Description

It's possible to host static assets using AWS tooling over SSL mostly for free. This is an AWS CloudFormation template and small script to help you setup web hosting for a SPA (single page app) or any other sort of static website which has an index.html file.

Read below to get started and to learn more about how it works.

At the end of all this, you will end up with:

• a static website using your own domain
• a static website which automatially redirects http to https for your domain
• an s3 bucket which serves the website files
• a CloudFront distribution which caches assets for 2 minutes (configurable)
• (optionally) a website which works with or without www subdomain (default is without)

Prerequisites

• A shell (tested on bash on OS X)
• AWS Command Line Interface
• AWS credentials with enough privleges (admin privleges are the easiest)
• A domain name which you control and which is using Route53 for DNS

Getting started

After the aws cli is installed and configured with your AWS keys there are a couple of other things to check off the list in order for this to work:

Using Route53

This setup only works when the DNS for your domain is controlled using Route53. Changing this isn't difficult but instructions will vary depending on your registrar.

If you don't already have a Hosted Zone setup in Route53 for your domain, do the following:

• Open Route53 in the AWS console
• Click 'Create Hosted Zone'
• Enter your domain name
• Ensure 'Type' is set to 'Public Hosted Zone'
• Click save
• Copy the newly created NS records to your registrar (example shown below when using Namecheap)

You can also create the HostedZone from the command line:

$ aws route53 create-hosted-zone --caller-reference `uuidgen` --name roasterslog.com
$ {
    "HostedZone": {
        "ResourceRecordSetCount": 2,
        "CallerReference": "A5D5BCC2-553A-4220-A191-89494A4E6932",
        "Config": {
            "PrivateZone": false
        },
        "Id": "/hostedzone/ZNLTFY0M31Q42",
        "Name": "roasterslog.com."
    },
    "DelegationSet": {
        "NameServers": [
            "ns-830.awsdns-39.net",
            "ns-1644.awsdns-13.co.uk",
            "ns-1339.awsdns-39.org",
            "ns-62.awsdns-07.com"
        ]
    },
    "Location": "https://route53.amazonaws.com/2013-04-01/hostedzone/ZNLTFY0M31Q42",
    "ChangeInfo": {
        "Status": "PENDING",
        "SubmittedAt": "2017-07-12T18:25:47.077Z",
        "Id": "/change/C2U9HS0R51XGBD"
    }
}
$ aws route53 get-hosted-zone --id ZNLTFY0M31Q42
$ {
    "HostedZone": {
        "ResourceRecordSetCount": 2,
        "CallerReference": "A5D5BCC2-553A-4220-A191-89494A4E6932",
        "Config": {
            "PrivateZone": false
        },
        "Id": "/hostedzone/ZNLTFY0M31Q42",
        "Name": "roasterslog.com."
    },
    "DelegationSet": {
        "NameServers": [
            "ns-23423.awsdns-39.net",
            "ns-23423.awsdns-13.co.uk",
            "ns-2422.awsdns-39.org",
            "ns-23.awsdns-07.com"
        ]
    }
}

Setting up email

This stack will automatically setup a free SSL certificate for your domain and configure the distribution such that everything is redirected from http to https. To verify domain ownership, AWS will send emails to various email addresses for your domain. As such, you will need to have valid MX records and an email provider set up and working. Setting that up is outside the scope of this stack, but there are plenty of resources which describe how to do that.

A couple of things which I have done for testing or new domains without full-blown email:

• Use Zoho Mail
• Set up SES to receive mail

Running

Create your stack

./manage-stack.sh create --domain roasterslog.com --zone-id ZNLTFY0M31Q42 --name roasterslog

Note: Initial create can take several minutes and requires you to check your email

Immediately after launching this, check your email. You should receive an email with a link...click it:

Once you've validated your domain, log into the CloudFormation console to watch the stack progress. Again, note that stack creation will take several minutes mainly due to the CloudFront distribution which is created.

Uploading content

After your stack is created you will have a single page app over https with no content. You can get your content there by uploading it into the S3 bucket which is creted for you.

./manage-stack.sh describe  --name roasterslog

Look at the BucketName output.

Alternately, look at the Outputs section in the CloudFormation console so get the S3 bucket which was created.

You can now upload your content via several mechanisms.

Note: The only file required is an index.html file.

From the command line:

$ cd some/directory/
$ aws s3 cp . s3://roasterslog-s3bucketforstaticcontent-1npb6b9p4h41r/ --recursive --acl public-read

Updating your stack

If you ever make changes to your stack, run the same command but replace create with update:

Deleting your stack

• Delete any uploaded files in the S3 bucket
• From CloudFormation console, select your stack then Actions -> Delete stack