Exploring Geolocation Routing in Route 53: A Practical Guide with Real-World Examples

What is Geolocation Routing

Geolocation routing enables you to make decisions about how to direct your traffic based on where your users are located, specifically the origins of DNS queries. For instance, you might prefer all requests originating from Europe to be directed to an Elastic Load Balancing load balancer located in the Frankfurt Region.

Geolocation operates by associating IP addresses with specific geographic locations. Nevertheless, there are instances where certain IP addresses lack geographical mappings. Consequently, even if you establish geolocation records encompassing all seven continents, Amazon Route 53 may receive DNS queries from locations it cannot pinpoint.

To address this situation, you can set up a default record designed to manage queries originating from IP addresses lacking any location mapping and those from areas without corresponding geolocation records. Without a default record, Route 53 will respond to queries from such locations with a “no answer” response.

You have the flexibility to define geographic locations by continent, country, or even state within the United States. When you create separate records for overlapping geographic regions, such as one for North America and another for Canada, the priority is given to the smaller geographic area. This approach allows you to direct queries for a continent to one resource while directing…