Apr 21, 2021

Domain redirection with AWS S3 buckets and Route 53 DNS

Overview

This guide walks though the steps required to redirect web requests for a domain such as http://example.com/ to http://example.org using AWS S3 buckets and Route 53 DNS services.

Details

Create a new S3 bucket:

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Create the bucket with the exact name of the website to redirect. In this example the domain name is bsa957.org:

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Enable public access by unchecking the Block All Public Access option:

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Keep the default settings for the rest of the options:

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Create the bucket:

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Configure the bucket settings by clicking the domain bsa957.org:

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Select properties:

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Edit static website hosting:

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Enter the redirect settings:

  • Static website hosting: enable
  • Hosting type: Redirect requests for an object
  • hostname: the FQDN of the host (without the http://)
  • Protocol: https

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Edit the Route 53 hosted domain:

NOTE: In this example, I purchased the domain through AWS. Domains purchased from external registrars must be delegated to AWS name servers first.

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Create a new DNS record:

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Create an alias record to the S3 bucket:

  • Record name: leave this blank
  • Record type: A
  • Alias: move switch to on
  • Route traffic to: Alias to S3 endpoint
  • Location: US East (or whatever location was selected in the previous step)
  • Website: The S3 bucket containing the website

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When the https://bsa957.org webpage is loaded, an HTTP 301 Moved Permanently message is sent with an updated Location: https://tmweb.troopmaster.com/mysite/troop957/ header. This tells the web browser to stop trying to load bsa957.org and fetch the content from https://tmweb.troopmaster.com/mysite/troop957/.

We see what is happening behind the scenes with the wget command:

jemurray@phalanges:~ $ wget --server-response --spider bsa957.org
Spider mode enabled. Check if remote file exists.
--2021-04-21 15:47:52--  http://bsa957.org/
Resolving bsa957.org (bsa957.org)... 52.219.97.180
Connecting to bsa957.org (bsa957.org)|52.219.97.180|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response...
  HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
  x-amz-id-2: cwj2RIlWYMmPt1Fl5i8OUOymVoChvEzW71fYFoDhXT/zLUNQcfp+MLN9FdnvUnA/0PevLNKLzsE=
  x-amz-request-id: 9N4A6QSNZNDQGMJQ
  Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2021 20:47:54 GMT
  Location: https://tmweb.troopmaster.com/mysite/troop957/
  Content-Length: 0
  Server: AmazonS3

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2021-04-21 06:44 -0500