Amazon Route 53 (Hands-on)
Welcome back friends.
Let's do hands-on with Route 53.
In this hands-on, we will learn about
Route 53 latency-based routing.
We will launch 2 EC2 instances with
running web servers.
1 EC2 instance I will launch in the
Northern Virginia AWS region, and for the
other
one, I'll launch in the Mumbai AWS region.
Then we will see how Route 53 uses
latency-based routing to route traffic to
these EC2
instances.
But before doing hands-on with Route 53
routing policy, you need to have a domain
name
Registering for a domain name is not free,
so if you are not interested in
registering
for a domain name, just watch how it works
instead of doing hands-on.
Let's go to Route 53.
I'm planning to register a domain. Let me enter my domain name here.
First, I need to check if the domain name is available or not.
As you can notice, the domain name is available with the exact match. It also provides suggestions for the other available domain name. I'm happy with this domain name. I can click on select. I will click on proceed to checkout. If you are not planning to use it after a year, please uncheck it so that auto renewal will be turned off. Let me click on proceed to checkout to register the domain. Here. I need to register the domain. Let me do it offline to finish the process. As you can notice, my order is processed. If you go to the domain, as you can notice, it says that domain registration is in progress.
After some time you should see the domain registration will be completed and you should see the expiration time and other details such as whether auto renewal is turned on or not Now if you go to hosted zone on your left side, you should see hosted zone In my case, I see the hosted zone has been created. Now we will use this hosted zone to add the DNS records for the EC2 instances that we will be launching soon. Right now you see two DNS records are created. One is for the name server, which is essentially the DNS names of the name servers The other one is SOA, a start of authority record that stores important information about a domain such as the administrator's email address. Let's go ahead and launch EC2 instances. I will launch the first one in the Northern Virginia region, which will have a running web server, and the homepage will display Hello World from Northern Virginia AWS region. Let's launch it. I will launch in the free tier and proceed without a key pair as SSH is unnecessary. I'll create a new security group that allows HTTP access from anywhere. Let's scroll down. Under advanced detail. We are going to add EC 2 user data, which will install a web server and add index.html. Let me copy and paste the EC 2 user data script.
Let's launch this instance right now. This instance is getting launched. Now let me switch AWS region. Let's go to the Mumbai AWS region, and I will launch the other EC2 instance in the Mumbai AWS region. I will launch this instance in the same way as I launched the previous one, which means I will launch in the free tier.
I will choose T2 micro as the instance type. Proceed without a key pair as there is no need for SSH. I'll create a new security group to allow HTTP access from anywhere. Let's scroll down. Let me add EC 2 user data to install a web server and an index.html I'm going to launch this instance now. This EC2 instance is getting launched in the Mumbai AWS region.
Now we have 2 EC2 instances running. One is running in the Northern Virginia AWS region, and the other is running in the Mumbai AWS region. Let's use the IP address of the EC2 instance of the Northern Virginia AWS region to see if it's working as expected.
It displays Hello World from Northern Virginia AWS region, which is good. Let's access the one running in the Mumbai region, get the server's IP address.
As you can see, the Mumbai EC2 instance is displaying Hello world from Mumbai AWS region, which is good. So both of these instances are running fine. Now let's go to Route 53.
Click on create Record. For the record name, it will be www and the DNS name is pre-populated. The record type will be a record.
For value, I'll use the public IP address of the EC2 instance running in the Northern Virginia region. Let me get the public IP address of the instance.
Routing policy, I'll select latency based. What it means is that the request will be routed to the EC2 instance that will have the least latency between both of these running EC2 instances. For the region, let me select the Northern Virginia AWS region. For record ID, I can say EC2 instance in the Northern Virginia region. Add another record. This will be for the EC2 instance running in the Mumbai AWS region for record name www.na-training.com. It will be a record like the previous one. IP address. Let me find the public IP address of the instance.
Routing policy is latency for the region. Let me select Mumbai region. For record ID, EC2 instance in Mumbai region, as you can notice for the domain name www.nada-training.com, we have two records, means both these IP addresses are pointing to the same domain name. And Route 53 will decide based on latency which IP address the input traffic should be sent to. Let's click on create Record. As you can see, there are two A records. The routing policy is latency-based. Now I should go ahead and test this. Let me go to www.na-training.com and press enter As you can notice, it displays Hello World from the Northern Virginia AWS region. The Route 53 routing policy sends traffic to this web server because the Northern Virginia AWS region is closest to my location. Now let me use a VPN to connect to Mumbai in India so that we can test the other server to see if the request from India is routed to the Mumbai server or not by Route 53.
Now let me open a new private Chrome browser session. As you can notice, it displayed Hello World from Mumbai AWS region. As this is the server running in the Mumbai AWS region, Route 53 is routing it to the web server instance running in Mumbai, as opposed to the one running in the Northern Virginia region. The reason is that routing to Mumbai will provide the least latency compared to routing the request to the web server running in the Northern Virginia region. In another example, if any other user is trying to connect, say, from Singapore, Route 53 will direct the request to the web server running in the Mumbai region because of the least latency compared to the web server running in the Northern Virginia AWS region. On the same token, if someone connects from, say, California.
Route 53 will route the request to the Northern Virginia server as routing to the Northern Virginia server will provide the least latency compared to the one running in the Mumbai AWS region. I think you have got good understanding of latency-based Route 53 routing. Now make sure to terminate the running EC2 instances for this tutorial.
And delete hosted zone as it will cost per month.
For the domain name, if you don't want to use it next year, make sure to turn off the auto renewal option. There are other types of Route 53 routing types as well.
Now since I hope you have got good understanding of latency-based Route 53 routing, it should help you to understand other Route 53 routing types with much ease. That's it for this lecture. Hope you liked it.
I'm planning to register a domain. Let me enter my domain name here.
First, I need to check if the domain name is available or not.
As you can notice, the domain name is available with the exact match. It also provides suggestions for the other available domain name. I'm happy with this domain name. I can click on select. I will click on proceed to checkout. If you are not planning to use it after a year, please uncheck it so that auto renewal will be turned off. Let me click on proceed to checkout to register the domain. Here. I need to register the domain. Let me do it offline to finish the process. As you can notice, my order is processed. If you go to the domain, as you can notice, it says that domain registration is in progress.
After some time you should see the domain registration will be completed and you should see the expiration time and other details such as whether auto renewal is turned on or not Now if you go to hosted zone on your left side, you should see hosted zone In my case, I see the hosted zone has been created. Now we will use this hosted zone to add the DNS records for the EC2 instances that we will be launching soon. Right now you see two DNS records are created. One is for the name server, which is essentially the DNS names of the name servers The other one is SOA, a start of authority record that stores important information about a domain such as the administrator's email address. Let's go ahead and launch EC2 instances. I will launch the first one in the Northern Virginia region, which will have a running web server, and the homepage will display Hello World from Northern Virginia AWS region. Let's launch it. I will launch in the free tier and proceed without a key pair as SSH is unnecessary. I'll create a new security group that allows HTTP access from anywhere. Let's scroll down. Under advanced detail. We are going to add EC 2 user data, which will install a web server and add index.html. Let me copy and paste the EC 2 user data script.
Let's launch this instance right now. This instance is getting launched. Now let me switch AWS region. Let's go to the Mumbai AWS region, and I will launch the other EC2 instance in the Mumbai AWS region. I will launch this instance in the same way as I launched the previous one, which means I will launch in the free tier.
I will choose T2 micro as the instance type. Proceed without a key pair as there is no need for SSH. I'll create a new security group to allow HTTP access from anywhere. Let's scroll down. Let me add EC 2 user data to install a web server and an index.html I'm going to launch this instance now. This EC2 instance is getting launched in the Mumbai AWS region.
Now we have 2 EC2 instances running. One is running in the Northern Virginia AWS region, and the other is running in the Mumbai AWS region. Let's use the IP address of the EC2 instance of the Northern Virginia AWS region to see if it's working as expected.
It displays Hello World from Northern Virginia AWS region, which is good. Let's access the one running in the Mumbai region, get the server's IP address.
As you can see, the Mumbai EC2 instance is displaying Hello world from Mumbai AWS region, which is good. So both of these instances are running fine. Now let's go to Route 53.
Click on create Record. For the record name, it will be www and the DNS name is pre-populated. The record type will be a record.
For value, I'll use the public IP address of the EC2 instance running in the Northern Virginia region. Let me get the public IP address of the instance.
Routing policy, I'll select latency based. What it means is that the request will be routed to the EC2 instance that will have the least latency between both of these running EC2 instances. For the region, let me select the Northern Virginia AWS region. For record ID, I can say EC2 instance in the Northern Virginia region. Add another record. This will be for the EC2 instance running in the Mumbai AWS region for record name www.na-training.com. It will be a record like the previous one. IP address. Let me find the public IP address of the instance.
Routing policy is latency for the region. Let me select Mumbai region. For record ID, EC2 instance in Mumbai region, as you can notice for the domain name www.nada-training.com, we have two records, means both these IP addresses are pointing to the same domain name. And Route 53 will decide based on latency which IP address the input traffic should be sent to. Let's click on create Record. As you can see, there are two A records. The routing policy is latency-based. Now I should go ahead and test this. Let me go to www.na-training.com and press enter As you can notice, it displays Hello World from the Northern Virginia AWS region. The Route 53 routing policy sends traffic to this web server because the Northern Virginia AWS region is closest to my location. Now let me use a VPN to connect to Mumbai in India so that we can test the other server to see if the request from India is routed to the Mumbai server or not by Route 53.
Now let me open a new private Chrome browser session. As you can notice, it displayed Hello World from Mumbai AWS region. As this is the server running in the Mumbai AWS region, Route 53 is routing it to the web server instance running in Mumbai, as opposed to the one running in the Northern Virginia region. The reason is that routing to Mumbai will provide the least latency compared to routing the request to the web server running in the Northern Virginia region. In another example, if any other user is trying to connect, say, from Singapore, Route 53 will direct the request to the web server running in the Mumbai region because of the least latency compared to the web server running in the Northern Virginia AWS region. On the same token, if someone connects from, say, California.
Route 53 will route the request to the Northern Virginia server as routing to the Northern Virginia server will provide the least latency compared to the one running in the Mumbai AWS region. I think you have got good understanding of latency-based Route 53 routing. Now make sure to terminate the running EC2 instances for this tutorial.
And delete hosted zone as it will cost per month.
For the domain name, if you don't want to use it next year, make sure to turn off the auto renewal option. There are other types of Route 53 routing types as well.
Now since I hope you have got good understanding of latency-based Route 53 routing, it should help you to understand other Route 53 routing types with much ease. That's it for this lecture. Hope you liked it.
