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Domain Setup with DynDNS

Objective

To set up DNS hostnames for a deployment's load balancing and database tiers using DynDNS as the DNS provider.

Table of Contents

Overview

DynDNS (http://www.dyndns.com/) is a supported DNS Provider that offers dynamic DNS services. Sign-up for one of the their pay plans to create hostnames for both the load balancing and database tiers. A free trial version is also available for testing purposes. 

Steps

Create a New Account

Go to DynDNS (http://www.dyndns.com) and create an account.  You can either sign-up for a pay account or limited free trial.  This tutorial will show examples using a free trial account.

Click the link in your email confirmation to complete the registration process.

Add a Domain

Log into your DynDNS account and click on My Services for your account. You can either register a new domain or transfer an existing domain to your account.

Confirm that the domain name information is correct and click Continue.

Create Hostnames

The next step is to create DNS hostnames for your cloud servers.  You'll need to create DNS Hostnames for both your frontend / load balancing tier, as well as your database tier. 

Database Tier

diag-3tier_ga-dyndns_BEFORE-v1.png

 

Click the option to Add New Hostname.

 

For Returning Users with a Paid Account
If you are an existing user with a registered domain, log into your DynDNS account, go to My Services Domain names, DNS hosting, Dyn Email services, click on the service link for your domain (screenshot) and click the Add Hostname button (screenshot).

 

First, create a DNS hostname for your Master-DB server.

screen-DynDNS_Master-v1.png

  • Hostname - Enter a unique subdomain to create a hostname for your domain.
  • Wildcard - (Optional)
  • Service Type - Select the "Host with IP address" option.
  • IP Address - Enter the IP Address of your local machine.  This IP Address serves as a placeholder since you will not know the IP address that the Master-DB will be assigned when it is launched.  Later, when you set up your database servers, a script will be run that will update the DNS record with the instance's private IP address.  Note: If you enter an obvious placeholder IP Address (e.g. 1.2.3.4) you will get a warning message. It's best to simply use your current location's IP for this field.
  • Mail Routing - (Optional)


Click Add to Cart.  You should now have one hostname in your shopping cart. 

If you are using the 11H1 ServerTemplates, you will need to create another hostname for your Slave-DB. If you are using the Chef-based ServerTemplates, you can skip this step.

Click the My Services link in the navigational menu.  Click Add Hostname link. 

screen-DynDNS_AddHostname-v1.png

Create a hostname for the Slave-DB and click the  Add to Cart button.

screen-DynDNS_Slave-v1.png

Load Balancing Tier

Create a hostname for each load balancer server. Click the My Services link in the navigational menu. Click Add Hostname link. 

If you are using Elastic IPs or already know the public IP addresses of your load balancer servers, you can enter the IP address when you create the hostname, otherwise you must manually update the hostname record after the load balancers are operational and have been assigned their public IP address.

Activate Hostnames

The last step is to activate the hostnames. In order to make the hostnames usable, you must first checkout and sign-up for a free trial or paid account. 

Once you have a valid account, the hostnames will become activated.

Important!
If you registered the domain outside of DynDNS, the hostnames will not take effect until the domain registrar updates their name server settings accordingly. 

Input Name Matrix

When you configure the deployment's inputs, specify the following information so that the scripts will be able to update the DNS hostnames inside DynDNS. The names of the inputs are slightly different depending on whether you're using RightScale's RightScript-based (11H1) or Chef-based ServerTemplates.

Input Name - 11H1 (RightScripts) Input Name - v12, v13 (Chef) Example Value

DNS_PROVIDER

DNS Service Provider

text:  DynDNS

DNS_PASSWORD DNS Password

cred:  DNS_PASSWORD or DYNDNS_PASSWORD

(Password to access the DynDNS account)

DNS_USER DNS User

cred:  DNS_USER or DYDNS_USER

(Username to access the DynDNS account)

MASTER_DB_DNSNAME Database Master FQDN

text:  db-master.example.com

(Hostname for the Master-DB server)

MASTER_DB_DNSID

Database Master DNS Record ID

text:  db-master.example.com

(Hostname for the Master-DB server)

SLAVE_DB_DNSID

Database Slave DNS Record ID (Optional)

text:  db-slave.example.com

(Hostname for the Slave-DB server)

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Last modified
10:09, 28 Jun 2013

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