DNS for a static website on AWS S3

First I had to setup static website s3 buckets.

Anywhere you see edthe.dev and www.edthe.dev, substitute your own apex domain name (i.e. yourdomainname.com) and your www. subdomain (i.e. www.yourdomainname.com).

Do a bunch of non-repetivite stuff manually in the AWS Web Console:

1. Point my domain registrar NameSevers for edthe.dev to the name servers listed in my Route53 hosted zone for edthe.dev.

       ns-number.awsdns-number.com.
       ns-number.awsdns-number.org.
       ns-number.awsdns-number.co.uk.
       ns-number.awsdns-number.net.
   

2. Request an SSL Certificate in AWS Certificate Manager that covers edthe.dev and www.edthe.dev.

   • Be sure to choos Validaton Method: DNS validation
   • Accept the default Key algorithm

3. Do the DNS Domain Ownership verification dance.

   • The easiest way to do this is to ignore the detailed guide and instead click into the pending request in Certificate Manager - Certificates and scroll down. There should be a button that basially says Add DNS Records to Route 53 for me. I typically push that button, and go grab a coffee.

   Tip: Do not remove the certificate ownership DNS records. I have heard it is helpful to still have when the SSL Certificate needs renewed.

4. Create 2 CloudFront instances, one for edthe.dev and one for www.edthe.dev.

   • Select edthe.dev or www.edthe.dev for the Origin Domain. You will do this twice, once for each of your apex domain, and your www. sub-domain.
   • Leave any option not mentioned here with the default values.
   • Under Viewer Protocol Policy, select Redirect HTTP to HTTPS.
   • Under Web Application Firewall (WAF) choose Do not enable security protections. A static website is immune to the attacks that a WAF protects against.
   • Be sure to assign each CloudFront instance the appropriate alternate domain name (CNAME) i.e. www.edthe.dev.

   Tip: alternate domain is incredibly hard to find, but critical. Scroll back and forth up the page until you find it.

   • Under Custom SSL Cetificate - optional, choose the SSL Certificate you requested earlier. It should be the only option in the list.

   Tip: If your SSL Certificate is not yet available, double check the steps above, and then just take a 20 minute coffee break.

5. Assign each CloudFront instance the SSL Certificate.

6. Add A and AAAA records for www.edthe.dev pointing to the www.edthe.dev CloudFront distribution.

       www.edthe.dev	A	Simple	-	1stbunchofletters.cloudfront.net.
       www.edthe.dev	AAAAA	Simple	-	1stbunchofletters.cloudfront.net.
   

   Tip - the same (bunch of letters).cloudfront.net goes in both of these DNS record's value field.

7. Add A and AAAA records for edthe.dev pointing to the edthe.dev CloudFront (CDN) distribution.

       edthe.dev	A	Simple	-	2ndbunchofletters.cloudfront.net.
       edthe.dev	A	Simple	-	2ndbunchofletters.cloudfront.net.
   

   Tip - the same (bunch of letters).cloudfront.net goes in both of these DNS record's value field, as each-other, but the value is different than the value in the previous step for www.. This is because the CDN for edthe.dev and the CDN for www.edthe.dev are different.

Now my site exists, but I still need a way to modify my AWS S3 Bucket contents.

When it was time to set this up a second time for the domain I share with my spouse, I decided it would be wise to delegate access to manage AWS Route 53 DNS to my spouse.