# Create an HTTP listener for your Application Load Balancer
<a name="create-listener"></a>

A listener checks for connection requests. You define a listener when you create your load balancer, and you can add listeners to your load balancer at any time.

The information on this page helps you create an HTTP listener for your load balancer. To add an HTTPS listener to your load balancer, see [Create an HTTPS listener for your Application Load Balancer](create-https-listener.md).

## Prerequisites
<a name="listener-prereqs"></a>
+ To add a forward action to the default listener rule, you must specify an available target group. For more information, see [Create a target group for your Application Load Balancer](create-target-group.md).
+ You can specify the same target group in multiple listeners, but these listeners must belong to the same load balancer. To use a target group with a load balancer, you must verify that it is not used by a listener for any other load balancer.

## Add an HTTP listener
<a name="add-listener"></a>

You configure a listener with a protocol and a port for connections from clients to the load balancer, and a target group for the default listener rule. For more information, see [Listener configuration](load-balancer-listeners.md#listener-configuration).

To add another listener rule, see [Listener rules](listener-rules.md).

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#### [ Console ]

**To add an HTTP listener**

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/).

1. On the navigation pane, choose **Load Balancers**.

1. Select the load balancer.

1. On the **Listeners and rules** tab, choose **Add listener**.

1. For **Protocol**, choose **HTTP**. Keep the default port or enter a different port.

1. For **Default action**, select one of the following routing actions and provide the required information:
   + **Forward to target groups** – Choose a target group. To add another target group, choose **Add target group**, choose a target group, review the relative weights, and update the weights as needed. You must enable group-level stickiness if you enabled stickiness on any of the target groups.

     If you don't have a target group that meets your needs, choose **Create target group** to create one now. For more information, see [Create a target group](create-target-group.md).
   + **Redirect to URL** – Enter the URL by entering each part separately on the **URI parts** tab, or by entering the full address on the **Full URL** tab. For **Status code**, select either temporary (HTTP 302) or permanent (HTTP 301) based on your needs.
   + **Return fixed response** – Enter the **Response code** to return for dropped client requests. Optionally, you can specify the **Content type** and a **Response body**.

1. (Optional) To add tags, expand **Listener tags**. Choose **Add new tag** and enter the tag key and tag value.

1. Choose **Add listener**.

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#### [ AWS CLI ]

**To create a target group**  
If you don't have a target group that you can use for the default action, use the [create-target-group](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/elbv2/create-target-group.html) command to create one now. For examples, see [Create a target group](create-target-group.md).

**To create an HTTP listener**  
Use the [create-listener](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/elbv2/create-listener.html) command. The following example creates an HTTP listener with a default rule that forwards traffic to the specified target group.

```
aws elbv2 create-listener \
    --load-balancer-arn load-balancer-arn \
    --protocol HTTP \
    --port 80 \
    --default-actions Type=forward,TargetGroupArn=target-group-arn
```

To create a forward action that distributes traffic between two target groups, use the following `--default-actions` option instead. When specifying multiple target groups, you must provide a weight for each target group.

```
    --default-actions '[{
          "Type":"forward",
          "ForwardConfig":{
            "TargetGroups":[
              {"TargetGroupArn":"target-group-1-arn","Weight":50},
              {"TargetGroupArn":"target-group-2-arn","Weight":50}
            ]
          }
        }]'
```

------
#### [ CloudFormation ]

**To create an HTTP listener**  
Define a resource of type [AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::Listener](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/TemplateReference/aws-resource-elasticloadbalancingv2-listener.html). The following example creates an HTTP listener with a default rule that forwards traffic to the specified target group.

```
Resources:
  myHTTPlistener:
  Type: 'AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::Listener'
  Properties:
    LoadBalancerArn: !Ref myLoadBalancer
    Protocol: HTTP
    Port: 80
    DefaultActions:
      - Type: "forward"
        TargetGroupArn: !Ref myTargetGroup
```

To create a forward action that distributes traffic between multiple target groups, use the `ForwardConfig` property. When specifying multiple target groups, you must provide a weight for each target group.

```
Resources:
  myHTTPlistener:
  Type: 'AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::Listener'
  Properties:
    LoadBalancerArn: !Ref myLoadBalancer
    Protocol: HTTP
    Port: 80
    DefaultActions:
      - Type: "forward"
        ForwardConfig:
          TargetGroups:
            - TargetGroupArn: !Ref TargetGroup1
              Weight: 50
            - TargetGroupArn: !Ref TargetGroup2
              Weight: 50
```

------