Introduction

Amazon CloudFront is a highly scalable and secure content delivery network (CDN) service that accelerates the delivery of web content. Implementing AWS CloudFront with multiple origin cache behaviors can enhance performance, optimize caching, and improve user experience. This guide outlines how to configure AWS CloudFront with multiple origins using Terraform for automated infrastructure provisioning.

Benefits of Using Multiple Origin Cache Behaviors

  1. Optimized Performance: By distributing content from multiple origins, response times are reduced.
  2. Custom Caching Rules: Define different caching policies for different types of content.
  3. Improved Security: Protect sensitive content by directing it to secure origins.
  4. Cost Efficiency: Minimize unnecessary data transfer costs by leveraging efficient caching strategies.

Prerequisites

  • AWS account with necessary permissions.
  • Terraform installed on the local machine.
  • Basic understanding of AWS services like S3, API Gateway, and EC2.

Step-by-Step Implementation Using Terraform

Step 1: Define AWS Provider

provider “aws” {

  region = “us-east-1”

}

Step 2: Create an S3 Bucket for Static Content

resource “aws_s3_bucket” “static_bucket” {

  bucket = “my-static-content-bucket”

  acl    = “public-read”

}

Step 3: Set Up an API Gateway for Dynamic Content

resource “aws_api_gateway_rest_api” “my_api” {

  name        = “MyAPI”

  description = “API Gateway for dynamic content”

}

Step 4: Configure CloudFront Distribution

resource “aws_cloudfront_distribution” “my_distribution” {

  origin {

    domain_name = aws_s3_bucket.static_bucket.bucket_regional_domain_name

    origin_id   = “S3-Origin”

  }

  origin {

    domain_name = aws_api_gateway_rest_api.my_api.execution_arn

    origin_id   = “API-Origin”

  }

  default_cache_behavior {

    target_origin_id = “S3-Origin”

    viewer_protocol_policy = “redirect-to-https”

    allowed_methods = [“GET”, “HEAD”]

    cached_methods  = [“GET”, “HEAD”]

    forwarded_values {

      query_string = false

      cookies {

        forward = “none”

      }

    }

  }

  ordered_cache_behavior {

    path_pattern     = “/api/*”

    target_origin_id = “API-Origin”

    viewer_protocol_policy = “redirect-to-https”

    allowed_methods = [“GET”, “HEAD”, “OPTIONS”, “PUT”, “POST”, “PATCH”, “DELETE”]

    cached_methods  = [“GET”, “HEAD”]

    forwarded_values {

      query_string = true

      headers      = [“Authorization”]

    }

  }

  enabled = true

  is_ipv6_enabled = true

  price_class = “PriceClass_100”

}

Step 5: Apply Terraform Configuration

terraform init

terraform apply -auto-approve

Conclusion

By implementing AWS CloudFront with multiple origin cache behaviors using Terraform, organizations can achieve optimal content delivery, improved performance, and enhanced security. With Terraform’s infrastructure-as-code approach, managing and scaling CloudFront distributions becomes more efficient and automated.