how do I connect to an AWS "Application Load Balancer" with SSL - amazon-web-services

I have just set up my first "Application Load Balancer" and I chose the SSL option to connect allowing AWS to generate the certificate for me based on my domain (www.example.com).
I have set the target to my EC2 instance and now I want to connect to the Load Balancer but not sure how. If I just connect to the DNS name of the load balancer I get an invalid certificate error.
I have read that I need to set a record for my domain but because the IP of an application load balancer may change, not sure if that is a good idea.
The documentation mentions the following:
Clients can use the Server Name Identification (SNI) protocol
extension to specify the hostname they are trying to reach.
But I couldn't figure out how to do that. I'm very new to Load Balancers and not quite sure how to proceed.

The following problem is easy to solve with AWS Route 53:
Create a hosted zone in Route 53
Choose the name of the hosted zone that has the domain name that you want to use to route traffic to your load balancer
Choose Create Record Set.
Specify the following values:
Name:
Type the domain name that you want to use to route traffic to your ELB load balancer. The default value is the name of the hosted zone.
For example, if the name of the hosted zone is example.com and you want to use acme.example.com to route traffic to your load balancer, type acme.
Type:
Choose A – IPv4 address.
Alias:
Choose Yes.
Alias Target
Find the applicable category in the list (ELB Application Load Balancers, ELB Classic Load Balancers, or ELB Network Load Balancers), and then choose the name that you assigned to the load balancer when you created it.
Routing Policy:
Accept the default value of Simple.
Evaluate Target Health:
If you want Route 53 to route traffic based on the health of your resources, choose Yes
Choose Create.
Also If you don't want to use Route 53 and if it's not at the apex, you use a CNAME to the ELB.
Refer to this Guide
Something like :
my.web.thingy.org CNAME my-loadbalancer-1234567890.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com.
And yes you are correct the IP of ELB Changes Frequently and thus it is not recommended to use A Record in DNS.
Hope this Helps

Related

How to determine the IP address through LoadBalancer?

I have two same task in a service.
this task has the httpd.
It has different IP address 56.XX.XX.12,56.XX.XX.15
I can access both address and get response. 56.XX.XX.12,56.XX.XX.15
Now I try to attach original domain name to this fargate though, from my understanding, I should access to LoadBalancer IP address and LoadBalancer select the target task automatically am I wrong?
If so where can I find the LoadBalancer IP?
From the AWS documentation:
The IP addresses for Classic Load Balancers and Application Load Balancers change over time. Avoid using this information to statically configure your applications to point to these IP addresses.
You should use the provided DNS name of the LoadBalancer instead.
Now I try to attach original domain name to this fargate though, from my understanding, I should access to LoadBalancer IP address and LoadBalancer select the target task automatically am I wrong?
AWS elastic/application load balancers do not have a static IP, they are associated with AWS DNS name to expose application.
From the AWS Docs.
use your DNS service, such as your domain registrar, to create a CNAME record to route queries to your load balancer. For more information, see the documentation for your DNS service.
CNAME records allow you to route traffic to other resources using the domain names. Refer to the docs for more information.
AWS Docs on linking Custom DNS with load balancers: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/classic/using-domain-names-with-elb.html#dns-associate-custom-elb

Use Elastic IP for ALB

I have set ALB with fargate, currently I can access to ALB with dns name like this
myapp-LoadB-FDEWFSOAQXD4-f18c75dd4249a10d.elb.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com
However it is said this DNS could be changed.
So I want to give this the Elastic IP
I have experienced connection EC2 and Elastic IP.
In Elasitc IP panel I can choose instance.
However, there is not ALB is listed.
How can I set Elastic IP to ALB ? or am I wrong basically?
Two options here, depending on what kind of direction you are heading:
If you do not like the default DNS name
You can create a DNS record that will point to your load balancer. This means that people would be able to surf to your website by using www.whitebear.com instead of myapp-LoadB-FDEWFSOAQXD4-f18c75dd4249a10d.elb.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com
See: Routing traffic to an ELB load balancer - Amazon Route 53
If you really want to attach an ElasticIp to a loadbalancer
There are some use cases where it is really needed to be able to surf to a loadbalancer using a fixed IP. You can achieve this by setting up a Global Accelerator on AWS.
With Global Accelerator, you are provided two global static public IPs that act as a fixed entry point to your application, improving availability.
More information can be found on the AWS Global Accelerator page
If you wish to create a 'friendly' name for an Application Load Balancer, you can create a CNAME record in your Domain and point it to the DNS Name of the Load Balancer.
If you wish to point the Apex of your domain (eg example.com), you can use an Alias in Amazon Route 53 to point to the Application Load Balancer. (It is not normally possible to point a Domain apex to a CNAME record, so the Alias capability of Route 53 will do it for you.)
See: Routing traffic to an ELB load balancer - Amazon Route 53

Can I associate Static IP to my AWS Classic Load balancer

I have configured classic load balancer for my application and provided dns URL for it to the customer for integration.
Now i want to migrate to Application load balancer but that will lead to change in DNS url for my customer.
So if I get a static IP , i can associate it to my CLB now , as customers to migrate to that IP and then associate the IP to ALB.
is there any way it can be handled better.
No, only Network Load Balancers offer the option of a static IP. You should probably be setting up your own DNS name that points to the load balancer, and giving that to your customer. Then if your load balancer's DNS were to ever change you would only need to update your own DNS record.

AWS Static IP to Load Balancer?

Is it possible to assign a static IP to an AWS load balancer without the need to move your NS records to Route 53?
I basically just want to create an A record from my domain to point to the ELB.
Elastic Load Balancer is a distributed system. It does not have a single public IP address. Instead, when you create an ELB, you are given a DNS name such as ExampleDomainELB-67854125.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com.
Amazon gives a facility to set up a DNS CNAME entry pointing for e.g. www.exampledomain.com to the ELB-supplied DNS name.
Also, ELB is directing to one of your instances. Hence, creating a static IP address for ELB will not be feasible.
So as a solution if you need to set your 'A' record from your domain pointing to your ELB in Route53 :
Select 'Yes' for Alias.
Set Alias target as your Load Balancer DNS.
Second way is similar by selecting the CNAME in Route53 and pointing the Alias Target to your ELB.
This should help.
AWS Load Balancer is a very generic term.
You currently have three options for load balancing in AWS:
Application Load Balancers (ALB)
Network Load Balancers (NLB)
Classic/Elastic Load Balancers (ELB)
Of those three only one, the Network Load Balancer can have a static IP address. It's listed in the reference below.
Support for static IP addresses for the load balancer. You can also assign one Elastic IP address per subnet enabled for the load balancer.
It is also possible to "glue" an NLB and ALB together to provide a static IP address and application load balancer functionality. In general you allow a lambda to populate an NLB Target group with your ALB info. It's outside the scope of this answer but the link is below.
If you're using Route53 you can create an A record Alias for your Load Balancer.
If you're not, you can use a CNAME.
References
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/latest/network/introduction.html
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/networking-and-content-delivery/using-static-ip-addresses-for-application-load-balancers/
ELB manage the IP for you, it just gives you the DNS name. So you can't control the IP behind it.
If you need an A record than you need to use A record alias from Route53.
Without using Route 53, you can use CNAME instead of A record.

AWS Route 53 DNS alias for internal load balancer

I've setup an internal load balancer for my SQL read servers in EC2, but I can't figure out how to point DNS at it. I have a private hosted zone in Route 53. When I attempt to setup an ALIAS record to the LB, the internal load balancer does not appear in the dropdown, though all the public LBs do, which leads me to believe I'm going about this the wrong way. None of my Googling has led me to any information specific to private load balancers, so maybe it's just not possible and I have to use the long AWS domain name?
My experience : I was trying to create single HTTPS contact point for my application, so I tried setting up internal load-balancer hoping when I point it to A Record in Route 53 it would work with just A Record url.
To answer your question :
Internal Load Balancers do list in Load Balancer listing for Route 53.
You can not use A Record url to publicly point to internal load-balancer unless you are actually connected to VPC