Configure DNS record in CloudFormation for Elastic Beanstalk Environment

Question

Hi

I have a CloudFormation template where I try to create an A record as alias to my Elastic Beanstalk environment in the `eu-west-1` region:
```
...
DNSRecord:
    Type: AWS::Route53::RecordSet
    Properties:
      HostedZoneId: !Ref ZoneID
      Comment: DNS name for elastic beanstalk.
      Name: !Ref AppUrl
      Type: A
      AliasTarget:
        EvaluateTargetHealth: false
        DNSName: !GetAtt AppEnvironment.EndpointURL
        HostedZoneId: Z2NYPWQ7DFZAZH
...
```
The hosted zone id of the AliasTarget is configured as provided in [this post](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/elasticbeanstalk.html#elasticbeanstalk-service
)

However, this always gives an error in CloudFormation: 
*Tried to create an alias that targets ***.***.***.***., type A in zone Z2NYPWQ7DFZAZH, but the alias target name does not lie within the target zone*

I also created the record manually in the AWS Console. When I describe this record set with the CLI with this command:
`aws route53 list-resource-record-sets --hosted-zone-id *******` I see the same zoneId for the alias.

```
{
   "ResourceRecordSets": [
      ...
      {
            "Name": "**********",
            "Type": "A",
            "AliasTarget": {
                "HostedZoneId": "Z2NYPWQ7DFZAZH",
                "DNSName": "**********",
                "EvaluateTargetHealth": false
            }
        },
      ...
   ]
}
```

Did I make a mistake in the CloudFormation config?

Answer

Are you using an Elastic Load Balancer? If so specify the value of the **hosted zone ID for the load balancer**.

You can do this command to get the **CanonicalHostedZoneNameID**

```
aws elb describe-load-balancers --region eu-west-1
```

From
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-properties-route53-aliastarget.html

**ELB load balancer**

Specify the value of the **hosted zone ID for the load balancer**. Use the following methods to get the hosted zone ID:

*[ Service Endpoints table](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/elb.html) in the "Elastic Load Balancing Endpoints and Quotas" topic in the Amazon Web Services General Reference: Use the value that corresponds with the region that you created your load balancer in. Note that there are separate columns for Application and Classic Load Balancers and for Network Load Balancers.

* AWS Management Console: Go to the Amazon EC2 page, choose Load Balancers in the navigation pane, select the load balancer, and get the value of the Hosted zone field on the Description tab.

* Elastic Load Balancing API: Use DescribeLoadBalancers to get the applicable value. For more information, see the applicable guide:
Classic Load Balancers: Use DescribeLoadBalancers to get the value of CanonicalHostedZoneNameID.

Application and Network Load Balancers: Use DescribeLoadBalancers to get the value of CanonicalHostedZoneID.

* CloudFormation Fn::GetAtt intrinsic function: Use the Fn::GetAtt intrinsic function to get the applicable value:

Classic Load Balancers: Get CanonicalHostedZoneNameID.

Application and Network Load Balancers: Get CanonicalHostedZoneID.

* AWS CLI: Use describe-load-balancers to get the applicable value. For more information, see the applicable guide:

Classic Load Balancers: Use describe-load-balancers to get the value of CanonicalHostedZoneNameID.

Application and Network Load Balancers: Use describe-load-balancers to get the value of CanonicalHostedZoneID.*

Answer

OK you mentioned its a single instance environment but i noticed in your CF template you are getting the DNS name like this:

`DNSName: !GetAtt AppEnvironment.EndpointURL`

However in single instance environments that will give you the IP address NOT the CNAME

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-properties-beanstalk-environment.html#aws-properties-beanstalk-environment-return-values

```
Fn::GetAtt
```

The Fn::GetAtt intrinsic function returns a value for a specified attribute of this type. The following are the available attributes and sample return values.

For more information about using the Fn::GetAtt intrinsic function, see Fn::GetAtt.

EndpointURL

For load-balanced, autoscaling environments, the URL to the load balancer. For single-instance environments, the IP address of the instance.

Example load balancer URL:

` awseb-myst-myen-132MQC4KRLAMD-1371280482.us-east-2.elb.amazonaws.com`

Example instance IP address:

`192.0.2.0`

Configure DNS record in CloudFormation for Elastic Beanstalk Environment

Relevant content