Summary

The AWS DDNS for Docker project is a container that performs a simple task: Whenever your external (WAN) IP address changes, update one or more DNS records in Amazon Route 53.

Description

This project is aimed at anybody who self-hosts services without a static IP and uses Route 53 for their domain DNS. Whether you use it to connect to your home VPN, host game servers, or have a small home business, this is a quick, free, and easy alternative to services such as DynDNS.

By using this container you'll have your own self-hosted dynamic DNS updater up and running in a matter of minutes!

If you are hosting multiple domains (or sub-domains), you can enter them all, leaving a space between each
Example: shop.example.com mail.mycustomdomain.com vpn.familynamehere.com

The main code borrows heavily from famzah's aws-dyndns script, as it is a simple, no-frills script that just works.

The base image is phusion/baseimage to make it as lightweight as possible while still giving it self-healing capability.

Pre-Requisites

• Get the Zone ID for the hosted domain from the Route 53 Hosted Zones console
• Create a new user. Make sure you record the Access Key ID and Access Key Secret
• Edit the new user and click Inline Policies
• Use the Visual Editor:
  • Service: Amazon Route 53
  • Actions: Add ChangeResourceRecordSets
  • Effect: Allow
  • Resources: Under HostedZone, click Add ARN. In the ID field, enter the Zone ID you got earlier
    • Example: arn:aws:route53:::hostedzone/Z148QEXAMPLE8V
• Click Review Policy
• Give the policy a descriptive name
• Click Create Policy

Environment Variables

All variable names and values are case-sensitive!

Any variable with a blank default is REQUIRED, the container will not start properly without them being defined.

Name	Default	Description
AWS_ACCESS_KEY		Access key from AWS
AWS_SECRET		Secret key from AWS
AWS_ZONE_ID		Unique zone ID from Route 53 for the hosted domain
DOMAIN		Space-separated list of domains to keep updated
DNS_TTL	300	TTL value for the DNS record, in seconds
RECHECK_SECS	900	Number of seconds between checking for IP address updates
MAX_RETRIES	10	Maximum number of times to retry the DNS update if an error is encountered
RETRY_DELAY	30	Number of seconds before retrying a failed DNS update

Docker Configuration

The container doesn't require any volumes or special setup besides the proper values in the environment variables. It MUST be able to connect to the internet.

Using Docker Run

$ docker run -d \
    --name aws-ddns \
    -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY="AK6fakekey4EE" \
    -e AWS_SECRET="SuperDuperSecret" \
    -e AWS_ZONE_ID="Z0000fakezone000" \
    -e DOMAIN="example.com" \
    diceninjagaming/aws-ddns

If you're updating multiple domains, change the DOMAIN line to something like:

-e DOMAIN="shop.example.com mail.mycustomdomain.com vpn.familynamehere.com" \

Using Docker Compose

The latest version of the sample docker-compose.yml will always be found in the root of the repo.

version: "3"

services: 
  aws-ddns: 
    image: diceninjagaming/aws-ddns:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      AWS_ACCESS_KEY: AK6fakekey4EE
      AWS_SECRET: SuperDuperSecret
      AWS_ZONE_ID: Z0000fakezone000
      DOMAIN: example.com
      DNS_TTL: 300
      RECHECK_SECS: 900

If you're updating multiple domains, change the DOMAIN line to something like:

DOMAIN: shop.example.com mail.mycustomdomain.com vpn.familynamehere.com