DNS settings for cloud.gov

This page is primarily for the cloud.gov team. It's public so that you can learn from it. For help using cloud.gov, see the user docs.

The 18F/dns repository contains the cloud.gov.tf Terraform configuration which automatically updates AWS. The configuration file leverages resources of type aws_route53_record. To learn more about Terraform configuration continue on below, or read the documentation on Terraform’s documentation site.

Examples of records

The cloud.gov.tf Terraform configuration file supports the following record types:

• A
• AAAA
• CNAME
• MX
• TXT

For more information about about the available records, please read the Amazon Route 53 documentation site.

A/AAAA (alias record) example

Alias records work like a CNAME record in that you can map one DNS name (example.com) to another target DNS name (elb1234.elb.amazonaws.com). They differ from a CNAME record in that they are not visible to resolvers. Resolvers only see the A record and the resulting IP address of the target record.

resource "aws_route53_record" "cloud_gov_<DOMAIN_NAME_UNDERSCORED>_a" {
  zone_id = "${aws_route53_zone.cloud_gov_zone.zone_id}"
  name = "<DOMAIN_NAME>."
  type = "A"
  alias {
    name = "<CANONICAL_DOMAIN_NAME>"
    zone_id = "<ZONE_ID>"
    evaluate_target_health = false
  }
}

CNAME (canonical name record) example

resource "aws_route53_record" "cloud_gov_<DOMAIN_NAME_ALIAS_UNDERSCORED>_cname" {
  zone_id = "${aws_route53_zone.cloud_gov_zone.zone_id}"
  name = "<DOMAIN_NAME_ALIAS>."
  type = "CNAME"
  ttl = 60
  records = ["<CANONICAL_DOMAIN_NAME>."]
}

MX (mail exchanger record) example

resource "aws_route53_record" "cloud_gov_<DOMAIN_NAME_UNDERSCORED>_mx" {
  zone_id = "${aws_route53_zone.cloud_gov_zone.zone_id}"
  name = "<DOMAIN_NAME>."
  type = "MX"
  ttl = 300
  records = ["<PRIORITY> <MAIL_HOST_1>", "<PRIORITY> <MAIL_HOST_2>"]
}

TXT (text record) example

resource "aws_route53_record" "cloud_gov_<DOMAIN_NAME_UNDERSCORED>_txt" {
  zone_id = "${aws_route53_zone.cloud_gov_zone.zone_id}"
  name = "<DOMAIN_NAME>."
  type = "TXT"
  ttl = 300
  record = ["<key=VALUE>"]
}

A note about Terraform syntax

The configuration files uses the Terraform syntax. To read more about Terraform syntax, please read the documentation on Terraform’s documentation site.

Submit a Pull Request

To update a DNS record, submit a pull request to the 18F/dns repository with your changes. Either branches or forks are okay.

Pull requests will be reviewed and merged by a member of the infrastructure team or members of the cloud.gov team.