resolver does not seem to work with proxy_pass

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I have setup nginx (1.9.5) as a proxy for few tomcat servers through
proxy_pass directive. The proxy_pass points to a domain name (aws route53).
The proxying works okay, but domain name is resolved only during nginx
startup/reload. I have setup the resolver to force resolving domain name
every few seconds, but it does not work.  Here is my config. Any thoughts
on why this does not work?



server {

        listen 443;
        server_name localhost;
        ssl on;
        resolver 10.0.0.2 valid=10s;

        ssl_certificate /etc/nginx/certs/ssl-bundle3.crt;
        ssl_certificate_key /etc/nginx/certs/chewie.key;
        ssl_dhparam /etc/nginx/certs/dhparam.pem;
        ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2;
        ssl_session_cache    shared:SSL:20m;
        ssl_session_timeout 180m;
        ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
        ssl_ciphers "EECDH+ECDSA+AESGCM EECDH+aRSA+AESGCM
EECDH+ECDSA+SHA384 EECDH+ECDSA+SHA256 EECDH+aRSA+SHA384
EECDH+aRSA+SHA256 EECDH+aRSA+RC4 EECDH EDH+aRSA RC4 !aNULL !eNULL !LOW
!3DES !MD5 !EXP !PSK !SRP !DSS !RC4";

        location / {
                resolver_timeout 30s;
                resolver 10.0.0.2 valid=10s;
                set $target "http://abctest.hello.world:80";
                proxy_pass $target;
                proxy_cache_bypass true;
                    proxy_no_cache true;
                    proxy_set_header        X-Real-IP       $remote_addr;
                    proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-For
$proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;

                    proxy_ssl_session_reuse on;

                    error_log  /var/log/nginx/error.log debug;

            }
    }
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