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Route 53 & Custom Domain for Spring Boot Applications

Learn how to configure Amazon Route 53 with custom domains for Spring Boot applications. This guide covers DNS fundamentals, hosted zones, domain registration, ALB integration, CloudFront, SSL certificates, routing policies, health checks, and production best practices.

Introduction

Every enterprise application needs an easy-to-remember domain name.

Instead of users accessing applications using an IP address like:

http://54.201.45.210:8080

we use a domain such as:

https://codewithvenu.com

or

https://api.codewithvenu.com

Amazon Route 53 is AWS's highly available Domain Name System (DNS) service that maps domain names to AWS resources such as:

  • Application Load Balancer
  • CloudFront
  • EC2
  • S3 Static Websites
  • API Gateway
  • Global Accelerator

In this article, we will learn how to configure Route 53 for Spring Boot applications using custom domains and HTTPS.

Learning Objectives

After completing this article, you will understand:

  • What is DNS?
  • What is Route 53?
  • Hosted Zones
  • Domain Registration
  • DNS Records
  • Alias Records
  • Route 53 Routing Policies
  • Route 53 Health Checks
  • ACM SSL Certificates
  • Custom Domain for Spring Boot
  • CloudFront Integration
  • Production Best Practices

What is DNS?

DNS stands for Domain Name System.

DNS converts a human-readable domain into an IP address.

Example:

codewithvenu.com

↓

54.210.15.110

Without DNS, users would need to remember IP addresses instead of domain names.

Why Route 53?

Benefits include:

  • Highly available
  • Global DNS service
  • Fast DNS resolution
  • Integrated with AWS services
  • Health checks
  • Routing policies
  • Supports custom domains
  • Automatic failover

High-Level Architecture

flowchart LR
    User

    Route53

    ALB

    SpringBoot

    Aurora

    User --> Route53
    Route53 --> ALB
    ALB --> SpringBoot
    SpringBoot --> Aurora

Enterprise Architecture

flowchart TD

Users

Route53

CloudFront

AWSWAF

ALB

SpringBoot

Aurora

Users --> Route53
Route53 --> CloudFront
CloudFront --> AWSWAF
AWSWAF --> ALB
ALB --> SpringBoot
SpringBoot --> Aurora

Real-Time Example

Customer opens

https://codewithvenu.com

Route 53 resolves

↓

CloudFront

↓

Application Load Balancer

↓

Spring Boot

↓

Amazon Aurora

Domain Name Components

Example:

blog.codewithvenu.com
Component Meaning
blog Subdomain
codewithvenu Domain
com Top Level Domain (TLD)

Route 53 Components

Component Purpose
Hosted Zone DNS Configuration
Record Set Maps domain to resource
Alias Record AWS resource mapping
Health Check Endpoint monitoring
Routing Policy Traffic distribution

Public Hosted Zone

Used for internet-facing applications.

Example:

codewithvenu.com

Accessible from anywhere.

Private Hosted Zone

Accessible only inside a VPC.

Useful for:

  • Internal APIs
  • Databases
  • Microservices

Example:

internal.company.local

Register Domain

AWS Console

↓

Route 53

↓

Registered Domains

↓

Register Domain

Example:

codewithvenu.com

If you already own a domain from another registrar (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.), you can use Route 53 by updating the domain's name servers.

Create Hosted Zone

AWS Console

↓

Hosted Zones

↓

Create Hosted Zone

Type:

Public Hosted Zone

DNS Records

Common DNS records:

Record Purpose
A IPv4 Address
AAAA IPv6 Address
CNAME Alias to another hostname
MX Email
TXT Verification
NS Name Servers
Alias AWS Resources

A Record

Example

api.codewithvenu.com

↓

54.210.10.50

CNAME Record

Example

www.codewithvenu.com

↓

codewithvenu.com

Alias Record

AWS recommends Alias records for:

  • CloudFront
  • ALB
  • S3
  • API Gateway

Unlike CNAME, Alias records work at the zone apex (for example, codewithvenu.com).

Route 53 Request Flow

flowchart LR

Browser

Route53

CloudFront

ALB

SpringBoot

Browser --> Route53
Route53 --> CloudFront
CloudFront --> ALB
ALB --> SpringBoot

Spring Boot Architecture

flowchart TD

Users

Route53

ALB

SpringBootAZ1

SpringBootAZ2

Aurora

Users --> Route53
Route53 --> ALB
ALB --> SpringBootAZ1
ALB --> SpringBootAZ2
SpringBootAZ1 --> Aurora
SpringBootAZ2 --> Aurora

Configure Application Load Balancer

Deploy Spring Boot

↓

Create Target Group

↓

Create ALB

↓

Register EC2 instances

↓

Verify:

http://alb-123456.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com

Map Domain to ALB

Create Alias Record

Example

api.codewithvenu.com

↓

Application Load Balancer

Now users can access:

https://api.codewithvenu.com

CloudFront Integration

For static websites:

flowchart LR

Users

Route53

CloudFront

S3

Users --> Route53
Route53 --> CloudFront
CloudFront --> S3

SSL Certificates

Always use HTTPS.

AWS provides certificates through:

Amazon Certificate Manager (ACM)

Benefits:

  • Free SSL
  • Automatic renewal
  • AWS integration

HTTPS Flow

flowchart LR

Browser

HTTPS

CloudFront

ALB

SpringBoot

Browser --> HTTPS
HTTPS --> CloudFront
CloudFront --> ALB
ALB --> SpringBoot

Route 53 Routing Policies

Supported routing policies:

  • Simple
  • Weighted
  • Latency
  • Geolocation
  • Geoproximity
  • Failover
  • Multivalue Answer

Simple Routing

One resource

↓

One destination

Best for:

Small applications.

Weighted Routing

Example

Version A

80%

Version B

20%

Useful for:

  • Canary deployments
  • A/B testing

Latency Routing

Users automatically connect to the AWS Region with the lowest latency.

Example:

US users

↓

us-east-1

Europe users

↓

eu-west-1

Geolocation Routing

Route traffic based on country.

Example:

India

↓

Mumbai Region

USA

↓

Virginia Region

Failover Routing

Primary application fails.

↓

Automatically route traffic to backup region.

Supports Disaster Recovery.

Health Checks

Route 53 continuously monitors your application.

Example endpoint:

https://api.codewithvenu.com/actuator/health

Healthy response:

{
  "status":"UP"
}

If unhealthy:

Traffic automatically switches to a healthy endpoint.

Route 53 Health Check Flow

flowchart LR

Route53

HealthCheck

SpringBoot

Healthy

Route53 --> HealthCheck
HealthCheck --> SpringBoot
SpringBoot --> Healthy

Multi-Region Architecture

flowchart TD

Users

Route53

USEast

EUWest

Users --> Route53
Route53 --> USEast
Route53 --> EUWest

Spring Boot Deployment Flow

flowchart LR

Developer

GitHub

CI_CD

EC2

ALB

Route53

Developer --> GitHub
GitHub --> CI_CD
CI_CD --> EC2
EC2 --> ALB
ALB --> Route53

Common Issues

Domain Not Resolving

Check:

  • Name Servers
  • Hosted Zone
  • DNS Propagation

SSL Certificate Error

Verify:

  • ACM Certificate
  • Domain Validation
  • Listener Configuration

502 Bad Gateway

Check:

  • Spring Boot running
  • Target Group health
  • Security Groups
  • ALB listener

DNS Propagation Delay

DNS updates may take several minutes (or longer depending on TTL and resolver caching) to propagate globally.

Best Practices

  • Use HTTPS everywhere
  • Use ACM certificates
  • Use Alias records for AWS resources
  • Enable Route 53 health checks
  • Use CloudFront for static content
  • Keep Route 53 TTL reasonable
  • Enable multi-region failover for critical applications
  • Use subdomains for APIs
  • Monitor DNS health
  • Protect applications with AWS WAF

Developer Checklist

Before production deployment:

  • Domain registered
  • Hosted Zone created
  • ALB configured
  • Alias record created
  • ACM certificate issued
  • HTTPS listener configured
  • Spring Boot health endpoint enabled
  • Route 53 health check configured
  • CloudFront configured (if applicable)
  • DNS verified

Interview Questions

What is Amazon Route 53?

Amazon Route 53 is AWS's managed DNS service used to route user requests to AWS resources.

What is a Hosted Zone?

A Hosted Zone contains DNS records for a domain.

What is an Alias Record?

An Alias record maps a domain directly to AWS resources such as ALBs, CloudFront distributions, or S3 buckets.

Difference between CNAME and Alias?

A CNAME points to another hostname and cannot be used at the zone apex. An Alias record is AWS-specific, can point to AWS resources, and can be used for the root domain.

Why use ACM with Route 53?

ACM provides free SSL/TLS certificates that integrate seamlessly with AWS services such as CloudFront and Application Load Balancers.

Which routing policy is best for disaster recovery?

Failover Routing with health checks.

Summary

In this article, we learned how to configure Amazon Route 53 with Spring Boot applications.

We covered:

  • DNS fundamentals
  • Hosted Zones
  • Domain registration
  • DNS records
  • Alias records
  • Application Load Balancer integration
  • CloudFront integration
  • ACM SSL certificates
  • Routing policies
  • Health checks
  • Multi-region architecture
  • Production best practices

Amazon Route 53 plays a critical role in building secure, highly available, and scalable Spring Boot applications. Combined with CloudFront, ACM, ALB, and Auto Scaling, it provides a robust networking foundation for enterprise-grade deployments.

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