Get started with a basic CloudFront distribution using the CLI
The following code example shows how to:
Create an Amazon S3 bucket for content storage
Upload sample content to the S3 bucket
Create an origin access control (OAC) for secure S3 access
Create a CloudFront distribution with S3 as origin
Update S3 bucket policy to allow CloudFront access
Wait for distribution deployment and test content access
Clean up resources including distribution, OAC, and S3 bucket
- Bash
-
- AWS CLI with Bash script
-
Note
There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the Sample developer tutorials
repository. #!/bin/bash # CloudFront Getting Started Tutorial Script # This script creates an S3 bucket, uploads sample content, creates a CloudFront distribution with OAC, # and demonstrates how to access content through CloudFront. # Set up logging LOG_FILE="cloudfront-tutorial.log" exec > >(tee -a "$LOG_FILE") 2>&1 echo "Starting CloudFront Getting Started Tutorial at $(date)" # Function to handle errors handle_error() { echo "ERROR: $1" echo "Resources created before error:" if [ -n "$BUCKET_NAME" ]; then echo "- S3 Bucket: $BUCKET_NAME" fi if [ -n "$OAC_ID" ]; then echo "- CloudFront Origin Access Control: $OAC_ID" fi if [ -n "$DISTRIBUTION_ID" ]; then echo "- CloudFront Distribution: $DISTRIBUTION_ID" fi echo "Attempting to clean up resources..." cleanup exit 1 } # Function to clean up resources cleanup() { echo "Cleaning up resources..." if [ -n "$DISTRIBUTION_ID" ]; then echo "Disabling CloudFront distribution $DISTRIBUTION_ID..." # Get the current configuration and ETag ETAG=$(aws cloudfront get-distribution-config --id "$DISTRIBUTION_ID" --query 'ETag' --output text) if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Failed to get distribution config. Continuing with cleanup..." else # Create a modified configuration with Enabled=false aws cloudfront get-distribution-config --id "$DISTRIBUTION_ID" | \ jq '.DistributionConfig.Enabled = false' > temp_disabled_config.json # Update the distribution to disable it aws cloudfront update-distribution \ --id "$DISTRIBUTION_ID" \ --distribution-config file://<(jq '.DistributionConfig' temp_disabled_config.json) \ --if-match "$ETAG" if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Failed to disable distribution. Continuing with cleanup..." else echo "Waiting for distribution to be disabled (this may take several minutes)..." aws cloudfront wait distribution-deployed --id "$DISTRIBUTION_ID" # Delete the distribution ETAG=$(aws cloudfront get-distribution-config --id "$DISTRIBUTION_ID" --query 'ETag' --output text) aws cloudfront delete-distribution --id "$DISTRIBUTION_ID" --if-match "$ETAG" if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Failed to delete distribution. You may need to delete it manually." else echo "CloudFront distribution deleted." fi fi fi fi if [ -n "$OAC_ID" ]; then echo "Deleting Origin Access Control $OAC_ID..." OAC_ETAG=$(aws cloudfront get-origin-access-control --id "$OAC_ID" --query 'ETag' --output text 2>/dev/null) if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Failed to get Origin Access Control ETag. You may need to delete it manually." else aws cloudfront delete-origin-access-control --id "$OAC_ID" --if-match "$OAC_ETAG" if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Failed to delete Origin Access Control. You may need to delete it manually." else echo "Origin Access Control deleted." fi fi fi if [ -n "$BUCKET_NAME" ]; then echo "Deleting S3 bucket $BUCKET_NAME and its contents..." aws s3 rm "s3://$BUCKET_NAME" --recursive if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Failed to remove bucket contents. Continuing with bucket deletion..." fi aws s3 rb "s3://$BUCKET_NAME" if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Failed to delete bucket. You may need to delete it manually." else echo "S3 bucket deleted." fi fi # Clean up temporary files rm -f temp_disabled_config.json rm -rf temp_content } # Generate a random identifier for the bucket name RANDOM_ID=$(openssl rand -hex 6) BUCKET_NAME="cloudfront-${RANDOM_ID}" echo "Using bucket name: $BUCKET_NAME" # Create a temporary directory for content TEMP_DIR="temp_content" mkdir -p "$TEMP_DIR/css" if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then handle_error "Failed to create temporary directory" fi # Step 1: Create an S3 bucket echo "Creating S3 bucket: $BUCKET_NAME" aws s3 mb "s3://$BUCKET_NAME" if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then handle_error "Failed to create S3 bucket" fi # Step 2: Create sample content echo "Creating sample content..." cat > "$TEMP_DIR/index.html" << 'EOF' <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Hello World</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/styles.css"> </head> <body> <h1>Hello world!</h1> </body> </html> EOF cat > "$TEMP_DIR/css/styles.css" << 'EOF' body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; margin: 40px; background-color: #f5f5f5; } h1 { color: #333; text-align: center; } EOF # Step 3: Upload content to the S3 bucket echo "Uploading content to S3 bucket..." aws s3 cp "$TEMP_DIR/" "s3://$BUCKET_NAME/" --recursive if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then handle_error "Failed to upload content to S3 bucket" fi # Step 4: Create Origin Access Control echo "Creating Origin Access Control..." OAC_RESPONSE=$(aws cloudfront create-origin-access-control \ --origin-access-control-config Name="oac-for-$BUCKET_NAME",SigningProtocol=sigv4,SigningBehavior=always,OriginAccessControlOriginType=s3) if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then handle_error "Failed to create Origin Access Control" fi OAC_ID=$(echo "$OAC_RESPONSE" | jq -r '.OriginAccessControl.Id') echo "Created Origin Access Control with ID: $OAC_ID" # Step 5: Create CloudFront distribution echo "Creating CloudFront distribution..." # Get AWS account ID for bucket policy ACCOUNT_ID=$(aws sts get-caller-identity --query 'Account' --output text) if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then handle_error "Failed to get AWS account ID" fi # Create distribution configuration cat > distribution-config.json << EOF { "CallerReference": "cli-tutorial-$(date +%s)", "Origins": { "Quantity": 1, "Items": [ { "Id": "S3-$BUCKET_NAME", "DomainName": "$BUCKET_NAME.s3.amazonaws.com", "S3OriginConfig": { "OriginAccessIdentity": "" }, "OriginAccessControlId": "$OAC_ID" } ] }, "DefaultCacheBehavior": { "TargetOriginId": "S3-$BUCKET_NAME", "ViewerProtocolPolicy": "redirect-to-https", "AllowedMethods": { "Quantity": 2, "Items": ["GET", "HEAD"], "CachedMethods": { "Quantity": 2, "Items": ["GET", "HEAD"] } }, "DefaultTTL": 86400, "MinTTL": 0, "MaxTTL": 31536000, "Compress": true, "ForwardedValues": { "QueryString": false, "Cookies": { "Forward": "none" } } }, "Comment": "CloudFront distribution for tutorial", "Enabled": true, "WebACLId": "" } EOF DIST_RESPONSE=$(aws cloudfront create-distribution --distribution-config file://distribution-config.json) if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then handle_error "Failed to create CloudFront distribution" fi DISTRIBUTION_ID=$(echo "$DIST_RESPONSE" | jq -r '.Distribution.Id') DOMAIN_NAME=$(echo "$DIST_RESPONSE" | jq -r '.Distribution.DomainName') echo "Created CloudFront distribution with ID: $DISTRIBUTION_ID" echo "CloudFront domain name: $DOMAIN_NAME" # Step 6: Update S3 bucket policy echo "Updating S3 bucket policy..." cat > bucket-policy.json << EOF { "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Sid": "AllowCloudFrontServicePrincipal", "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": { "Service": "cloudfront.amazonaws.com" }, "Action": "s3:GetObject", "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::$BUCKET_NAME/*", "Condition": { "StringEquals": { "AWS:SourceArn": "arn:aws:cloudfront::$ACCOUNT_ID:distribution/$DISTRIBUTION_ID" } } } ] } EOF aws s3api put-bucket-policy --bucket "$BUCKET_NAME" --policy file://bucket-policy.json if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then handle_error "Failed to update S3 bucket policy" fi # Step 7: Wait for distribution to deploy echo "Waiting for CloudFront distribution to deploy (this may take 5-10 minutes)..." aws cloudfront wait distribution-deployed --id "$DISTRIBUTION_ID" if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Warning: Distribution deployment wait timed out. The distribution may still be deploying." else echo "CloudFront distribution is now deployed." fi # Step 8: Display access information echo "" echo "===== CloudFront Distribution Setup Complete =====" echo "You can access your content at: https://$DOMAIN_NAME/index.html" echo "" echo "Resources created:" echo "- S3 Bucket: $BUCKET_NAME" echo "- CloudFront Origin Access Control: $OAC_ID" echo "- CloudFront Distribution: $DISTRIBUTION_ID" echo "" # Ask user if they want to clean up resources read -p "Do you want to clean up all resources created by this script? (y/n): " CLEANUP_RESPONSE if [[ "$CLEANUP_RESPONSE" =~ ^[Yy] ]]; then cleanup echo "All resources have been cleaned up." else echo "Resources will not be cleaned up. You can manually delete them later." echo "To access your content, visit: https://$DOMAIN_NAME/index.html" fi echo "Tutorial completed at $(date)"
-
For API details, see the following topics in AWS CLI Command Reference.
-
For a complete list of AWS SDK developer guides and code examples, see Using CloudFront with an AWS SDK. This topic also includes information about getting started and details about previous SDK versions.