How to Quickly Set Up AWS CloudFront Distribution for ALB & EC2
In this tutorial, I’ll cover how you can use Amazon Web Services (AWS) CloudFront, a super-fast Content delivery network (CDN), to make your website perform better and be highly available to users everywhere. Whether you’re hosting a website with an Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) server, or using Application Load Balancers (ALBs), I will provide simple, step-by-step instructions to help you create a great experience for your site visitors worldwide.
Prerequisites
Before you start the setup process, ensure you have the following:
- AWS account: An account with the necessary permissions to create and manage resources.
- EC2 Instances: Website or a Service hosted on pre-existing EC2 cloud instances that you want to accelerate
- ALB: Application Load Balancer which must be running with a target group.
- Domain and DNS Control: Access to the domain for the website you wish to accelerate, and the ability to configure DNS records.
- SSL/TLS Certificate (if needed): If you want to enable HTTPS for their websites, you should have an SSL/TLS certificate ready or be prepared to create one using AWS Certificate Manager.
Setting up CloudFront distribution for EC2
If you are using CloudFront distribution ahead of the EC2 instances then the instance must be in a public subnet otherwise edge locations cannot access the EC2 instances because there is no private VPC connectivity in CloudFront.
Step 1: Creating an EC2 Instance
Navigate to the EC2 dashboard.
Click on “Launch Instances” to create a new EC2 instance.
Follow the instance creation wizard, selecting your preferred Amazon Machine Image (AMI), instance type, and other configurations.
Ensure that your EC2 instance is running and has a public DNS name.
Also, ensure that your instance security group has HTTP and HTTPS rules added in inbound rules.
Step 2: Create an SSL/TLS Certificate (if you don’t have one)
Go to the AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) service.
Click “Request a certificate” and follow the process to request a public SSL/TLS certificate for your domain.
Complete the validation process to get the certificate.
Step 3: Creating and Configuring a CloudFront Distribution for EC2
Navigate to the CloudFront service in the AWS Management Console.
Click “Create Distribution.”
(In the “Web” section, click “Get Started.”)
Step 4: Configure CloudFront Distribution
Enter your EC2 instance’s public DNS name (e.g., ec2-public-dns.amazonaws.com) as the “Origin Domain Name.”
In the Protocol Policy, select “HTTP Only” if you want to use HTTP. Otherwise, choose “HTTPS Only.” but make sure that your EC2 instance accepts the HTTPS traffic.
Leave the “Origin Path” empty.
Leave the other settings as default or configure them based on your requirements.
In the Default Cache Behavior Settings, choose “Redirect HTTP to HTTPS” to ensure secure connections (if you have an SSL/TLS certificate). Otherwise, select “HTTP and HTTPS.”
If you have a dynamic web application, in the Allowed HTTP methods select “GET, HEAD, OPTIONS, PUT, POST, PATCH, DELETE.”
Leave the other settings as default or configure them based on your requirements.
In the Cache key and origin requests, I have chosen to disable the cache. If you want to use it then you can configure it based on your requirements.
Select “Do not enable security protections.” (If you want to enable it then you can do that.)
In Settings, choose “Price Class” based on your target audience (e.g., “Use All Edge Locations” for global reach).
In the alternative domain name (CNAME), add your domain/subdomain name.
Choose your ACM SSL/TLS certificate for the “Alternate Domain Names (CNAMEs)” field.
Click “Create Distribution” to create your CloudFront distribution.
Make sure that your “Last modified” is changed from “Deploying” to the date and time.