Correct way in new versions of nginx

Turn out my first answer to this question was correct at certain time, but it turned into another pitfall - to stay up to date please check Taxing rewrite pitfalls

I have been corrected by many SE users, so the credit goes to them, but more importantly, here is the correct code:

server {
       listen         80;
       server_name    my.domain.com;
       return         301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
       listen         443 ssl;
       server_name    my.domain.com;
       # add Strict-Transport-Security to prevent man in the middle attacks
       add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000" always; 

       [....]
}

If you're using the AWS console, then you can associate your desired hostname (e.g., www.example.com) with the IP address of the EC2 instance using a CNAME record to the external DNS name for the instance.

For example:

• Navigate to the hosted zone you created (double click works)

• Click [Create Record Set] at top

• Name: www.example.com

• Type: CNAME

• Value: ec2-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx.compute-1.amazonaws.com.

• Click [Create Record Set] at the bottom of the form

I also recommend you learn about Elastic IP addresses. You should allocate an elastic IP address, associate it with your instance, and then map the CNAME to the new external DNS name for the Elastic IP address on your instance. This will let you move the Elastic IP address between instances without having to update your DNS.

If you're curious why I recommend a CNAME instead of using an A record, here's a benefit I wrote about when talking between instances inside EC2: http://alestic.com/2009/06/ec2-elastic-ip-internal