Hosting a Jekyl blog on GitHub pages using a custom AWS domain

Introduction

Quick instructions on how to create a Jekyl blog via GitHib pages and redirecting your custom domain from AWS to it

Sources:

• https://benwiz.com/blog/deploy-github-pages-with-aws-route-53-and-https/
• https://christopherkade.com/posts/subdomain-githubpages
• https://talk.hyvor.com/blog/creating-a-static-site-blog-with-jekyll-and-github-pages/

Steps

1. Create new GitHub repository and enable GitHub Page

1. Create a new repository using the following format: <YOUR USERNAME>.github.io.
2. Go to your newly created repo and go to settings.
3. Scroll down to the GitHub Pages section and enable by selecting Branch: main.
4. Check Enforce HTTPS

2. Create a placeholder website

1. Clone the repo git clone https://github.com/<USERNAME>/<USERNAME>.github.io.git.
2. Change directory cd <USERNAME>.github.io.git
3. Create a basic placeholder index.html echo "Hello GitHub Pages!" > index.html
4. Create a CNAME file with the domain you want to forward to <DOMAIN> > CNAME
5. Push to GitHub git add . && git commit -m 'Initial commit - placeholder index and CNAME' && git push

3. Configure AWS Route 53 to point to your website

1. Log into AWS console and go to the Route 53 dashboard
2. Click Hosted zones
3. Click the domain you would like to use
4. Click Create Record
5. Click Simple Routing > Next
6. Click Define simple record
7. For record name enter in the subdomain e.g. blog.dominicst.com
8. For Value/Route traffic from the drop-down menu select IP address or another value, depending on the record type. In the free text box enter in your GitHub pages URL i.e. <USERNAME>.github.io
9. For Record type select CNAME
10. Select Define simple record
11. Head to your domain to see if it loads your GitHub page.

4. Set up jekyll

1. Install ruby
2. Install Jekyl gem install jekyll bundler
3. jekyll new . - You might need to delete and remake the CNAME file.
4. Use bundler exec jekyll serve to run locally on http://localhost:4000
5. Edit the config file _config.yml
6. Start creating blog posts in the _posts folder, file names should be in the YEAR-MONTH-DAY-title.md format