HTTPS setup for subdomain in Amazon EC2

Question

Goal: Setup HTTPS for my side project that uses React for frontend and Express.js for backend

Progress: I have successfully set up HTTPS for my react app that lives in Amazon s3 via Cloudfront and route53. I did this by attaching the domain name(example.com) to the cloudfront distribution via Route53

Problem: Since my app calls backend express.js hosted via Amazon EC2 via http://ec2-00-00-00.compute-1.amazonaws.com I see mixed content error because the front end app (https) is trying to access ec2 public dns which is http.

I am trying to figure out what would be the best way to setup HTTPS for my backend EC2 server: I have tried nginx - certbot but it didn't work because I do not have a domain name attached to the ec2 public dns address.

I tried creating a subdomain api.example.com, purchased a cert using Amazon Certificate Manager and tried setting up the route 53 cname record for api.example.com to point to the EC2 instance public IP. This is also not working when I try to access the endpoint via https. My security group configurations looks correct.

I am confused about using Load Balancer vs purchasing a new domain, can someone point me in the right direction? Since it is a side project, I don't want to go with the expensive approach but I am open to trying whatever the best practice is.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Amazon Certificate Manager and tried setting up the route 53 cname record for api.example.com to point to the EC2 instance public IP.

ACM certificates can't be used on instances, but only with ELB, CF distro and API gateway. So you should use an SSL certificate (not self-signed) from a third party on your instance. You correctly tried with nginx - certbot combo, which is the correct way of doing this. Thus, I would look into why the nginx - certbot does not work, especially as you have already your own domain for it.