Static site with S3

Objectives

After this lesson, developers will be able to:

Describe S3 storage usages
Utilize S3 to store files and host website and Route53 for domain routing
Create and upload static content for a website

Preparation

Before this lesson, developers should already be able to:

Describe the difference between static and dynamic websites
Write HTML, CSS, JS to build a functioning website

S3 - Simple Storage Service Intro (20 mins)

Amazon S3, or Simple Storage Service, is an implementation of cloud storage offered by Amazon. Using S3 you can store large amounts of static content needed for websites and apps. Files, or Objects as they are referred to in Amazon docs, are stored in seperate Buckets that can reach sizes of up to 5 Terabytes.

Each file/object in the bucket receives a unique Key from the user when added to the bucket. Think of it like a folder in your file system. When you try to have two files with the same name you are given the choice of either replacing the old file or giving the new file a new name. S3 buckets work in a similar way.

But what does it mean?!

This means S3 is basically a big file system where you can keep and access content!

Creating a static website (15 mins)

One of the major uses of S3 is hosting a static website. S3 now has functionality built in to help with domain mapping which even allows you to use your custom domain name. S3 stands as a nice alternative to BitBalloon and other dropbox-esque services due to it's speed and custom nature.

To get our static site up and running we're going to be using not only S3 but also two other Amazon services. We'll also use Route53 for DNS resolution.

First we'll create our S3 buckets. We're going to be creating 3 different buckets for our site. Two will be linked to our domain and the 3rd will be for logs that S3 produces. This structure is recognized and utilized by S3 for static sites. Important Be sure to name the buckets the same name as your domain, whatever that may be!

By creating the buckets this way, Amazon will generate a URL according to that name:

http://example.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/

Lets jump into the S3 management console and click the "Create Bucket" button.

Rinse and repeat bucket creation process for www.domainname.com and logs.domainname.com

Next we'll setup permissions for our buckets. Since this is a website we'll need parts of it to be accessible to clients. First, from the management console, click on the root domain bucket and click Properties.

Click Permissions and then Add Bucket Policy to change who can access files. Next we're going to input some config options into the popup editor. Go ahead and copy and paste this JSON code into that popup:

{
  "Version":"2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [{
    "Sid": "Allow Public Access to All Objects",
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Principal": "*",
    "Action": "s3:GetObject",
    "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::example.com/*"
  }
 ]
}

Make sure to change the domain in the Resource value to match your bucket name!!!

Next enable logging from your root domain bucket. Click Logging in your bucket properties and edit the values like this:

Finally adding some content

By now we should have our buckets set up and ready for static content, so let's upload some!

First we're going to create two files on our computers to be uploaded, index.html and error.html.

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <body>
    <p>Hello, World!</p>
  </body>
</html>

error.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <body>
    <p>This is an error page.</p>
  </body>
</html>

Save those files somewhere on your local computer. Both of these files are recognized by S3 when we enable Static Web Hosting.

Next we're going to upload these files to our root domain bucket. From the management console click the Actions dropdown and select Upload. You can then either drag and drop or select the two files to upload.

After you find the files and click Start upload it should look like this:

Finally we need to configure one more aspect of our bucket, enabling Static Website Hosting. Back at the S3 management console open your root domain bucket and open Properties. Then open the Static Website Hosting section. Check the Enable website hosting option and enter in the information for your two files as such:

Click Save and you're done! You've just hosted a static website on S3, nice job!

Deploy - S3 Static Sites