Routing Traffic with Route 53 and CloudFront

Overview

Domain expertise for configuring Amazon Route 53 to route traffic to Amazon CloudFront distributions using custom domain names. Covers hosted zone management, alias A/AAAA records, alternate domain name (CNAME) configuration, and ACM certificate setup for HTTPS.

Configure Route 53 to route traffic to a CloudFront distribution

To set up a custom domain for a CloudFront distribution with Route 53 DNS, follow the procedure exactly. See Route 53 CloudFront routing procedure.

The procedure covers:

• Verifying CloudFront distribution status and CNAME configuration
• Requesting and validating ACM certificates (must be in us-east-1)
• Creating or locating public hosted zones
• Creating alias A and AAAA records pointing to CloudFront
• Monitoring DNS propagation

Troubleshooting

Domain not in CloudFront CNAMEs

Add the domain as an alternate domain name in the CloudFront distribution configuration before creating Route 53 records.

SSL certificate issues

ACM certificates for CloudFront must be in us-east-1. Ensure the certificate is validated and associated with the distribution.

Private hosted zone

CloudFront only works with public hosted zones. Create a public hosted zone if only a private one exists.

DNS propagation delays

Changes typically propagate within 60 seconds but full global propagation can take up to 48 hours. Use nslookup or dig to verify.