To get round this, one needs to use CNAME to map a different name to it. We're going to alias it. There appears to be some confusion over the exact term of the CNAME v Canonical Name as they are different but over time, both have been used interchangeably.
So, anyway - the goal is to have 'datahub.esriuk.com' as the URL that a user types into the address field. This will then seamlessly resolve to the 'proper' DNS name that is attached to each Amazon AMI.
The process was surprisingly simply: you just had to contact your ISP who holds your domain name, in this case www.esriuk.com and make a request. That's it.
Using CNAMES within the Amazon cloud makes access to data and resources a lot easier. Nearly everyone will have S3 buckets in the cloud as well and using the CNAME as an alias is dead-easy,especially if you're using S3FOX - a wonderful add-on for the firefox browser.
Here's a quick Amazon video on using CNAMEs and S3 buckets.
or shameless borrowed from the following page: http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=2456
When status becomes deployed, our distribution is ready and we are using Amazon CloudFront. As you can see above, our distribution gives us a new host name; we can now access our content at: http://d2oxqriwljg696.cloudfront.net/media_rdc_share_web-poster.jpg.
Obviously this is a cumbersome URL to work with; you might want to replace this with learn how to create a friendlier alias. The standard way to do this is by creating an alias that maps a friendly name to our actual name - this alias is called a CNAME or canonical name.
A CNAME is simply a way to create an alias or a nickname for a DNS record. In our case, we are going to create an alias for our cumbersome d2oxqriwljg696.cloudfront.net host name.
For this example, we will create demo.learnaws.com as a CNAME that points to d2oxqriwljg696.cloudfront.net.
This is an optional step, if you are comfortable using d2oxqriwljg696.cloudfront.net in your web page or application there is no need to create a CNAME.
The first thing to do is to let Amazon CloudFront know that you plan to create the CNAME. To do this in S3 Organizer, you’ll add the CNAME to the Manage Distribution dialog. Click the Update Distribution
Next, you need to create a DNS entry for your CNAME. CNAMEs are managed by whoever manages your DNS entries. This is usually your web hosting provider. There is no standard interface for managing DNS entries, so an example from Dreamhost.com is shown below.
Usually, a web hosting provider will discuss how to alter your DNS entries in their support documentation. For our example, we will continue to use Dreamhost.com and create a CNAME for our new Amazon S3 bucket.
The alias, or CNAME that we will use is demo and we simply specify d2oxqriwljg696.cloudfront.net as the value.
It is common to also create a www.demo CNAME entry that maps to the d2oxqriwljg696.cloudfront.net as well. Incidentally, if you have a CNAME for an Amazon S3 bucket, you can simply change its value to your new Amazon CloudFront host.
New DNS entries usually take a few minutes to propagate. When it does, we can access our content at http://demo.learnaws.com. This is the base URL that we can use to access our content in Amazon CloudFront.
Now we have a friendly URL that will serve its content from a data center that is as close as possible to the user requesting it.
2. Use the Amazon CloudFront domain name to reference content in your web pages or applications
Once your content has been uploaded and your distribution has been setup, you can reference your content with your new Amazon CloudFront-based URL.
Your content can be served from any of the following edge locations– depending on where the request is being made:
United States
- Ashburn, VA
- Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
- Los Angeles, CA
- Miami, FL
- Newark, NJ
- Palo Alto, CA
- Seattle, WA
- St. Louis, MO
Europe
- Amsterdam
- Dublin
- Frankfurt
- London
Asia
- Hong Kong
- Tokyo
While one or several of these edge locations may serve your requests, your ‘origin’ server will always be the Amazon S3 bucket where you originally uploaded your data.
Your content will be copied to each edge server as it is requested. The first request will be processed by the origin server; then that content will be propagated to the appropriate edge server. The next time this content is requested, it will be handled by the edge server.
When you update your content, those updates are made at the Amazon S3 bucket (i.e. the origin server). Amazon CloudFront will then propagate those changes to the edge servers that have your content – this process can take up to 24 hours, but is usually completed within a few minutes.
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