After reading an article about Amazon AWS Route 53 taking on Godaddy.com, and running into to a few issues with my WordPress website on Microsoft Azure, I decided to give Amazon AWS a try.
I found creating a Linux VM very easy. No instructions needed, the UI was very intuitive. I thought creating the WordPress site would be more difficult on AWS. After all, I had run into a number of challenges with the “automated” WordPress installs on Microsoft Azure (provided by ClearDB and Bitnami). In short, I spent many hours with tech support from both companies. Some issues were major, others more trivial – yet still important. For example, Bitnami puts in an annoying “dog ear” in the bottom right corner of the your home page with their logo. But I digress…
I was pleased to find that creating a WordPress site on AWS (manually) was straight forward. The instructions were very well written:
Tutorial: Installing a LAMP Web Server on Amazon Linux
http://amzn.to/1Shrf4H
Tutorial: Hosting a WordPress Blog with Amazon Linux
http://amzn.to/1Shr9dd
Heading Down Route 53
After getting a default WordPress site up and running (in about 30 minutes). The next step was to transfer my domain name. I read the AWS Route 53 domain transfer instructions and had some questions.
Transferring a Domain to Amazon Route 53
http://amzn.to/1ShrgFL
However, I found a nice, brief (~1 minute) video on youtube that answered all my questions. Kudos to Sibercat X.
The Transfer Process (and the missing step)
In a nutshell, you start your domain transfer to Route 53 by logging on to Godaddy.com and clicking: Manage your domain. You click on unlock and get an email with your authorization code:
The next step is to plug in your authorization code to the AWS Route 53 console and away you go.
Sitting, Waiting, Wishing
However, 12 hours later, I was still waiting A check of my AWS Route 53 console reveals the following (step 7 of 14):
I decided to do a quick Google search to figure out what’s taking so long. After all, this can’t be a manual process, it has to automated end-to-end. I find the following explanation:
Waiting for the current registrar to complete the transfer (step 7 of 14)
Your current registrar is confirming that your domain meets the requirements for being transferred. Requirements vary among TLDs, but the following requirements are typical:
- You must have registered the domain with the current registrar at least 60 days ago.
- If the registration for a domain name expired and had to be restored, it must have been restored at least 60 days ago.
- You must have transferred registration for the domain to the current registrar at least 60 days ago.
- The domain cannot have any of the following domain name status codes:
- clientTransferProhibited
- pendingDelete
- pendingTransfer
- redemptionPeriod
The first three bullets are straight forward, I know they don’t apply to me. However, I find the sub bullet status codes cryptic. Instead of searching Google again, I decide to log back in to Godaddy.com and look around I click the manage my domain button and voila – I find the problem. There’s an undocumented step in the transfer instructions. Godaddy.com makes you go back and accept the transfer a second time (even after accepting the initial transfer request link from their email). Here’s what you’ll see in Godaddy.com’s console:
All you need to do is click on Accept and away you go, you’re on to Step 8.
Liner notes. The title of this article came from a song by Jack Johnson.
KevinMcCauley.com 