{"id":20714,"date":"2018-03-20T17:27:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T13:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.msp360.com\/blog\/?p=20714"},"modified":"2023-12-12T17:29:31","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T13:29:31","slug":"how-to-create-website-using-aws-free-tier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/how-to-create-website-using-aws-free-tier\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create a Website for Free Using Amazon Web Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Creating a website used to be a laborious and costly effort back in the day. Registering a domain, arranging hosting, and configuring DNS settings were usually done through different companies, which made it difficult and time-consuming to create a website from scratch. Those days are thankfully over, as companies like Amazon now offer comprehensive functionality when it comes to creating and maintaining a website.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"table-of-content \">\n\t\t\t\t<p>Table of Contents<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<ul><\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<h2>Introduction<\/h2>\n<p>Amazon offers a complete set of tools for website management. In fact, most of these tools are available under Amazon's 12-month free tier, meaning that you can start a website from scratch with no money upfront! The only thing you'll have to pay for is a separate domain.<\/p>\n<p>In this article, we're going to cover the following aspects of creating a website:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Hosting the website's assets using Amazon S3 (free);<\/li>\n<li>Reducing latency and increasing transfer speeds by leveraging AWS CloudFront (free);<\/li>\n<li>Registering a domain and redirecting it to CloudFront (extra fee for the domain).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>And with that, let's dive right into the first section.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action__left\" style=\"width: 70%;\">\n<div class=\"call-to-action__tag\">FREE WHITEPAPER<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__title\">Mastering AWS IAM for Amazon S3<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__text\">Learn how to effectively manage the security of your Amazon S3 account to protect your and your clients' data<\/div>\n<!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper hs-cta-deferred\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-9120adb3-1267-4129-ad5a-d8f06b87d969\" data-portal=\"5442029\" data-id=\"9120adb3-1267-4129-ad5a-d8f06b87d969\"><span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-9120adb3-1267-4129-ad5a-d8f06b87d969\" id=\"hs-cta-9120adb3-1267-4129-ad5a-d8f06b87d969\"><!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/5442029\/9120adb3-1267-4129-ad5a-d8f06b87d969\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-9120adb3-1267-4129-ad5a-d8f06b87d969\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/5442029\/9120adb3-1267-4129-ad5a-d8f06b87d969.png\" alt=\"CTA\"><\/a><\/span><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"call-to-action__right\" style=\"width: 30%;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Mastering-AWS-IAM-for-Amazon-S3.png\" alt=\"WP icon\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>How to Host a Website on Amazon S3<\/h2>\n<p>First things first, we need to arrange hosting for our website's assets (all of the HTML files, images, etc). For this purpose, Amazon offers their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/cloud-object-storage-use-cases-and-solutions\/\">cloud object storage<\/a>\u2014Amazon S3. To get started with S3, you need to first <a href=\"https:\/\/portal.aws.amazon.com\/billing\/signup#\/start\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sign up for the AWS Web Console<\/a>. If you have trouble signing up for the AWS Console, refer to our article\u00a0that <a href=\"https:\/\/help.msp360.com\/cloudberry-backup\/backup-destinations\/cloud-specific-settings\/amazon\/sign-up-for-amazon-s3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">explains the process in detail<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"perfect-pullquote vcard pullquote-align-full pullquote-border-placement-left\"><blockquote><p>Under the AWS Free Tier, you get 5 GB of standard storage, 20,000 Get Requests, and 2,000 Put Requests free of charge.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<p>Once you've signed up for the console, open it, and search for S3, Amazon's object storage solution.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-20722\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.54.33-1024x775.png\" alt=\"AWS storage console\" width=\"625\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.54.33-1024x775.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.54.33-300x227.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.54.33-768x582.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.54.33-624x473.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.54.33.png 1376w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now click <strong>Create bucket<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20723 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.56.55-1024x399.png\" alt=\"Create bucket\" width=\"625\" height=\"244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.56.55-1024x399.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.56.55-300x117.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.56.55-768x299.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.56.55-624x243.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-17.56.55.png 1408w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Enter the bucket's name, specify the region and click <em>Next<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20724 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.01.06-897x1024.png\" alt=\"Bucket name\" width=\"625\" height=\"713\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.01.06-897x1024.png 897w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.01.06-263x300.png 263w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.01.06-768x877.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.01.06-624x712.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.01.06.png 1426w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the next step, you can enable versioning, server access logging, tagging, object-level logging, and default encryption. We don't need that for now, so just skip these options and click <b>Next<\/b>.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20725 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.04.20-896x1024.png\" alt=\"enable versioning\" width=\"625\" height=\"714\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.04.20-896x1024.png 896w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.04.20-263x300.png 263w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.04.20-768x878.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.04.20-624x713.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.04.20.png 1414w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the next step, you can specify the required permissions. It is important that you select <b>Grant public read access to this bucket<\/b> in the public permissions drop-down menu. Otherwise, it will be impossible to access the website's contents located in this bucket.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20726 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.07.43-892x1024.png\" alt=\"public permissions menu\" width=\"625\" height=\"717\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.07.43-892x1024.png 892w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.07.43-261x300.png 261w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.07.43-768x882.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.07.43-624x716.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.07.43.png 1390w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"last\">Review the bucket's properties and permissions, and click <b>Create bucket<\/b>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"slidebox\"><a class=\"close\">\u00a0<\/a><!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span class=\"hs-cta-wrapper hs-cta-deferred\" id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\" data-portal=\"5442029\" data-id=\"aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\"><span class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\" id=\"hs-cta-aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\"><!--[if lte IE 8]><div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div><![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/5442029\/aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"hs-cta-img\" id=\"hs-cta-img-aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6\" style=\"border-width:0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/5442029\/aa07fdb8-7776-46a5-9fa0-ec6e93f0f0a6.png\" alt=\"CTA\"><\/a><\/span><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20727 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.13.12-899x1024.png\" alt=\"create bucket - final step\" width=\"625\" height=\"712\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.13.12-899x1024.png 899w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.13.12-263x300.png 263w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.13.12-768x875.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.13.12-624x711.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.13.12.png 1424w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now, locate your bucket in the bucket list and click on it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20728 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.16.00-1024x565.png\" alt=\"Bucket list\" width=\"625\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.16.00-1024x565.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.16.00-300x166.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.16.00-768x424.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.16.00-624x344.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.16.00.png 1192w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Click <b>Upload<\/b> and upload the assets. In our case, we'll simply add an HTML file and an image to host a simple static page.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20729 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.18.13.png\" alt=\"Amazon S3 overview\" width=\"872\" height=\"898\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.18.13.png 872w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.18.13-291x300.png 291w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.18.13-768x791.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.18.13-624x643.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 872px) 100vw, 872px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Well, that was easy enough! Our hosting is now ready, and we can access the assets from anywhere. Just click on the HTML file and try to open the link. You should see the webpage you've uploaded to the bucket. If you only want to use AWS for hosting and want to get the domain elsewhere, you're done! Register your domain at a different company and point it to the link displayed in the screenshot below.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20731 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.45.31-1005x1024.png\" alt=\"index html\" width=\"625\" height=\"637\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.45.31-1005x1024.png 1005w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.45.31-294x300.png 294w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.45.31-768x783.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.45.31-624x636.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-18.45.31.png 1044w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now that we've covered hosting, let's move over to network optimization with CloudFront.<\/p>\n<h2>Leveraging Amazon CloudFront<\/h2>\n<p>Amazon CloudFront is a global content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers data to your users with low latency and high transfer speeds. CloudFront delivers your content through a worldwide network of data centers called edge locations. When a user requests content that you're serving with CloudFront, the user is routed to the edge location that provides the lowest latency (time delay), so that content is delivered with\u00a0the best possible performance.<\/p>\n<p>Search for CloudFront in the AWS Console search bar. Open it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20737 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.10.57-1024x583.png\" alt=\"Amazon CloudFront\" width=\"625\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.10.57-1024x583.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.10.57-300x171.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.10.57-768x437.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.10.57-624x355.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.10.57.png 1106w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Here you have a console that deals with all the things concerning CloudFront. We won't explain every aspect of the console so as to not make this post too complicated. It's best if you refer to <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.aws.amazon.com\/AmazonCloudFront\/latest\/DeveloperGuide\/Introduction.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amazon's documentation&gt; to learn more about it.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In short, at this point, you need to create a CloudFront distribution to ensure that your website's assets are accessible from anywhere quickly. Click <b>Create Distribution<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20738 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.20.08-1024x424.png\" alt=\"Create Distribution\" width=\"625\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.20.08-1024x424.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.20.08-300x124.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.20.08-768x318.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.20.08-624x259.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.20.08.png 1028w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Click <strong>Get Started<\/strong> under <em>Web<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20739 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.21.11-1024x660.png\" alt=\"content delivery method\" width=\"625\" height=\"403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.21.11-1024x660.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.21.11-300x193.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.21.11-768x495.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.21.11-624x402.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.21.11.png 1630w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The next step is one of the most complicated. Here, you need to specify the distribution's origin settings, default cache behavior settings, and general distribution settings. This <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.aws.amazon.com\/AmazonCloudFront\/latest\/DeveloperGuide\/distribution-web-values-specify.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lengthy article<\/a>\u00a0from Amazon provides an in-depth description of each option.<br \/>\nWe'd like to point out just a few essential options that you need to configure:<\/p>\n<p><b>Origin Domain Name<\/b>. This is the source bucket that contains all the data. Once you start typing in the bucket's name, Amazon will automatically suggest the right option.<\/p>\n<p><b> Alternate Domain Names (CNAMEs)<\/b>. If you want to use subdomains to access your website\u2014as we're going to do\u2014specify them. We're going to enter <i>test.cloudberrylab.io.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Default Root Object<\/b>. By default, if you try to open the website's address, you'll encounter an error because <i>test.cloudberrylab.io<\/i> is not an HTML page, while <i>test.cloudberrylab.io\/index.html<\/i> is. At this point, requiring users to specify the index page is outdated. To enter the page's name, and users will automatically be redirected<\/p>\n<p>from <i>test.cloudberrylab.io to test.cloudberrylab.io\/index.html.<\/i> Do not write \"\/index.html\"\u2014simply enter \"index.html\" without a slash.<\/p>\n<p><b>IPv6<\/b>. It's easier if you disable IPv6 for now. If it's enabled, you'll have to create two alias records when redirecting your domain to CloudFront. You can do that later; for now, just disable it.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20740 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.25.50-1021x1024.png\" alt=\"enable IPv6\" width=\"625\" height=\"627\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.25.50-1021x1024.png 1021w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.25.50-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.25.50-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.25.50-768x770.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.25.50-624x626.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.25.50.png 1608w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When done, click <b>Create Distribution<\/b>. Once it's created, click on it, and the console will display the general information. The <b>Domain Name<\/b> is your CloudFront address. When accessing the website's content using this link, users will receive the data from the fastest location. Copy and paste it into the browser address field and hit <i>Enter<\/i>. You should see your page!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20743 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.55.20-1024x761.png\" alt=\"Create Distribution final step\" width=\"625\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.55.20-1024x761.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.55.20-300x223.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.55.20-768x571.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.55.20-624x464.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-19.55.20.png 1560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It's important that your HTML files refer to the images using the CloudFront addresses to ensure that images are loaded quickly. Every asset is available at the following address:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>CloudFront Domain name + the asset's path in the S3 bucket.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here's how that looks within our sample HTML file:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20744 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.03.17-1024x369.png\" alt=\"sample HTML file\" width=\"625\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.03.17-1024x369.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.03.17-300x108.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.03.17-768x276.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.03.17-624x225.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.03.17.png 1628w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And here's our page:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20746 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.07.07-1024x313.png\" alt=\"CloudFront sample page\" width=\"625\" height=\"191\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.07.07-1024x313.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.07.07-300x92.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.07.07-768x235.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.07.07-624x191.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>All of the assets are stored in S3 and are reached through CloudFront for the best performance.<\/p>\n<p>Under the AWS Free Tier, you get 50 GB Data Transfer Out, and 2,000,000 HTTP and HTTPS Requests from Amazon CloudFront free of charge for 12 months.<\/p>\n<p>We're close to finished here. In the last section, we will explain how to register a domain and redirect it to CloudFront's domain name using AWS Route 53. Naturally, this comes at an extra price. So if you were looking only for the free solutions, you can close the article now and enjoy your website!<\/p>\n<h2>Registering a Domain Using AWS Route 53<\/h2>\n<p>You can use Amazon Route 53 to help you get a website or web application up and running. Route 53 performs three main functions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Registering domain names<\/li>\n<li>Routing Internet traffic to the resources for your domain<\/li>\n<li>Checking the health of your resources.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Go to the AWS Route 53 service.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20748 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.12.42-1024x566.png\" alt=\"AWS Route 53 service\" width=\"625\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.12.42-1024x566.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.12.42-300x166.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.12.42-768x424.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.12.42-624x345.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.12.42.png 1148w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Under <i>Registered Domains<\/i>, click <b>Register Domain<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20749 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.15.55.png\" alt=\"Register Domain\" width=\"1006\" height=\"742\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.15.55.png 1006w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.15.55-300x221.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.15.55-768x566.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.15.55-624x460.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1006px) 100vw, 1006px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Go through the three steps (They're pretty easy to navigate through).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20751 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.19.51-1024x774.png\" alt=\"Register Domain 3 steps\" width=\"625\" height=\"472\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.19.51-1024x774.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.19.51-300x227.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.19.51-768x581.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.19.51-624x472.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When done, go to the <em>Hosted zones<\/em> and click on your domain.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20752 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.21.37-1024x536.png\" alt=\"Hosted zones\" width=\"625\" height=\"327\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.21.37-1024x536.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.21.37-300x157.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.21.37-768x402.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.21.37-624x327.png 624w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.21.37.png 1520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now you need to create a r<i>ecord set<\/i> which will route Internet traffic to your CloudFront distribution. Click <b>Create Record Set<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, specify the following parameters:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Name.<\/strong> Enter the domain name that you want to use to route traffic to your CloudFront distribution. In this example we'll type in <em>test;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Type<\/strong>. Select <strong>A \u2013 IPv4 address;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Alias<\/strong>. Select <strong>Yes;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Alias Target.\u00a0<\/strong>Enter the domain name of your CloudFront distribution;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Routing Policy.<\/strong>\u00a0Leave the default value of <strong>Simple<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Evaluate Target Health<\/strong>. Select <strong>No<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Click <strong>Create<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20756 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.43.59.png\" alt=\"Create Record Set\" width=\"800\" height=\"896\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.43.59.png 800w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.43.59-268x300.png 268w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.43.59-768x860.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.43.59-624x699.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It may take a couple of minutes for your traffic to be routed to your CloudFront distribution. If you did everything correctly, your content should be available at the specified domain.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-20757 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.45.39-1024x289.png\" alt=\"specified domain\" width=\"625\" height=\"176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.45.39-1024x289.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.45.39-300x85.png 300w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.45.39-768x217.png 768w, https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Screen-Shot-2018-02-28-at-20.45.39-624x176.png 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 625px) 100vw, 625px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Creating and maintaining a website using AWS is indeed a very easy task. Amazon's well-integrated ecosystem enables you to effortlessly register a domain, host your website, and ensure fast load times with the help of CloudFront.<\/p>\n<p>If you're serious about AWS services and want to go all-in, ensure that your S3 data is regularly backed up in the event of a server issue or failure. Options you might want to consider <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/solutions\/amazon-s3-backup\/\">backing up your S3 data<\/a> to include: Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or even your local NAS storage. MSP360 Backup can help you do that conveniently in just a few steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Creating a website used to be a laborious and costly effort back in the day. Registering a domain, arranging hosting, and configuring DNS settings were usually done through different companies, which made it difficult and time-consuming to create a website from scratch. Those days are thankfully over, as companies like Amazon now offer comprehensive functionality [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":27420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[877,885],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-articles","category-other"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20714"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56885,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20714\/revisions\/56885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}