Amazon Route 53 and CloudFront are commonly used together to deliver high-performance, low-latency, and secure content to users globally. The integration leverages Route 53's DNS management and CloudFront's content delivery network (CDN) capabilities to create scalable and efficient web applications.
Integration Overview :
-
Domain Name Resolution:
- Route 53 serves as the DNS service that maps user-friendly domain names (e.g.,
www.example.com) to CloudFront distribution domain names (e.g., d1234abc.cloudfront.net).
- This ensures users can access CloudFront content via custom domain names.
-
Traffic Routing:
- Route 53 directs DNS queries to the CloudFront distribution, which then delivers content from the nearest edge location to the user.
- If the requested content is not cached at the edge location, CloudFront retrieves it from the origin server (e.g., S3 bucket, EC2 instance, or custom origin).
-
Alias Records:
- Route 53 supports Alias Records, which allow you to map a domain name (e.g.,
example.com) to a CloudFront distribution without incurring additional DNS lookup charges.
- Alias records automatically handle AWS infrastructure changes and updates.
Steps to Integrate Route 53 with CloudFront :
-
Create a CloudFront Distribution:
- Configure a CloudFront distribution and set the origin as your backend service (e.g., S3 bucket or web server).
- Obtain the CloudFront distribution domain name (e.g.,
d1234abc.cloudfront.net).
-
Set Up a Hosted Zone in Route 53:
- In Route 53, create a hosted zone for your domain (e.g.,
example.com) if one doesn't already exist.
-
Add Alias Records:
- In the hosted zone, create an Alias Record for your domain or subdomain:
- Name: The domain or subdomain (e.g.,
www.example.com).
- Type: A or AAAA.
- Alias Target: Choose the CloudFront distribution from the AWS resource list.
-
Configure SSL/TLS (Optional but Recommended):
- Use Amazon Certificate Manager (ACM) to issue an SSL/TLS certificate for your custom domain.
- Attach the certificate to your CloudFront distribution to enable HTTPS for secure content delivery.
-
Test the Integration:
- Use a browser or DNS testing tool to verify that your domain resolves correctly to the CloudFront distribution.
