Supporting migrations / DNS cutovers
The purpose of this runbook is to provide guidance and tips when supporting migration projects that involve DNS changes.
Before implementation
Can we support weekend or out of hours work?
Operations Engineering does not offer any out of hour or weekend support for services. If asked, we should challenge any requests and try to schedule work within normal working hours.
Under exceptional circumstances, it may be appropriate to support changes out of hours, including weekends to mitigate risks, or due to contractual constraints. In this instance seek approval from the Product Manager or Head of Hosting before agreeing to any scheduling and let the rest of the team know.
How should DNS changes be submitted?
Ensure that all required DNS changes are submitted in writing by the requestor to domains@digital.justice.gov.uk.
This should include any supporting runbooks or other documentation.
If there is a bridge call related to the work, please add invite details to the shared Operations Engineering calendar for visibility.
Check that Operations Engineering manages the domains
Operations Engineering manages a vast majority of the MoJ DNS estate. However, things to look out for:
Have a good look round AWS Route53. We manage a lot more domains than just
justice.gov.ukandservice.justice.gov.uk. If the hosted zone of domain doesn’t appear in there, then we probably don’t manage it.If the domain doesn’t appear, it may still be worth looking in Route53
Registered Domains. If we have registered the domain then it must be somewhere in Route53. Keep digging.If a domain is in Route53, but is a subdomain that is an NS Record type then chances are it’s a nameserver delegation to another AWS account that we don’t manage or to another hosting platform, and therefore we probably don’t manage it.