Preparing for Vendor Shutdowns: Automated Export and DNS Failover Templates

When a vendor sunsets a product, seconds matter — and so does your runbook

Vendor shutdowns are no longer rare edge cases. In late 2025 and early 2026 we saw major vendors announce product wind-downs that gave customers weeks or days to act. For engineering and ops teams that rely on hosted services, that means unplanned data egress, domain entanglement, and DNS fragility — all under time pressure. This article gives you reusable runbook templates and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) snippets to automate data export, domain transfers, and DNS failover so you can execute confidently when a vendor pulls the plug.

Why this matters in 2026

Two trends accelerated in 2024–2026 and make this a top priority:

• Faster sunsetting cycles. Economic pressure, consolidation, and product refocus have shortened vendor wind-down windows. Large vendors announced shutdowns with only weeks' notice in late 2025.
• Regulatory and portability expectations. Data portability rules and contract scrutiny mean teams must export data reliably and retain proof of export.

Preparing automated playbooks prevents chaos: scripted exports avoid manual UI clicks, DNS failover templates reduce downtime, and transfer-ready domains protect ownership.

Threat model: what you must protect

• Irretrievable data when vendor disables export APIs or deletes backups.
• Domain lockouts and lost WHOIS control during registrar chaos.
• Downtime due to DNS propagation and high TTLs when switching providers.
• Certificate expirations and incomplete re-issuance during transfer.
• Unexpected egress charges and throttled exports.

How to use this article

Start with the Runbook template below and wire the code snippets into your CI/CD. Triage and automation are separate phases — first detect and initiate, then execute and verify. All snippets are intentionally provider-agnostic with concrete examples for AWS Route53, Cloudflare, and generic REST APIs.

Runbook: Vendor Shutdown — Quick Start (Template)

Copy this checklist into your incident runbook system (PagerDuty, Confluence, Notion) and bind owners and SLAs.

# Runbook: Vendor Shutdown - Quick Start
# Trigger: vendor sunset notice or outage affecting critical product

1) Triage & Notification (T+0 hours)
   - Owner: Platform Lead
   - Actions:
     - Confirm vendor notice (URL, PDF). Save evidence to legal bucket.
     - Create incident: severity, timeline, stakeholders.

2) Freeze & Token Lockdown (T+0-1h)
   - Rotate vendor API keys if required for security.
   - Snapshot current config (DNS records, certs, infra manifests).

3) Start Export Automation (T+1-4h)
   - Trigger automated export job (CI workflow / lambda).
   - Verify export integrity checksums.

4) Prepare Domain Transfer (T+4-12h)
   - Ensure domain is unlocked and admin contact reachable.
   - Request EPP/Auth code; disable privacy if needed.

5) DNS Failover Plan (T+4-24h)
   - Lower TTLs where possible.
   - Provision fallback endpoints (S3 static site, alternative API, cached responses).
   - Deploy DNS failover IaC.

6) Certificate Plan (T+12-48h)
   - Reissue or transfer certs using ACME to fallback provider.

7) Validation & Postmortem
   - Verify exports restored to new infra.
   - Collect cost and SLA impact metrics.
   - Update supplier risk register.

Automated Data Export

Most vendor shutdowns still provide programmatic export paths. The patterns below are reusable: authenticate, paginate, stream to durable storage, verify checksums, and record provenance metadata.

Pattern: streaming export to object storage

Key principles:

• Stream to avoid memory spikes.
• Use multipart uploads for large files and resumable transfers.
• Store provenance (source, timestamp, vendor notice id, checksum).

# Bash example: simple paginated export + upload to S3 (AWS CLI preconfigured)
VENDOR_API="https://api.vendor.example/v1/exports"
OUT_BUCKET="s3://company-vendor-backups/vendorname/$(date -u +%Y%m%dT%H%M%SZ)"
TOKEN="$VENDOR_API_TOKEN"
PAGE=1

mkdir -p /tmp/vendor-export
while :; do
  curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" "$VENDOR_API?page=$PAGE" \
    | jq -r '.items[] | @base64' \
    | while read -r item; do
        echo "$item" | base64 --decode > /tmp/vendor-export/item-$PAGE-$(date +%s).json
      done
  next=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" "$VENDOR_API?page=$PAGE" | jq -r '.next')
  if [ "$next" = "null" ]; then
    break
  fi
  PAGE=$((PAGE+1))
done

aws s3 cp /tmp/vendor-export/ $OUT_BUCKET/ --recursive --storage-class STANDARD_IA

# Generate checksums and metadata
sha256sum /tmp/vendor-export/* > /tmp/vendor-export/checksums.sha256
aws s3 cp /tmp/vendor-export/checksums.sha256 $OUT_BUCKET/

Automated snapshot for databases

Use vendor-provided snapshots (RDS, Cloud SQL) or create logical dumps. Automate retention and cross-region replication. Example: AWS RDS snapshot + export to S3 with Terraform + Lambda trigger (high-level).

Detecting a shutdown and triggering automation

Automate detection via:

• Vendor RSS / status page scraping
• SLA emails to monitored inbox and mailbox webhook
• Contract expiration/renewal reminders integrated with runbook

# GitHub Actions: on schedule or via repository_dispatch
name: vendor-shutdown-export
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    - cron: '*/30 * * * *' # every 30 minutes

jobs:
  check-news:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Fetch vendor notice
        run: |
          # sample: fetch vendor RSS and grep for keywords
          curl -s https://vendor.example/announcements.rss | grep -i "sunset\|discontinue" && \
            curl -s -X POST -H "Authorization: token ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}" \
              -d '{"event_type": "vendor_shutdown_detected"}' \
              https://api.github.com/repos/ORG/REPO/dispatches

  export:
    needs: check-news
    if: always()
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Trigger export job
        run: |
          # call your export orchestration endpoint
          curl -s -X POST https://internal-ci.example/api/exports -H "Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.EXPORT_TOKEN }}"

Domain transfer checklist & automation

Domains often become the bottleneck in a shutdown. Lock states, privacy settings, and stale contacts block transfers. Automate or script every step.

Domain transfer checklist (copy into registrar runbook)

1. Confirm domain ownership and admin email access.
2. Disable WHOIS privacy if it blocks confirmation emails.
3. Unlock domain and request EPP/Auth code.
4. Capture registrar transfer authorization email and save as evidence.
5. Update nameservers or create delegation to new DNS provider (see DNS failover IaC).
6. Monitor transfer status and confirm WHOIS change.

Automating registrar steps

Many registrars expose REST APIs. Below is a generic script pattern to request an EPP code and unlock a domain; adapt to your registrar's API.

# Generic registrar API: request EPP code and unlock
REG_API="https://api.registrar.example/v1/domains"
DOMAIN="example.com"
API_KEY="$REG_API_KEY"

# Unlock
curl -s -X POST "$REG_API/$DOMAIN/unlock" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{}'

# Request EPP
curl -s -X POST "$REG_API/$DOMAIN/epp" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{}'

Registrar to DNS automation

A recommended strategy: provision a fallback DNS zone under your control (Route 53 or Cloudflare) and delegate quickly by changing nameservers. Keep the delegation IaC ready so you can apply in minutes.

# Terraform snippet: create Route 53 zone and zone delegation (abridged)
provider "aws" { region = "us-east-1" }

resource "aws_route53_zone" "fallback" {
  name = "example.com"
}

# After creating zone, apply nameserver changes at registrar via API
# Capture aws_route53_zone.fallback.name_servers in automation for registrar update

DNS Failover: IaC patterns and snippets

Failover patterns depend on your DNS provider. Two pragmatic approaches:

• Managed provider failover (Cloudflare Load Balancer, AWS Route 53 failover records) — best for HTTP/S and geo-aware traffic.
• Programmatic TTL flip — for simple setups, lower TTL then switch records via API for immediate effect.

Cloudflare Load Balancer example (Terraform)

# Terraform: Cloudflare pool + load balancer (simplified)
provider "cloudflare" {
  email = var.cloudflare_email
  api_key = var.cloudflare_api_key
}

resource "cloudflare_load_balancer_pool" "primary" {
  zone_id = var.zone_id
  name    = "primary-pool"
  origins = [
    { name = "primary-1" , address = "198.51.100.10" , enabled = true },
  ]
}

resource "cloudflare_load_balancer_pool" "fallback" {
  zone_id = var.zone_id
  name    = "fallback-pool"
  origins = [
    { name = "fallback-1" , address = "203.0.113.5" , enabled = true },
  ]
}

resource "cloudflare_load_balancer" "lb" {
  zone_id = var.zone_id
  name    = "web-lb"
  fallback_pool_id = cloudflare_load_balancer_pool.fallback.id
  default_pools = [cloudflare_load_balancer_pool.primary.id]
}

Route 53 failover example (Terraform)

# Create health check and failover record in Route 53 (abridged)
resource "aws_route53_health_check" "primary_http" {
  type                = "HTTP"
  resource_path       = "/healthz"
  failure_threshold   = 3
  request_interval    = 30
  ip_address          = "198.51.100.10"
}

resource "aws_route53_record" "primary" {
  zone_id = aws_route53_zone.fallback.zone_id
  name    = "api.example.com"
  type    = "A"
  set_identifier = "primary"
  ttl     = 60
  records = ["198.51.100.10"]
  failover = "PRIMARY"
  health_check_id = aws_route53_health_check.primary_http.id
}

resource "aws_route53_record" "secondary" {
  zone_id = aws_route53_zone.fallback.zone_id
  name    = "api.example.com"
  type    = "A"
  set_identifier = "secondary"
  ttl     = 60
  records = ["203.0.113.5"]
  failover = "SECONDARY"
}

Quick TTL flip script

# Use provider API to quickly set DNS record to fallback IP
# Example using Cloudflare API
ZONE_ID="${ZONE_ID}"
RECORD_ID="${RECORD_ID}"
curl -s -X PUT "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/$ZONE_ID/dns_records/$RECORD_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CF_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{"type":"A","name":"api.example.com","content":"203.0.113.5","ttl":60}'

Certificates & ACME: avoid TLS gaps

Plan to reissue or transfer TLS certs. Best practice:

• Keep ACME automation (cert-manager, lego, dehydrated) in controller and re-point to new ingress.
• Export PFX/PEM from vendor if they host certs and vendor allows key export (rare).
• For short windows, use wildcard Let's Encrypt certs; automate issuance in your CI.

SLA Wind-down automation and governance

Vendors often publish a wind-down SLA: directories for export, deadlines for deletion, and escalation contacts. Automate SLA parsing and set timers that trigger the runbook steps.

# Pseudo: parse SLA date then schedule jobs
SLA_DATE=$(jq -r '.sla.wind_down_date' vendor_notice.json)
# compute time delta and schedule export workflows accordingly

Retention & proof of export

Store exported artifacts with immutable metadata: S3 Object Lock (governance mode) or WORM storage if compliance requires. Save vendor notices and signed receipts from the vendor in the same dossier.

Testing & drills

You can’t afford a first-time run during a real shutdown. Run quarterly drills that:

• Execute a full export and restore into a sandbox — consider lessons from sandboxing and isolation best practices when you build test environments.
• Perform a DNS failover to a static cache site and measure RTO — this overlaps with low‑latency failover patterns used in live events (hybrid event playbooks) and should be rehearsed.
• Simulate domain transfer steps (without completing transfer) to validate email flows.

Monitoring & verification

Automated checks to add to post-export pipelines:

• Checksum verification and file counts.
• Smoke tests against restored services (API endpoints, web pages).
• DNS propagation checks using public resolvers and multiple regions — tie these checks into your edge observability tooling.

# Simple DNS propagation check
for server in 8.8.8.8 1.1.1.1 9.9.9.9; do
  dig @${server} api.example.com +short || true
done

Cost & egress controls

Exports can be expensive due to egress bandwidth. Reduce cost:

• Compress and deduplicate before upload.
• Use vendor-provided bulk export endpoints where available.
• Request temporary free egress if the vendor’s contract or DPA supports it. Keep an eye on wider cloud cost trends (see major provider pricing changes).

Legal and compliance notes

Coordinate with legal on DPAs, retention policies, and the evidence chain. If you are required to preserve user data under legal hold, prioritize those exports first and document the process with signed receipts where possible.

Real-world example (brief case study)

In late 2025 a mid-sized SaaS vendor announced sunsetting of a collaboration product with a 21-day notice. A global engineering team used a pre-built GitHub Actions workflow to kick off exports, streaming data into a cross-account S3 bucket with Object Lock enabled. DNS was pre-provisioned in Route 53 and a Terraform plan applied within the first 12 hours to lower TTLs and switch traffic to a cached static site. Total downtime: zero customer-facing downtime; data export completed within 18 hours; legal had signed proof-of-export within 24 hours. The difference: rehearsed runbooks and IaC that had been tested during quarterly drills.

Actionable takeaways & checklist

• Inventory: Map which vendors host your data and domains. Tag owner and admin contacts in an asset registry.
• Automate: Implement scheduled export jobs and vendor-feed watchers that can dispatch export runs to CI.
• Pre-provision: Maintain fallback DNS zones and minimal infra (static buckets, spare VMs) you can route traffic to instantly.
• Practice: Run full restore drills quarterly; validate SLAs and timelines. Consider treating drills like short, repeatable micro-events to keep teams practiced.
• Document: Keep runbooks and legal evidence capture templates in a versioned repository accessible during incidents.

Templates & resources (copy-ready)

Runbook header (YAML)

title: Vendor Shutdown - {{vendor}}
created_at: {{timestamp}}
owner: "platform-team@example.com"
severity: P1
timeline:
  - triage: 0h
  - export_start: 1h
  - domain_transfer: 4h
  - dns_failover: 4h
artifacts_bucket: s3://company-vendor-backups/{{vendor}}/{{date}}

Evidence capture template

evidence:
  notice_url: "{{url}}"
  notice_pdf: "s3://..."
  parsed_sla_date: "{{sla_date}}"
  exported_by: "{{automation_job_id}}"
  checksum_manifest: "checksums.sha256"

Final notes

Vendor shutdowns are operational realities in 2026. The difference between a stress incident and a controlled migration is preparedness: automated exports, transfer-ready domains, and failover-ready DNS. The snippets and runbook templates above are engineered for quick adoption — plug them into your CI/CD, run drills, and assign clear owners.

Call to action

Start a drill this week: copy the runbook template into your incident repo, wire the export workflow to a test vendor endpoint, and run a full export+restore into a sandbox. If you want a tailored kickoff, reach out to our platform engineering team for a 60‑minute workshop to adapt these templates to your stack.

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