🚀 AWS EC2 Public DNS Now Supports IPv6 — Here's Why That's a Big Deal

If you're building modern, internet-facing applications on AWS, here’s a simple but powerful update you’ll love: EC2 Public DNS names now support IPv6 (AAAA records). 🎉

🧑‍💻 What Changed?

Before:

• EC2 Public DNS names (like ec2-203-0-113-25.compute-1.amazonaws.com) only pointed to the IPv4 address (A record) of your EC2 instance.
• If your instance was IPv6-only, the DNS name didn’t work. You had to:
• Use the raw IPv6 address (ugly and hard to manage), or
• Set up a custom domain using Route 53.

Now:

• EC2 Public DNS names also return AAAA records that point to your instance’s IPv6 address.
• This means: You can access your EC2 instance over IPv6 using the default AWS DNS name — no extra setup needed.

✅ Real-Life Example

You launch an EC2 instance with only an IPv6 address:

IPv6: 2600:1f18:abcd::1234
DNS: ec2-203-0-113-25.compute-1.amazonaws.com

Before:

You had to use:

http://[2600:1f18:abcd::1234]

Now:

You can just use:

http://ec2-203-0-113-25.compute-1.amazonaws.com

And it’ll resolve to your IPv6 address automatically! 🎯

🌍 Why This Matters

This update:

• Makes IPv6 adoption easier
• Removes the need for custom DNS hacks
• Supports a smoother transition to dual-stack or IPv6-only environments
• Helps future-proof your cloud apps

🛠️ Final Thoughts

It's a small change, but it removes friction from a common use case — especially for teams prioritizing IPv6, building scalable APIs, or serving international customers.

💬 Have you started moving to IPv6? Are you running dual stack or IPv6-only workloads in AWS? Share your experience in the comments!