Route 53 with external Domain Registrar?

Question

I have created a Route 53 hosted zone which contains a SOA, an NS record and a A record.

The A record points to the web instance I have hosted on AWS.

On the registrar what do I need to use to get the domain to use Amazon Route 53, is it just Nameservers? Or do I need an A record or a CNAME?

Which Nameservers should I use the SO or the NS record?

Thanks

Answer 1

Just adding the name servers to the registrar's website, brought my domain up and running.

To add or change name servers or glue records for a domain Review
Considerations for changing name servers and glue records and
address the applicable issues, if any.

Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Route 53 console
at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/.

In the navigation pane, choose Registered domains.

Choose the name of the domain for which you want to edit settings.

In the Details section, in the Actions dropdown choose Edit name
servers.

In the Edit name servers dialog box, you can do the following:

Change the DNS service for the domain by doing one of the following:

Replace the name servers for another DNS service with the name
servers for a Route 53 hosted zone

Replace the name servers for a Route 53 hosted zone with the name
servers for another DNS service

Replace the name servers for one Route 53 hosted zone with the name
servers for a different Route 53 hosted zone

For information about changing the DNS service for a domain, see
Making Amazon Route 53 the DNS service for an existing domain. For
information about getting the name servers for the Route 53 hosted
zone that you want to use for DNS service for the domain, see
Getting the name servers for a public hosted zone.

Add one or more name servers.

Replace the name of an existing name server.

If you specify white-label name servers, add or change the IP
addresses in glue records. You can enter addresses in IPv4 or IPv6
format. If a name server has multiple IP addresses, enter each
address on a separate line.

A white-label name server includes your domain name, such as
example.com, in the name of the name server, such as
ns1.example.com. When you specify a white-label name server, Route
53 prompts you to specify one or more IP addresses for the name
server. The IP address is known as a glue record. For more
information, see Configuring white-label name servers.

Delete a name server. Choose the x icon on the right side of the
field for that name server.

Warning If you change name servers to the wrong values, specify the
wrong IP addresses in glue records, or delete one or more name
servers without specifying new ones, your website or application
might become unavailable on the internet for up to two days.

Choose Update.

If you encounter issues while adding or changing name servers or
glue records, you can contact AWS Support for free. For more
information, see Contacting AWS Support about domain registration
issues.

Answer 2

Just name server entries, here is AWS documentation on Migrating DNS Service for an Existing Domain to Amazon Route 53.

Which name servers? Here are steps on how/where to get them and add them in 3rd party server.

Step 5: Update Your Registrar's Name Servers

Step2: In the Amazon Route 53 console, get the name servers for your Amazon Route 53 hosted zone:

Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/.

In the navigation pane, click Hosted Zones.

On the Hosted Zones page, choose the radio button (not the name) for the hosted zone.

In the right pane, make note of the four servers listed for Name Servers.

Alternatively, you can use the GetHostedZone action. For more information, see GetHostedZone in the Amazon Route 53 API Reference.

Step3: Using the method provided by the registrar for the domain, replace the name servers in the registrar's NS records with the four Amazon Route 53 name servers that you got in step 2.

Note Some registrars only allow you to specify name servers using IP addresses; they don't allow you to specify fully qualified domain names. If your registrar requires using IP addresses, you can get the IP addresses for your name servers using the dig utility (for Mac, Unix, or Linux) or the nslookup utility (for Windows). We rarely change the IP addresses of name servers; if we need to change IP addresses, we'll notify you in advance.

Answer 3

You are still using your registrar's Name Server.

Change it to AWS Route53 name server.