Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
278 lines (180 loc) · 25.4 KB

CNAMEs.md

File metadata and controls

278 lines (180 loc) · 25.4 KB

Adding and Moving Alternate Domain Names (CNAMEs)

In CloudFront, an alternate domain name, also known as a CNAME, lets you use your own domain name (for example, www.example.com) for links to your objects instead of using the domain name that CloudFront assigns to your distribution. Both web and RTMP distributions support alternate domain names.

When you create a distribution, CloudFront returns a domain name for the distribution, for example:

d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net

When you use the CloudFront domain name for your objects, the URL for an object called /images/image.jpg is:

http://d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net/images/image.jpg

If you want to use your own domain name, such as www.example.com, instead of the cloudfront.net domain name that CloudFront assigned to your distribution, you can add an alternate domain name to your distribution for www.example.com. You can then use the following URL for /images/image.jpg:

http://www.example.com/images/image.jpg

Topics

Adding an Alternate Domain Name

The following task list describes the process for using the CloudFront console to add an alternate domain name to your distribution so you can use your own domain name in your links instead of the CloudFront domain name that is automatically associated with your distribution. For information about updating your distribution using the CloudFront API, see Working with Distributions.

Note
If you want viewers to use HTTPS with your alternate domain name, see Using Alternate Domain Names and HTTPS.

Adding an Alternate Domain Name (Console)

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the CloudFront console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/.

  2. Choose the ID for the distribution that you want to update.

  3. On the General tab, choose Edit.

  4. Update the following values:
    Alternate Domain Names (CNAMEs)
    Add your alternate domain names. Separate domain names with commas, or type each domain name on a new line.
    SSL Certificate (Web Distributions Only)
    Choose an option, depending on whether you want viewers to use HTTPS to access your content:

    • Don't use HTTPS – Choose Default CloudFront Certificate.

    • Use HTTPS – Choose Custom SSL Certificate, and choose a certificate from the list. The list can include certificates provisioned by AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), certificates that you purchased from another certificate authority and uploaded to ACM, and certificates that you purchased from another certificate authority and uploaded to the IAM certificate store.

      If you uploaded a certificate to the IAM certificate store but it doesn't appear in the list, review the procedure Importing an SSL/TLS Certificate to confirm that you correctly uploaded the certificate.

      If you choose this setting, we recommend that you use only an alternate domain name in your object URLs (https://example\.com/logo\.jpg\)\. If you use your CloudFront distribution domain name (https://d111111abcdef8\.cloudfront\.net/logo\.jpg\) and the viewer supports SNI, then CloudFront behaves normally. However, a viewer that does not support SNI exhibits one of the following behaviors, depending on the value of Clients Supported:

      • All Clients: If the viewer doesn't support SNI, it displays a warning because the CloudFront domain name doesn't match the domain name in your SSL/TLS certificate.
      • Only Clients that Support Server Name Indication (SNI): CloudFront drops the connection with the viewer without returning the object.
        Clients Supported (Web Distributions Only)
        Choose the applicable options:

    • All Clients: CloudFront serves your HTTPS content using dedicated IP addresses. If you select this option, you incur additional charges when you associate your SSL/TLS certificate with a distribution that is enabled. For more information, see http://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/pricing.

    • Only Clients that Support Server Name Indication (SNI): Older browsers or other clients that don't support SNI must use another method to access your content. For more information, see Choosing How CloudFront Serves HTTPS Requests.

  5. Choose Yes, Edit.

  6. On the General tab for the distribution, confirm that Distribution Status has changed to Deployed. If you try to use an alternate domain name before the updates to your distribution have been deployed, the links that you create in the following steps might not work.

  7. Configure the DNS service for the domain to route traffic for the domain, such as example.com, to the CloudFront domain name for your distribution, such as d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net. The method that you use depends on whether you're using Route 53 as the DNS service provider for the domain. Note
    If your DNS record already points to a distribution that is not the distribution that you are creating, then you can't add the alternate domain name to your distribution without updating your DNS. For more information, see Restrictions on Using Alternate Domain Names.
    Route 53
    Create an alias resource record set. With an alias resource record set, you don't pay for Route 53 queries. In addition, you can create an alias resource record set for the root domain name (example.com), which DNS doesn't allow for CNAMEs. For more information, see Routing Queries to an Amazon CloudFront Distribution in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.
    Another DNS service provider
    Use the method provided by your DNS service provider to add a CNAME resource record set to the hosted zone for your domain. This new CNAME resource record set will redirect DNS queries from your domain (for example, www.example.com) to the CloudFront domain name for your distribution (for example, d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net). For more information, see the documentation provided by your DNS service provider.
    If you already have an existing CNAME record for your domain name, update that resource record set or replace it with a new one that points to the CloudFront domain name for your distribution.
    In addition, confirm that your CNAME resource record set points to your distribution's domain name and not to one of your origin servers.

  8. Using dig or a similar tool, confirm that the resource record set that you created in step 7 points to the domain name for your distribution. For more information about dig, go to http://www.kloth.net/services/dig.php.

    The following example shows a dig request on the images.example.com domain, as well as the relevant part of the response.

    [prompt]--> dig images.example.com

; <<> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<> images.example.com
;; global options:	printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 15917
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 9, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;images.example.com.     IN    A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
images.example.com. 10800 IN	CNAME	d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net.
...
...

    The line in the Answer Section shows a CNAME resource record set that routes queries for images.example.com to the CloudFront distribution domain name d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net. The CNAME resource record set is configured correctly if the name on the right side of CNAME is the domain name for your CloudFront distribution. If that is any other value, for example, the domain name for your Amazon S3 bucket, then the CNAME resource record set is configured incorrectly. In that case, go back to Step 4 and correct the CNAME record to point to the domain name for your distribution.

  9. Test the alternate domain name by creating some test links that use your domain name in the URL instead of the CloudFront domain name for your distribution.

  10. In your application, change the links for your objects to use your alternate domain name instead of the domain name of your CloudFront distribution.

Moving an Alternate Domain Name to a Different CloudFront Distribution

If you want to move an alternate domain name from one CloudFront distribution to another distribution, the steps you must take depend on the domain name that you want to move:

Move a subdomain name, like marketing.example.com, to another distribution

Follow these steps to move the subdomain name.

To move a subdomain name to a new distribution

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the CloudFront console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/.

  2. If you don’t have a new distribution to move the domain name to, create one. For more information, see Creating a Web Distribution.

  3. Add to the distribution an alternate domain name that includes a wildcard for the alias record set or CNAME record. For example, if the subdomain name that you want to move to the new distribution is marketing.example.com, add the alternate domain name *.example.com. For more information, see Using the * Wildcard in Alternate Domain Names. Note
    You can’t add a wildcard to a top level domain name, such as *.com, so if you want to move a domain name like example.com to a new distribution, see Move a domain name, like example.com, to another distribution.

  4. Update the DNS configuration for your subdomain to point to the new distribution. For example, you would update the DNS service for the subdomain marketing.example.com to route traffic to the CloudFront domain name for your distribution, d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net.

    To update the configuration, do one of the following:

    • If you're using Route 53, update alias records or CNAME records, depending how you set up the alternate domain name originally. For more information, see Editing Records in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.
    • If you're using another DNS service provider, use the method provided by the DNS service provider to update the CNAME record that directs traffic to CloudFront. For more information, see the documentation provided by your DNS service provider.

  5. Using dig or a similar tool, confirm that the resource record set that you created in step 4 points to the domain name for your distribution. For more information about dig, go to http://www.kloth.net/services/dig.php.

    The following example shows a dig request on the images.example.com domain, as well as the relevant part of the response.

    [prompt]--> dig images.example.com

; <<> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<> images.example.com
;; global options:	printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 15917
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 9, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;images.example.com.     IN    A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
images.example.com. 10800 IN	CNAME	d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net.
...
...

    The line in the Answer Section shows a CNAME resource record set that routes queries for images.example.com to the CloudFront distribution domain name d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net. The CNAME resource record set is configured correctly if the name on the right side of CNAME is the domain name for your CloudFront distribution. If that is any other value, for example, the domain name for your Amazon S3 bucket, then the CNAME resource record set is configured incorrectly. In that case, go back to Step 4 and correct the CNAME record to point to the domain name for your distribution.

  6. Remove the CNAME from the existing distribution and move it to the new CloudFront distribution. For example, move marketing.example.com to a new distribution that by default is pointed to by something like d111111abcdef8.cloudfront.net.

  7. Test the alternate domain name by creating some test links that use your domain name in the URL instead of the CloudFront domain name for your distribution.

  8. If you’re no longer using the original distribution, delete it. For more information, see Deleting a Distribution.

Move a domain name, like example.com, to another distribution

For second-level domain names, like example.com, you must contact AWS Support to move the domain name to another CloudFront distribution. The extra steps are required because moving a domain yourself, as described in the previous procedure, requires setting up domain routing using a wildcard for part of the domain name. For second-level domains, for this step, you would have to set up routing as *.com, which isn’t allowed.

Before you get started, if you don’t have a new distribution to move the domain name to, create one. For more, information see Creating a Web Distribution.

Moving a domain name like example.com to a new distribution takes two steps:

Step 1: Provide proof to AWS Support that you own the domain name by creating a TXT record for your domain at your DNS service provider. This helps prevent someone else from making changes to your distribution configuration.

Step 2: Request that AWS Support move your domain to the new CloudFront distribution.

Here are the specific steps to take.

Step 1: Create a TXT record for your domain

  1. Sign in to your DNS service provider website.

    If your service provider is Route 53, sign in to the Route 53 console.

  2. Create a TXT record for your domain like the following:

    TXT

    For example: example.com TXT d123.cloudfront.net

    • If your DNS service provider is Route 53, go to Step 3 for detailed steps.
    • If your domain is hosted by another DNS service provider, see the documentation at the DNS service provider. You may need to request that your service provider create the TXT record for you. Tip
      If your service provider does not allow a TXT name for a domain to have the same information as a CNAME record, consider creating a TXT record that uses your domain name with an underscore (_) prepended to it. For an example, see the following Knowledge Center article: Resolve CNAME Already Exists Error.

  3. If your DNS service provider is Route 53, use the following steps to create a TXT record to prove domain ownership:

    1. On the Hosted Zones page, double-click the row for the hosted zone in which you want to edit records.

    2. Choose Create Record Set.

    3. Enter the following values:

      • Name: The domain name you want to move to a new CloudFront distribution.
      • Type: TXT
      • Alias: No
      • TTL: 60 seconds
      • Value: The name of the CloudFront distribution that you want to add this domain name to, such as d123.cloudfront.net.
      • Routing policy: Simple

    4. Choose Create.

Step 2: Request that AWS Support move your domain to the new CloudFront distribution

  • Sign in to AWS and contact AWS support to request that they verify that you own the domain, and move the domain to the new CloudFront distribution. Note
    AWS Support can't verify your domain ownership until they can view the TXT record that you created for your domain. Be aware that records that you create at your DNS provider can take a while (up to several days) to propagate through the DNS system.

Removing an Alternate Domain Name

If you want to stop routing traffic for a domain or subdomain to a CloudFront distribution, follow the steps in this section to update both the DNS configuration and the CloudFront distribution.

It’s important that you remove the alternate domain names from the distribution as well as update your DNS configuration. This helps prevent issues later if you want to associate the domain name with another CloudFront distribution. If an alternate domain name is already associated with one distribution, it can’t be set up with another.

Note
If you want to remove the alternate domain name from this distribution so you can add it to another one, follow the steps in Moving an Alternate Domain Name to a Different CloudFront Distribution. If you follow the steps here instead (to remove a domain) and then add the domain to another distribution, there will be a period of time during which the domain won’t link to the new distribution because CloudFront is propagating to the updates to edge locations.

To remove an alternate domain name from a distribution

  1. To start, route internet traffic for your domain to another resource that isn’t your CloudFront distribution, such as an Elastic Load Balancing load balancer. Or you can delete the DNS record that’s routing traffic to CloudFront.

    Do one of the following, depending on the DNS service for your domain:

    • If you're using Route 53, update or delete alias records or CNAME records. For more information, see Editing Records or Deleting Records.
    • If you're using another DNS service provider, use the method provided by the DNS service provider to update or delete the CNAME record that directs traffic to CloudFront. For more information, see the documentation provided by your DNS service provider.

  2. After you update your domain's DNS records, wait until the changes have propagated and DNS resolvers are routing traffic to the new resource. You can check to see when this is complete by creating some test links that use your domain in the URL.

  3. Now, sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the CloudFront console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/, and then update your CloudFront distribution to remove the domain name by doing the following:

    1. Choose the ID for the distribution that you want to update.

    2. On the General tab, choose Edit.

    3. In Alternate Domain Names (CNAMEs), remove the alternate domain name (or domain names) that you no longer want to use for your distribution.

    4. Choose Yes, Edit.

Using the * Wildcard in Alternate Domain Names

When you add alternate domain names, you can use the * wildcard at the beginning of a domain name instead of adding subdomains individually. For example, with an alternate domain name of *.example.com, you can use any domain name that ends with example.com in your object URLs, such as www.example.com, product-name.example.com, and marketing.product-name.example.com. The name of an object is the same regardless of the domain name, for example:

www.example.com/images/image.jpg

product-name.example.com/images/image.jpg

marketing.product-name.example.com/images/image.jpg

The alternate domain name must begin with an asterisk and a dot ( *. ). You cannot use a wildcard to replace part of a subdomain name, like this: *domain.example.com, and you cannot replace a subdomain in the middle of a domain name, like this: subdomain.*.example.com.

A wildcard alternate domain name, such as *.example.com, can include another alternate domain name, such as example.com, as long as they're both in the same CloudFront distribution or they're in distributions that were created by using the same AWS account.

Restrictions on Using Alternate Domain Names

Note the following restrictions on using alternate domain names:

CNAMEs Must be Lowercase
All CNAMES must be lowercase to be valid.

Maximum Number of Alternate Domain Names
For the current limit on the number of alternate domain names that you can add to a distribution or to request a higher limit, see General Limits on Web Distributions.

Permission to Change DNS Configuration
If you're adding alternate domain names to your distribution, you must create CNAME records to route DNS queries for the domain names to your CloudFront distribution. So you must have permission to create CNAME records with the DNS service provider for the domains you're using. Typically, this means that you own the domains, but you might be developing an application for the domain owner.

Duplicate and Overlapping Alternate Domain Names
You cannot add an alternate domain name to a CloudFront distribution if the alternate domain name already exists in another CloudFront distribution, even if your AWS account owns the other distribution.
However, you can add a wildcard alternate domain name, such as *.example.com, that includes (that overlaps with) a non-wildcard alternate domain name, such as www.example.com. Overlapping domain names can be in the same distribution or in separate distributions as long as both distributions were created by using the same AWS account.

Alternate Domain Names that Already Point to a Distribution
If your DNS record points to a distribution that is not the distribution that you are creating or modifying, then you can't add the alternate domain name to your distribution. In this scenario, you must update your DNS at your DNS provider before you can add the domain name for your CloudFront distribution.
To correct this, sign in to your DNS provider and remove the existing DNS record, or contact your DNS provider to remove it for you. Then create the correct DNS record for your distribution, following the steps for adding or changing the alternate domain name for a distribution. For more information, see Adding an Alternate Domain Name (Console) or Moving an Alternate Domain Name to a Different CloudFront Distribution.

Adding an Alternate Domain Name at the Top Node (Zone Apex) for a Domain
When you add an alternate domain name to a distribution, you typically create a CNAME record in your DNS configuration to route DNS queries for the domain name to your CloudFront distribution. However, you can't create a CNAME record for the top node of a DNS namespace, also known as the zone apex; the DNS protocol doesn't allow it. For example, if you register the DNS name example.com, the zone apex is example.com. You can't create a CNAME record for example.com, but you can create CNAME records for www.example.com, newproduct.example.com, and so on.
If you're using Route 53 as your DNS service, you can create an alias resource record set, which has two advantages over CNAME records. You can create an alias resource record set for a domain name at the top node (example.com). In addition, when you use an alias resource record set, you don't pay for Route 53 queries.
If you enable IPv6, you must create two alias resource record sets: one to route IPv4 traffic (an A record) and one to route IPv6 traffic (an AAAA record). For more information, see Enable IPv6 in the topic Values That You Specify When You Create or Update a Web Distribution. For more information, see Routing Queries to an Amazon CloudFront Distribution in the Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide.

Alternate Domain Names and HTTPS
If you want viewers to use HTTPS with an alternate domain names, additional configuration is required. For more information, see Using Alternate Domain Names and HTTPS.