Move the alternate domain name
Depending on your situation, choose from the following ways to move the alternate domain name:
- The source and target distributions (standard or tenant) are in the same AWS account
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Use the update-domain-association command in the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to move the alternate domain name.
This command works for all same-account moves, including when the alternate domain name is an apex domain (also called a root domain, like example.com).
- The source and target distributions (standard or tenant) are in different AWS accounts
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If you have access to the source standard distribution or distribution tenant, the alternate domain name is not an apex domain, and you are not already using a wildcard that overlaps with that alternate domain name, use a wildcard to move the alternate domain name. For more information, see Use a wildcard to move an alternate domain name.
If you don’t have access to the AWS account that has the source standard distribution or distribution tenant, you can try using the update-domain-association command to move the alternate domain name. The source standard distribution or distribution tenant must be disabled before you can move the alternate domain name. For additional help, see Contact AWS Support to move an alternate domain name.
Note
You can use the associate-alias command, but this command only supports standard distributions. See AssociateAlias in the Amazon CloudFront API Reference.
Use a wildcard to move an alternate domain name
If the source distribution is in a different AWS account than the target distribution, and the source distribution is enabled, you can use a wildcard to move the alternate domain name.
Note
You can’t use a wildcard to move an apex domain (like example.com). To move an apex domain when the source and target distributions are in different AWS accounts, contact Support. For more information, see Contact AWS Support to move an alternate domain name.
To use a wildcard to move an alternate domain name
Note
This process involves multiple updates to your distributions. Wait for each distribution to fully deploy the latest change before proceeding to the next step.
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Update the target distribution to add a wildcard alternate domain name that covers the alternate domain name that you are moving. For example, if the alternate domain name that you’re moving is www.example.com, add the alternate domain name *.example.com to the target distribution. To do this, the SSL/TLS certificate on the target distribution must include the wildcard domain name. For more information, see Update a distribution.
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Update the DNS settings for the alternate domain name to point to the domain name of the target distribution. For example, if the alternate domain name that you’re moving is www.example.com, update the DNS record for www.example.com to route traffic to the domain name of the target distribution (for example d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net).
Note
Even after you update the DNS settings, the alternate domain name is still served by the source distribution because that’s where the alternate domain name is currently configured.
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Update the source distribution to remove the alternate domain name. For more information, see Update a distribution.
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Update the target distribution to add the alternate domain name. For more information, see Update a distribution.
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Use dig (or a similar DNS query tool) to validate that the DNS record for the alternate domain name resolves to the domain name of the target distribution.
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(Optional) Update the target distribution to remove the wildcard alternate domain name.
Contact AWS Support to move an alternate domain name
If the source and target distributions are in different AWS accounts, and you don’t have access to the source distribution’s AWS account or can’t disable the source distribution, you can contact Support to move the alternate domain name.
To contact Support to move an alternate domain name
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Set up a target distribution, including the DNS TXT record that points to the target distribution. For more information, see Set up the target standard distribution or distribution tenant.
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Contact Support
to request that they verify that you own the domain, and move the domain to the new CloudFront distribution for you. -
After the target distribution is fully deployed, update your DNS configuration to point the alternate domain name’s DNS record to the distribution domain name of the target distribution.