How to connect a custom domain with Amazon Route 53

Create the ScaleEdges DNS records in your Amazon Route 53 hosted zone and activate HTTPS on your store's custom domain.

4 min read
Illustration showing AWS Route 53 hosted zone setup for DNS records with CNAME entries and connection to a ScaleEdges storefront with custom domain configuration.

Use this guide when your domain's DNS is hosted in Amazon Route 53. This is the case when the nameservers of your domain look like ns-123.awsdns-45.com, whether the domain was registered with Route 53 or elsewhere. See Find where your DNS is managed.

You need an AWS user allowed to view and change records in the domain's hosted zone.

Step 1: Get your records in ScaleEdges

  1. In your ScaleEdges dashboard, open Settings and select the Storefront tab.
  2. In the Custom domain card, enter your domain in Domain you own, for example shop.yourbrand.com or yourbrand.com.
  3. Select Connect domain and wait for the DNS records to add table.
  4. Keep this tab open. You will copy the Type, Name / host and Value of each row.

ScaleEdges shows a CNAME record for a subdomain, an A record for a root domain, and sometimes a TXT verification record.

Step 2: Open the hosted zone

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Route 53 console.
  2. In the navigation pane, choose Hosted zones.
  3. Choose the public hosted zone named after your domain, for example yourbrand.com.

If you see several hosted zones with the same name, use the one whose four NS records match the nameservers of your domain. Records created in another hosted zone have no effect. When you register a domain with Route 53, Route 53 creates this hosted zone and assigns its nameservers automatically.

Before creating anything, look in the list for records with the same name as your store, for example shop.yourbrand.com or yourbrand.com. Delete or edit any A, AAAA or CNAME record, including Alias records that point to an AWS resource, such as a CloudFront distribution, an S3 website or a load balancer. Do not change the NS, SOA and MX records.

Step 3: Create the records

Choose Create record. If the console opens the wizard instead of the quick create form, switch to Quick create. For each record, keep the Alias option turned off and the Routing policy on Simple routing.

For a subdomain (CNAME)

  1. In Record name, enter only the subdomain, for example shop. The console shows your domain after the field and adds it automatically.
  2. In Record type, choose CNAME.
  3. In Value, paste the Value shown in ScaleEdges. Route 53 accepts it with or without the final dot.
  4. In TTL (seconds), enter 300.
  5. Choose Create records.

For a root domain (A)

  1. Leave Record name empty. Do not enter @: in Route 53, an empty name means the root domain.
  2. In Record type, choose A.
  3. In Value, paste the IPv4 address shown in ScaleEdges. Enter only this address, on a single line.
  4. In TTL (seconds), enter 300.
  5. Choose Create records.

If an A record already exists on the root domain, Route 53 does not create a second one: edit the existing record instead and replace its value. Delete any AAAA record on the root domain, as ScaleEdges uses IPv4 only.

If ScaleEdges shows a TXT record

  1. In Record name, enter the part of the name before your domain, usually _vercel.
  2. In Record type, choose TXT.
  3. In Value, paste the value shown in ScaleEdges between double quotation marks, for example "vc-domain-verify=…". Route 53 requires quotation marks around TXT values.
  4. Choose Create records.

If a TXT record already exists with the same name, edit it and add the new value on a separate line, in quotation marks, instead of replacing the existing value.

Step 4: Check the configuration

  1. Return to Settings → Storefront → Custom domain in ScaleEdges.
  2. Select Check DNS configuration.
  3. When the status changes to Configuring HTTPS, wait a few minutes, then check again.
  4. When the status shows Active, select Open domain to view your store.

Route 53 usually applies changes to all its name servers within 60 seconds. Resolvers that cached a previous answer keep it until its TTL expires, which can be longer if you replaced a record with a high TTL. HTTPS is activated automatically by ScaleEdges; you do not need an AWS Certificate Manager certificate for your store.

Troubleshooting

  • The status stays on Waiting for DNS: make sure you edited the hosted zone whose NS records match your domain, that no Alias record remains on the same name, and that Record name contains only shop, not shop.yourbrand.com.
  • The status stays on Configuring HTTPS: if the zone contains CAA records, one of them must allow letsencrypt.org, for example with the value 0 issue "letsencrypt.org".
  • Redirecting www: a store uses one custom domain. Route 53 does not redirect by itself. To send the other version of your domain to your store, use a redirect service, then test it with http:// and https://.

For every other situation, read Custom domain troubleshooting.

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