Route 53 Health Check Update – Editing and Tagging

Amazon Route 53 is a highly available and highly scalable DNS service. Route 53 is able to meet the needs of complex enterprises, while remaining simple enough to be a good fit for personal websites.

We added support for Route 53 health checks a little over a year ago, and have enhanced the model several times since then. We now publish the results to CloudWatch and graph them in the AWS Management Console. We also support string matching and checking of HTTPS sites and checking based on domain names.

Today we are enhancing the Route 53 health check model again. The checks are now editable, and can be tagged for tracking and cost accounting purposes. We are also adding a couple of additional API functions.

Editable Health Checks
You can now edit the parameters of existing health checks. This is easier and more efficient than deleting and re-creating the health check when you need to alter the target IP address or domain name, port, filename / path, or search string:

With this change, health checks gain long term value. You can change the parameters without having to re-associate them with the desired record sets, and you no longer lose the CloudWatch history.

Tagging of Health Checks
Over the past couple of years, we have given you the ability to add tags (name/value pairs) to many types of AWS resources. Today we continue that tradition, giving you the ability to add tags to your Route 53 health checks. The Name tag is added to all new health checks automatically; you can add it to your existing health checks with a couple of clicks. You can use cost allocation tags for billing purposes or to attach other kinds of metadata to your health checks.

You can also select a health check to see its tags:

New API Functions
We have added a pair of new functions to the Route 53 API. You can use these functions to increase the power and sophistication of your DNS management and monitoring tools. Here’s what we have added:

• GetCheckerIpRanges – This function returns the list of the IP ranges that Route 53 uses to check the health of your resources. You can configure your route and firewall rules to allow access from these ranges for health checking purposes.
• GetHealthCheckCount – This function returns the number of health checks that are associated with your AWS account.

Available Now
As usual, these new features are available now and you can start using them today.

— Jeff;