Why doesn't my domain record in Route 53 that points to an Amazon S3 bucket or static website resolve?

Resolution

Note: If you receive errors when you run AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) commands, then see Troubleshoot AWS CLI errors. Also, make sure that you're using the most recent AWS CLI version.

Review your Route 53 configuration

Confirm that the alias or CNAME record for the domain points to the correct website endpoint. Based on your AWS Region, your S3 website endpoint must follow one of the following formats:

• s3-website dash (-) Region --; http://bucket-name.s3-website-Region.amazonaws.com
• s3-website dot (.) Region --; http://bucket-name.s3-website.Region.amazonaws.com

Review your S3 bucket configuration

When you configure an S3 bucket to host a website, name the bucket the same as the record that you use to route traffic. For example, to route traffic for "example.com" to an S3 bucket that's configured for website hosting, the bucket name must be "example.com".

Important: S3 website endpoints don't support HTTPS. For information about using HTTPS with an S3 bucket, see:

• How do I use CloudFront to serve HTTPS requests for my Amazon S3 bucket?
• Requiring HTTPS for communication between viewers and CloudFront

Review your name server configuration

Use the following command to determine if the correct name servers are in use and if the domain resolves to an IP address:

dig <domain_name> +trace

The DNS query must be directed to the correct set of name servers to answer the DNS query.

Note: The Resolving IP address isn't static.

Example output:

; <<>> DiG 9.11.4-P2-RedHat-9.11.4-26.P2.amzn2.2 <<>> swapnil.live +trace;; global options: +cmd
.            518400    IN    NS    D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
.            518400    IN    NS    C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
;; Received 239 bytes from 172.31.0.2#53(172.31.0.2) in 0 ms

live.            172800    IN    NS    demand.beta.aridns.net.au.
live.            172800    IN    NS    demand.alpha.aridns.net.au.
live.            172800    IN    NS    demand.delta.aridns.net.au.
live.            172800    IN    NS    demand.gamma.aridns.net.au.
live.            86400    IN    DS    27304 8 1 BB1914F4690FDC1C882FA6CEA84D14FCA6B9D38D
live.            86400    IN    DS    27304 8 2 F76B40CAC1A4F9D7B2E3ED67602D7F934FD45D9064CE78880FB73D09 B1ACD107
live.            86400    IN    RRSIG    DS 8 1 86400 20210427170000 20210414160000 14631 . YbQEzenUx/Dp6C8UcX9fsFqDjyc+eDgcU6oJRZUT63sxJfdatMpHYwWT NCHA8uUTV8W+OVacXR9yduTWgt9jUdAzEHFeg0r4j1PPIDDE7mOB2UUF Fe8lEkny+1bRwXIh/9jsQ0/W5BNIBoSPHRpydE1B36i31V9BLp7KTwWJ sefnFqB8ZL1uZ8rSCw9sVRisegSvcDWZtD7huqkGVcWScLPDVr8/Qj6P 25zEKh6wNPHZDpmIdxvujPFnt7tdY95Jz6P8G7cJwXYdG6ChW7My4XJ5 NRzNjVuFDmWTQSn5S1uEXYL/160ArtHa+M/BE2PKXRxSZa+7djKP9Ida L3qdOQ==
;; Received 708 bytes from 192.5.5.241#53(F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET) in 1 ms

swapnil.live.        86400    IN    NS    ns-1744.awsdns-26.co.uk.        <--- These are the name servers that are in use.
swapnil.live.        86400    IN    NS    ns-863.awsdns-43.net.
swapnil.live.        86400    IN    NS    ns-385.awsdns-48.com.
swapnil.live.        86400    IN    NS    ns-1051.awsdns-03.org.
swapnil.live.        86400    IN    DS    45482 13 2 D64D695A19C2BEB920B376E48403B5A77A2816DB5A4AE4B7D37BF719 34F85852
swapnil.live.        86400    IN    RRSIG    DS 8 2 86400 20210509045136 20210409041400 12795 live. c71wlpB/k+75nWuVYGcp08yYqZSfeLeuaABBXZM6YFvK6HcMZzzaBkOZ bOEm9s37tfnPBDbFBAhzZaMkz6Ef8RJFnkEYqjaqTwxD/vz+Ztwb9ECB EpnXGut0iZICGpFF7Gg5nZeWDbNs/ihC0QGe63Npqful+ry0uBhwnl1I PwKbGd1VC5NGnO7jNTRwgIIGQnS5a3tFZd0HFb/U+O+cCA==
;; Received 425 bytes from 37.209.194.7#53(demand.beta.aridns.net.au) in 0 ms

swapnil.live.        5    IN    A    52.216.134.18
swapnil.live.        5    IN    RRSIG    A 13 2 5 20210415060418 20210415040413 26088 swapnil.live. mgzBciE3HMEg2ecZEIsZIa4l5UpDRi11sEe6ZFlh0d9DGormSdv5HhER zm4qcdb5IXDVe7GIQ+zp2J+5F+lYYQ==
;; Received 165 bytes from 205.251.193.129#53(ns-385.awsdns-48.com) in 15

Or, you can use the following command to determine if the correct name servers are in use:

dig NS <domain\_name>

Example output:

ns-1744.awsdns-26.co.uk. <--- These are the name servers that are in use.
ns-863.awsdns-43.net.
ns-385.awsdns-48.com.
ns-1051.awsdns-03.org.

Test the backend server response

Use the following command to test the response of the backend server:

curl -IvkL <domain_name>

Example output:

curl -IvkL swapnil.live* Rebuilt URL to: swapnil.live/
*   Trying 52.216.25.195...            <----- Domain resolved to an IP address
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to swapnil.live (52.216.25.195) port 80 (#0)        <--- Connected to S3 bucket
> HEAD / HTTP/1.1
> Host: swapnil.live
> User-Agent: curl/7.61.1
> Accept: */*
>
< HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden                <----- Response from S3 bucket
HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
< x-amz-error-code: AccessDenied
x-amz-error-code: AccessDenied
< x-amz-error-message: Access Denied
x-amz-error-message: Access Denied
< x-amz-request-id: 4ANTJRWVRT5489ZW
x-amz-request-id: 4ANTJRWVRT5489ZW
< x-amz-id-2: HcuMJslI/Biry9uJYhx9hSyybld0CrEeSagaNqcFJqzormpeup2aPKzW58OPgIQDZGG2rn3RPI4=
x-amz-id-2: HcuMJslI/Biry9uJYhx9hSyybld0CrEeSagaNqcFJqzormpeup2aPKzW58OPgIQDZGG2rn3RPI4=
< Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2021 05:09:16 GMT
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2021 05:09:16 GMT
< Server: AmazonS3                      <----- Server = Amazon S3
Server: AmazonS3

<
* Connection #0 to host swapnil.live left intact

Related information

Hosting a static website using Amazon S3

Tutorial: Configuring a static website on Amazon S3

Tutorial: Configuring a static website using a custom domain registered with Route 53