About

This is a simple way to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) for dynamic DNS (DynDNS) updates.

Running locally

If you want to start the application locally for testing or development you can do so easily. At first, you have to define the application settings. To do so you can create a copy of the .env.example:

cp .env.example .env

Have a look at the created .env file and customize it as to your needs. Then use Docker to start the application:

docker compose up

Depending on your settings you should now be able to access the application with your web browser by calling a URL similar to this:

http://localhost/?authToken=my-secret-token&awsDomainName=my-ip.example.com&ip=127.0.0.1

Deploy to production

This production setup requires Docker. You can run your own web server with Docker in minutes using services like DigitalOcean or Vultr. This production setup also depends on docker-traefik running on the production machine so make sure to first prepare it before continuing with this setup.

At first, you have to define the application settings. To do so you can create a copy of the .env.example:

cp .env.example .env

Have a look at the created .env file and customize it as to your needs. Especially make sure you have DNS records for the specified hostname ("domain") so that Traefik will be able to automatically obtain a certificate after deployment.

To deploy into production docker compose is used. Make sure to create a docker context once before the first execution. For this to work you need SSH access with SSH key authentication to the production machine. Replace <username> and <hostname> and run the following command to create a docker context named production:

docker context create production --docker "host=ssh://<username>@<hostname>"

With the docker context created you can run the following command to deploy to the production machine:

docker context use production && \
docker compose -f docker-compose.production.yml build --no-cache && \
sleep 3s && \
docker compose -f docker-compose.production.yml stop && \
sleep 3s && \
docker compose -f docker-compose.production.yml up -d && \
sleep 3s && \
docker context use default

When this step is complete docker-traefik should automatically generate a Lets Encrypt certificate and start serving your application at the hostname previously defined in your .env file. Depending on your settings you should now be able to dynamically update the DNS records of your domain by calling a web URL similar to this:

https://aws-dyndns.example.com/?authToken=my-secret-token&awsDomainName=my-ip.example.com&ip=127.0.0.1

You should get one of the following HTTP response status codes:

Status Code	Info
200	OK: Everything worked as expected. DNS records have been updated successfully.
400	Bad Request: Probably a required parameter is missing (see response details).
403	Forbidden: You defined an auth token in the application settings but the auth token given in the request is missing or wrong.
429	Too Many Requests: You defined a rate limit in the application settings and reached it for the current hour.
502	Bad Gateway: There has been an error in the interaction with the AWS Route 53 API.

If everything works you can use this URL to automatically update DNS records with your current IP, e.g. by setting it up in your router at home. For details about how to do this you should have a look at the docs for your specific router.

Tech Stack

Technology	Info
AWS Route 53	Route 53 in the Amazon Web Services is used as backend to manage dynamic DNS records.
AWS SDK (PHP)	The AWS SDK for PHP is used to interact with the AWS Route 53 API.
Composer	Composer is used to manage PHP packages/dependencies and for autoloading.
Docker	Docker (compose) is used to run this application for development and production.
Laravel Pint	Pint is used to have a consistent code style.
PHP	PHP is used as programming language.
Traefik	Traefik is used as reverse proxy. It manages Lets Encrypt certificates in production.

Composer

To install Composer packages via Docker use the following command:

docker run --rm --interactive --tty --volume $PWD:/app --user $(id -u):$(id -g) composer install --ignore-platform-reqs

Laravel Pint

Run Laravel Pint for code styling when Docker containers are running:

docker exec aws-dyndns-php-1 ./vendor/bin/pint

AWS Policy

To be able to manage DNS records for dynamic DNS in Route 53 at the Amazon Web Services credentials have to be provided to this application. To do so you can create a new user in an existing AWS account and generate authentication codes (= key and secret) for the user. You also have to create a policy which allows to manage DNS records for the relevant hosted zone ("domain") in AWS Route 53. This policy then has to be assigned to the newly created user account. You can use the given policy below, just make sure to replace <your-hosted-zone-id> with the correct id of your hosted zone:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:route53:::hostedzone/<your-hosted-zone-id>"
        }
    ]
}