CloudFront distribution not showing as Route53 alias target

Question

I’m trying to add a route 53 record set that points to my cloudfront distribution. However, when I select ‘create record set’ in route 53 and click the alias target in the subsequent panel, the cloud front distribution is not listed. All I get is ‘No targets available’. My Distribution has been created and is enabled (and is working). I have added a CName to my distribution with the same domain name that I’m setting up in Route53, but it still doesn’t show.

How do I get my distribution to show in the Alias Target field so that I can point a Route53 ‘a’ record to it?

Thanks

Answer 1

Combining several correct but incomplete answers:

1. Only A records and AAAA are supported. Not CNAME records.
2. The Route53 "Alias Target" box matches against CloudFront distributions' "Alternate Domain Names" field. If you're creating a new record set for something.example.com, you should have already set the alternate domain name for one of your distributions to something.example.com.
3. The Route53 Management Console can be slow, and it might not find your distribution right away — wait until the distribution status is Deployed.