CloudFront

Configuring a CloudFront distribution in DuploCloud

CloudFront is an AWS content delivery network (CDN) service. It accelerates the delivery of your websites, APIs, video content, and other web assets to users by caching content at edge locations closer to the user.

Prerequisites

Before creating a CloudFront distribution:

• Create an S3 bucket

• Upload your static assets to the S3 bucket.

Creating a CloudFront distribution

1. From the DuploCloud Portal, navigate to Cloud Services -> Networking.

2. Select the CloudFront tab, and click Add. The Add Distribution page displays.

The CloudFront Add Distribution page.

1. In the Name field, enter a name for the distribution.

2. In the Root Object field, specify the root object that will be returned when accessing the domain's root (in this example, "index.html"). The root object should not start with "/."

3. From the Certificate list box, select the ACM certificate for distribution. Only certificates in US-East-1 can be used. If a certificate is not already present, request one in AWS and add it to the DuploCloud Plan.

4. In the Certificate Protocol Version item list, select the correct certificate protocol.

5. Optionally, enter any alternate domain name(s) you want to connect to your CloudFront distribution in the Aliases section. For aliases managed by DuploCloud, CNAME mapping is done automatically. For other aliases, manually set up CNAME in your DNS management console.

6. In the Origins area, enter the location(s) where the content is stored (e.g., an S3 bucket or HTTP server endpoint).

   • In the Domain Name field, select the correct S3 bucket, or select Other and enter a custom endpoint.

   • A unique ID will be pre-populated from the domain name. If needed, the ID can be changed.

   • Optionally, enter a Path (a path will be suffixed to the origin's domain name [URL] while fetching content). Enter static if the content is in an S3 bucket under the prefix static. For a custom URL where all APIs have a prefix like v1, enter v1.

7. In the Default Cache Behaviors area, select the Cache Policy ID and Target Origin to fetch the content.

8. In the Custom Cache Behaviors area, enter additional policies and path patterns if needed.

   • Cache Policy ID - Select one of the AWS-defined cache policies, or choose Other and enter a custom cache policy.

   • Path Pattern - For requests matching the pattern, enter the specific origin and cache policy to be used. For example, if api/* is entered, all requests that start with the prefix API will be routed to this origin.

   • Target Origin - Choose the origin that should be used for your custom path.

Note: If the S3 bucket and CloudFront distribution are in the same Tenant, DuploCloud creates an Origin Access Identity and updates the bucket policy to allow GetObject for Cloudfront Origin Access Identity. You do not need to configure any additional S3 bucket permissions.

When creating an AWS CloudFront distribution for a load balancer using Terraform in DuploCloud, ensure to include the comment field in your Terraform configuration as it acts as a required field for the resource name, despite being listed as optional in the documentation. This adjustment is crucial for successful deployment.

Creating a Lambda@Edge function association

Create a lambda function in the Tenant

1. Select the Tenant from the Tenant list box.

2. Navigate to Cloud Services -> Serverless, select the Lambda tab, and click Add.

3. Select the Edge lambda checkbox. This will create a lambda function in us-east-1 along with the necessary permissions.

4. Complete the necessary fields and click Submit.

Create a CloudFront distribution

1. Select the Tenant from the Tenant list box.

2. Navigate to Cloud Services -> Networking, select the CloudFront tab, and click Add.

3. Complete the necessary fields. Make sure to select the lambda function created above in Function Associations.

4. Click Submit.

Note: DuploCloud displays all versions of the lambda function, so the same function will appear multiple times with V1, V2, and so forth.

Once the deployment status becomes Deployed, visit the domain name to see the lambda function invocation.

Setting up a website maintenance page

Create a maintenance page to inform users that your website or application is temporarily unavailable. By clearly communicating the service's status, you can help manage user expectations and provide a better user experience.

• The default origin should point to your app URL ui.mysite.com.

• Create a new S3 bucket to store your maintenance pages. In the S3 bucket, create a prefix/folder called maintpage.

• Upload your maintenance page assets (.html, .css, .js, etc.) into an S3 bucket inside the maintpage folder.

• Add a new S3 Origin pointing to the S3 bucket that contains the maintenance static assets.

• Add new Custom Cache Behaviors using /maintpage/* as the path pattern. The Target Origin should be the S3 maintenance assets origin.

• Adding Custom Error Response mapping.

  • In the error code dropdown, select the HTTP code for which the maintenance page should be served. 502 gateway timeout is commonly used.

  • In the Response page path, enter /maintpage/5xx.html, replacing 5xx.html with a page that exists in S3.

  • The HTTP Response Code can be 200 or 502 (the same as the source origin response code).