Redirect own domain to Amazon EC2 Windows Server 2012 Instance

Question

We just created an AWS Windows Server 2012 Instance and now want to Redirect our Domain (bought and managed by 3rd Party) to this server.

we followed the two steps at the 1st ranked answer here: How redirect a domain to Amazon EC2 Machine?

While we managed to create and associate the elastic IP, the problem seems to be step 2 now: actually we have setup a A record at our current domain manager but still doesnt work. If we enter our domain at browser it seems to load for something and then stops after some seconds

We are very beginners and wondering where we need to put the lets say "index.html" or so like we did at our previous Webspace hoster. In other words, if the user access our server through the elastic ip, which direction the browser is firstly trying to enter?

What is happening when you put the elastic IP in the browser? — Piyush Patil, Jul 20 '16 at 22:08
Like nothing. No response. Looks as you put something randon on browser. — Plazi, Jul 20 '16 at 22:44
IS there a application running on that server or is it blank? — Piyush Patil, Jul 20 '16 at 22:49
Win Server 2012 is Running itsef plus SQL Server Management Studio 2016. Thats it. — Plazi, Jul 20 '16 at 22:56

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 20 '16 at 22:50

The standard pattern is

... in aws route53 create a Hosted Zone

... by default it auto gives you Type NS and SOA copy the set of 4 values under your Type NS (similar to)

ns-125.awsdns-15.com. 
ns-642.awsdns-16.net. 
ns-1653.awsdns-14.co.uk. 
ns-1473.awsdns-56.org.

... now get into your Domain Registrar and edit Nameservers by using above list

... upon deploying your aws cluster it will give you a loadbalancer value similar to

af327bdd34eca101010100a02debd892-11516969089.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com

... get into your aws route53 hosted zone console pick your domain

... hit Create Record Set on the right pick Type A ... IMPORTANT pick Alias YES see doc

... click in box Alias Target empty out field ... then choose above mentioned loadbalancer

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 21 '16 at 12:37

I think you have security and firewall issues, Check following items step by step:

Enter your EC2 IP address in your browser; you should see your app home page.

If you can't reach your server response by direct IP address, check your security group, inbound tab, you must open port 80 to source 0.0.0.0/0

Each time you see your home page by direct IP address in the browser you can go to next steps for domain and route53.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 21 '16 at 13:49

0

I tried to telnet 52.59.50.150 80 to your instance and it timed out so that means your HTTP port 80 is not open. Add below security rule to your security group. And then check your domain it will work.

answered Jul 21 '16 at 13:49

Piyush Patil

14,512
6
35
54

We have now added the same rule at our security. seems to be the same. The index.html is currently placed at c:/ – Plazi Jul 21 '16 at 14:02

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 21 '16 at 22:00

We are actually wondering how the whole Setup should actually work.

We have dropped the Index.html on c:

Lets say we are trying to request the Microsoft Server EC2 through the elastic IP. How it is even trchnically possible that the server is finding and responding with exactly this Index.html?

Thats completely a blackbox for us besides the question if the security groups/rules/ports are established correctly...

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 02 '16 at 19:58

I have solved my problem. Just for people that have the same problem:

Besides the points mentioned above you have to setup IIS (Microsoft Internet Information Service) on your server in order to redirect your domain to specific "folders" / index.htmls

Redirect own domain to Amazon EC2 Windows Server 2012 Instance

5 Answers5