Scaling - Cloudfront

Question 1

What is Cloudfront?

Answer 1

can deliver content to your users faster by caching static and dynamic content at edge locations;

Question 2

How is dynamic content delivered?

Answer 2

via HTTP cookies forwarded from the origin;

Question 3

What other delivery methods are supported?

Answer 3

supports RTMP but it must be selected; web distributions also support media/live streaming via http/https

Question 4

What objects can be origins?

Answer 4

S3, EC2, ELB or another web server; multiple origins can be configured

Question 5

What the methods of invalidating a Cloudfront cache?

Answer 5

1. Simply delete the file from the origin; wait for the TTL to expire
2. Use AWS Console to request invalidation of all content or specific path
3. Use CloudFront API to submit an invalidation request
4. 3rd party tools

Question 6

How are you charged?

Answer 6

charged for S3 storage, data transfer from edge locations and your origin, also HTTP/HTTPS request from your origin, invalidation requests, Custom SSL certs

Question 7

What is cache behavior?

Answer 7

allows configuration of any CloudFront URL path pattern for files on your website

Question 8

How does configuration of the cache behavior affect website files?

Answer 8

1. path pattern
2. if multiple origins, which origin should cloudfront forward to
3. forward query strings to your origin?
4. access of certain files requires signed URLs?
5. is HTTPs required or not for user access to files
6. amount of time files remain in Cloudfront

Question 9

What are geo-restrictions?

Answer 9

prevents users in selected countries from access your content; the request from a restricted country prompts a HTTP 403 code

Question 10

Can zone apex records be leveraged and how?

Answer 10

yes; with Route 53, an alias record can be configured to map to the apex or root of your DNS name to your Cloud distribution (example.com versus www.example.com)