don't currently have any configured, so I can't give you really explicit instructions, but you'll find the elastic IPs page in AWS console here. Please note that the AWS console is split into regions. It will open on your "default" region, so if you don't see anything there, please cross reference your server's region within the Hub, and select the appropriate region in the AWS console region drop down (towards the top right corner, second one in, between "Support" and your username). Hopefully it should be easy enough. Let me know if you have issues.

To associate the hostname with the IP, you'll either need to do that from the Hub's Domains page or via the commandline from your server using HubDNS. If using the Hub, leave the Hostname box blank and just include the IP address and adjust the TTL if desired (unlikely if you're using an elastic IP).

Hopefully that gets you up and running...

Very Siberian's picture

Ah, I see. Thank you for letting me know!

L. Arnold's picture

I just spent some time with this.  The issue is that AWS is assigning Elastic IP's to the "VPC" scope, rather than EC2-Classic.

What is happening on the hub is that One sees "VPC" attached Elastic IPs, but they cannot be attached.  In AWS console you can move an IP to EC2-Classic..  but then the Hub does not see it...

Moreover,  when you move a Elastic IP address in AWS to EC2-Classic (or not) basically when you go to assign it to an instance the hub is not finding any Instances to attach to.

Something is out of whack.  Not sure what.

Jeremy Davis's picture

The Hub has a few issues with elastic IPs. It works great if you create a new elastic IP and then link it to a fresh server (at launch time). But otherwise, I would recommend using AWS console for attaching and/or changing elastic IPs for existing servers. I also wouldn't recommend using EC2-Classic networking if you can avoid it. AWS are phasing it out, so better to move before you have to.

L. Arnold's picture

Yes, the VPC was what was correct.  For some reason it was not attaching however.  In the end I got it to work in AWS..  Not sure why it was being difficult.

Jeremy Davis's picture

It's a Hub bug. I do hope to fix it at some point, but I don't currently have access to the Hub code.

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