AWS Route 53 in 3 Minutes
Tags: aws, cloudskills, dns, route53
Published: 2021-02-02 05:08:07

## Overview

AWS [Route53](https://aws.amazon.com/route53/) is a [DNS](https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/what-is-dns/) web service. That means that it's used to route traffic from a domain name like "example.com" to your application. DNS can be tricky to get right and is critical to application availability. If the DNS servers are not working properly then the application behind them are actually offline. 

Route53 takes its role very seriously as proven by their [100% availability](https://aws.amazon.com/route53/sla/) defined in the service SLA. It offers this and other amazing features while you only [pay](https://aws.amazon.com/route53/pricing/) for what you need.

## Features

* [DNSSEC](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/dns-configuring-dnssec.html)
* [Registrar](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/registrar.html)
* [Resolver] (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/resolver.html)
* [Routing Policies](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-policy.html)
* [Private DNS](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/hosted-zones-private.html)
* [Public DNS](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/AboutHZWorkingWith.html)


## Integration

* [API Gateway](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-to-api-gateway.html)
* [CloudFront](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-to-cloudfront-distribution.html)
* [EC2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-to-ec2-instance.html)
* [Elastic Load Balancing](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-to-elb-load-balancer.html)
* [Elastic Beanstalk](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-to-beanstalk-environment.html)
* [Lightsail](https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/docs/en_us/articles/amazon-lightsail-using-route-53-to-point-a-domain-to-an-instance)
* [RDS](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-to-rds-db.html)
* [S3](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/RoutingToS3Bucket.html)

> these services are just a subset of the service integrations supported -- always check the [documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/integration-with-other-services.html) for the latest and greatest info

## Routing Policies

These policies control how traffic flows. It's highly configurable to achieve any type of routing you could possibly require. Additionally, the policies can be nested together to create complex routing conditions. 


* [Failover](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-policy.html#routing-policy-failover)

    * associates health checks with targets to determine health
    * used to create active/passive configurations

* [Geolocation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-policy.html#routing-policy-geo)

    * routes traffic based on geographic location

* [Geoproximity](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-policy.html#routing-policy-geoproximity)

    * includes graphic user interface
    * routes traffic based on traffic flow rules drawn on a map
    * supports bias for fine-grained control

![Geoproximity Map](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/35k17z1c0ex0zy6j9bdm.png)

* [Latency](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-policy.html#routing-policy-latency)

     * routes traffic based on latency between the user and the target

* [Multivalue](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-policy.html#routing-policy-multivalue)

     * routes traffic to multiple targets in a round robin fashion
     * supports health checks

* [Simple](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-policy.html#routing-policy-simple)

     * routes all traffic to a single target
     * commonly used with CloudFront distributions and ELBs

* [Weighted](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/routing-policy.html#routing-policy-weighted)

     * routes traffic to multiple targets based on weight
     * weight is assigned per target and traffic is proportional to that weight

## Open Guide (Basics, Tips, and Gotchas)

https://github.com/open-guides/og-aws#route-53

## Walkthroughs

### Nesting Latency and Weighted Routing Policies

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/TutorialLBRMultipleEC2InRegion.html

### Registering a New Domain

![Registrar Domain Name Picker](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/1h7e1bxa1q8oz46laqwn.png)

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/Route53/latest/DeveloperGuide/domain-register.html