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Coming in the first release. This page describes behaviour being built for the first Gliss release. Details may change before it ships.
You don’t need to be a DNS expert for this. You buy a domain in the AWS console, wait for an email, click one link, and copy one value into the Gliss install form.

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Why Gliss needs a domain

Every app gets a web address under the domain you give Gliss. With the domain acme-apps.com, an app called expenses is at: When you buy the domain in the same AWS account you install Gliss into, Route 53 (AWS’s DNS service) creates a hosted zone for it by itself. A hosted zone is where the domain’s DNS records live. Gliss adds its records and certificates to that zone during the install, so there is nothing else to configure.
Just want to try Gliss? Choose We don’t have one: use a Gliss trial domain in the install form instead. It needs no domain, and lasts 30 days.

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Before you start

  • Permission to buy domains. Your AWS user or role needs permission to register domains (route53domains:RegisterDomain). Some companies block domain purchases for every account with AWS Organizations policies. If you see “access denied”, ask your AWS administrator.
  • A valid payment method on the account. The registration is charged to the account’s payment method; AWS credits can’t pay for domains.
  • The domain belongs to that AWS account. Choose a name your company will keep, and an account that will stay open: if the account is closed, the domain goes with it. You can’t rename a domain after you buy it, and registrations aren’t refunded.
  • The price. About $13 to $15 a year for a .com, plus $0.50 a month for the hosted zone. The console shows the exact price before you pay; see Route 53 pricing for every domain ending.
  • One email to answer. AWS emails the registrant contact a verification link. Click it within 15 days at most (some domain endings allow only 3), or the domain is suspended. Use an email address someone reads, and click the link the same day.
  • Time. Registration usually takes minutes, and can take hours. Some domain endings take a few days.

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Buy the domain in the AWS console

Sign in to the AWS account you will install Gliss into.
1

Open Registered domains

Open the Route 53 console. In the navigation pane, choose Domains, then Registered domains, then Register domains.
2

Search for a name

In Search for domain, type the name you want, for example acme-apps.com, and choose Search. If it’s taken, Route 53 suggests similar names. Choose the one you want; it appears under Selected domains.Short names with only letters, digits and hyphens are easiest. Then choose Proceed to checkout.
3

Choose the duration and auto-renew

On the Pricing page, choose how many years to register for (one is fine), and turn on automatic renewal, so your apps don’t stop working when the year ends. Choose Next.
4

Enter the contact details

On the Contact information page, enter the registrant contact: the person or company that owns the domain. By default the admin, technical and billing contacts are the same.
  • Use a real email address that someone will read. The verification email goes there.
  • If the domain belongs to your company, set Contact type to your company rather than a person, and enter its name in Organization.
  • Under Privacy protection, choose Turn on privacy protection, so your contact details are hidden from public WHOIS lookups.
Choose Next.
5

Review and submit

On the Review page, check the domain name carefully, because it can’t be changed later. Accept the terms of service and choose Submit.
6

Click the link in the verification email

The email comes from noreply@registrar.amazon (for some domain endings, noreply@domainnameverification.net or noreply@emailverification.info). Click the link in it. If you’ve registered a domain with the same email address before, there is no email.
7

Follow the registration

In the navigation pane, choose Domains, then Requests. Your registration is listed there with its status, and whether the email address is verified. You can resend the verification email from this page. AWS also emails you when the registration finishes.
8

Find the hosted zone

When the registration is done, choose Hosted zones in the navigation pane. There is a zone with your domain’s name. Open it and copy its Hosted zone ID, which looks like Z0123456789ABC. You need it in the Gliss form.
AWS’s own guide to these steps: Registering a new domain.

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Prefer a script?

A Gliss script that buys the domain from AWS CloudShell is coming to the install panel, as Buy a domain in this AWS account. It does the same as the steps above, and asks you to type a confirmation before it spends any money. Until it ships, use the console steps.

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Then, in Gliss

In the install form in the Gliss console:
  1. In Domain for your apps, enter the domain you bought, for example acme-apps.com.
  2. Under Where is DNS for acme-apps.com managed?, choose Here, in this AWS account: I have a Route 53 zone for acme-apps.com.
  3. In Hosted zone id, paste the hosted zone ID you copied.
Launch the install as usual. The stack adds your apps’ records to the zone and creates no zone of its own. It requests the certificates for your apps’ addresses, and they are validated automatically through the same zone, with nothing for you to click. If the form asks you to add a TXT record to prove you own the domain, add it in the hosted zone: Create record, record type TXT, with the name and value the form shows.
You can also give Gliss a subdomain, such as apps.acme-apps.com, and keep the bare domain for something else. Then choose Here: I have a Route 53 zone for its parent acme-apps.com and paste the same hosted zone ID as the Parent zone id. The stack creates the subdomain’s zone by itself.

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Troubleshooting

Someone else owns it. Try another ending (.io, .dev, .net) or add a word, such as acme-apps.com instead of acme.com. Pick one of Route 53’s suggestions if one suits you.
Your AWS user or role isn’t allowed to register domains, or your company’s AWS Organizations policy blocks it. Ask your AWS administrator to register the domain in this account for you, or to allow route53domains:RegisterDomain for you.
The Requests page shows the status. The most common cause is the payment: check the account’s payment method in the AWS Billing console, then register again. AWS Support helps with domain registration for free, even without a support plan: Contacting AWS Support about domain registration issues.
Check your junk folder. Then, on the Requests page, resend it. If the email address is wrong, correct the registrant contact on the domain’s page under Registered domains; a new email goes to the new address. If the domain was already suspended, it comes back by itself as soon as you click the link. See Resending authorization and confirmation emails.
  • Check you’re signed in to the same AWS account you bought the domain in. Hosted zones aren’t tied to a region.
  • Check the registration has finished on the Requests page; the zone appears when it does.
  • If someone deleted the zone, create a new public hosted zone with the domain’s name, then update the domain’s name servers (under Registered domains) to the four in the new zone’s NS record. See Replacing the hosted zone for a domain.