AWS Route 53

AWS Route 53 Summary

What is AWS Route 53?

• AWS Route 53 is a highly available and scalable cloud Domain Name System (DNS) web service.
• It translates domain names (like www.google.com) into numerical IP addresses that computers use to connect.
• The “53” refers to port 53, the standard port for DNS.

How AWS Route 53 Works

1. A user enters a domain name in a web browser.
2. The request goes to a DNS resolver (usually the ISP).
3. The resolver forwards the request to a root name server.
4. The root name server directs the resolver to the TLD name server (e.g., .com).
5. The TLD name server provides the IP addresses of the domain’s name servers (in this case, Route 53 name servers).
6. The resolver chooses a Route 53 name server and sends the request.
7. The Route 53 name server finds the IP address associated with the domain name in its hosted zone and returns it to the resolver.
8. The resolver provides the IP address to the user’s browser.
9. The browser sends a request to the IP address, which could be a web server or other resource.
10. The web server responds with the requested content.

Key Features and Functions

• Domain Registration and Management: Allows users to register and manage domain names.
• Global DNS Resolution: Uses a network of DNS servers worldwide for low-latency resolution.
• Traffic Routing and Load Balancing: Distributes traffic across multiple resources for better performance and availability.
• Health Checks: Automatically routes traffic away from unhealthy resources.
• Cost-Effective: Users pay only for the services used.
• Secure: Integrates with AWS IAM for access control.

Types of Routing Policies

• Simple Routing Policy: Routes traffic to a single resource.
• Failover Routing Policy: Redirects traffic to a healthy resource if the primary one fails.
• Geolocation Routing Policy: Routes traffic based on the user’s geographic location.
• Geoproximity Routing Policy: Considers the user’s location and content type to route traffic, with the ability to shift traffic between locations.
• Latency Routing Policy: Routes traffic to the AWS region with the lowest latency.
• Multivalue Routing Policy: Returns multiple values for healthy resources in response to DNS queries.
• Weighted Routing Policy: Distributes traffic across resources based on user-defined weights.

Key Concepts

• Records: Entries in a hosted zone that determine how traffic is routed.
• Hosted Zone: A container for DNS records for a domain and its subdomains.
• DNS Query: A request sent from a DNS client to a server for information.
• Alias Record: Routes traffic to AWS resources like S3 buckets and CloudFront distributions.
• Name Servers: Translate domain names into IP addresses.
• DNS Failover: Routes traffic from unhealthy to healthy resources.

Benefits

• Highly Reliable: Built on AWS’s reliable infrastructure.
• Scalable: Automatically handles traffic fluctuations.
• Easy to Use: User-friendly interface for DNS settings.
• Flexible: Provides multiple routing policies to choose from.
• Secure: Access control via IAM integration.
• Integrated with other AWS Services: Works with various AWS services like EC2, S3, and CloudFront.