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I'm reading this guys post at http://codingthis.com/platforms/linux/how-to-point-a-domain-to-an-amazon-ec2-virtual-server/ and I am using Yahoo for the domain.

In his post he seems to point the Yahoo server. But I was wondering if anything needs to be done on the EC2 instance besides making the elastic IP. How does the EC2 instance know about Yahoo's server?

Edit: I am confused about this setup because when I last configured a VPS, several years back, I had to point my VPS to the name server. There was a field in webmin where I entered "ns1.yahoo.com". I am confused as to why I don't need to do that now.

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2 Answers 2

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How does the EC2 instance know about Yahoo's server?

Simple answer: it doesn't need to.

To make an analogy, a bookstore may not know about Google Maps, but you can still use Google Maps to get there.

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A couple years back I remember having to add things like ns2.yahoo.com on the host end. So I don't need to do this anymore? –  Mikhail Jul 22 '11 at 17:27
That's a nameserver record, which would need to be in place at the registrar. If you were using Yahoo, it's entirely possible that they were both host and registrar. –  ceejayoz Jul 22 '11 at 18:54
Thanks for the comment. This is what I was looking for! –  Mikhail Jul 22 '11 at 21:09

I am not entirely sure if I understand your question, but may be able to steer you in the right direction.

My understanding (of your question) is that you a) have a domain registered with Yahoo (as your registrar, providing your DNS/nameservers) and b) you want to host the website on EC2.

EC2 doesn't 'care' about the domain - it is just providing the storage, computing power, and network access. Your elastic IP gives you a static address. You need this for the DNS domain mapping to work (or you need a dynamic DNS service)

Your DNS doesn't 'care' about the hosting - it simply points the domain to an IP address (in this case).

So, on EC2 you will setup your elastic IP and associate it to your instance (the instance itself will need some other things - a web server - and you may configure the domain in that (e.g. with VirtualHosts if you have multiple domains) - otherwise, with a single domain, you can typically omit that).

On Yahoo (your DNS) you will point the domain to your elastic IP (an A record)

It will take some time for the change to propagate, but you can simulate it by adding the entry to your hosts file if you are in a particular hurry or want to test things out before making the change on Yahoo.

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