Comprehensive Guide to AWS IAM, EC2, and Jenkins Installation

#webdev #aws #microsoft #programming

Introduction

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides powerful tools for managing cloud infrastructure, including Identity and Access Management (IAM) for security, EC2 for virtual servers, and Jenkins for continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD).

This guide will walk you through:

Creating an IAM Group and assigning permissions.

Adding Users to the group for secure access.

Launching an EC2 Instance to host Jenkins.

Installing and Configuring Jenkins for automation.

By the end, you'll have a fully functional Jenkins server running on AWS with proper IAM security controls.

Part 1: Setting Up AWS IAM

Step 1: Creating an IAM Group

Login to your AWS Management Console
Search for IAM (identity and Access Management) and click on it
Click on Group
Click new group
Name your Group (e.g Jenkins-admin)
Click on next Step 2: Assigning Permissions to the Group
In the attached policy section, select AmazonEC2FullAccess (this is for managing EC2 instances)

You can equally select IAMReadOnlyAccess (this is for viewing IAM settings, it is optional)
Click on next, then click on create group

Step 3: Creating and Adding Users to the Group

Navigate to your IAM and click on Users
Click add Users
Name your User

Enable provide User Access to AWS console
Choose I want to create IAM User
Enable autogenerated password (reason is that, the User can change their password)
Scroll down and enable User must create a new password
click next: permissions
Select add User to Group and choose the Group you want to add the User to
Click next, and next
Then click create User
Copy the user's login details before closing that page. Send the User his/her details

Part 2: Launching an EC2 Instance for Jenkins

Navigate to your AWS Management Console
Search for EC2 instances and click on it
Click on launch instance
Name your instance

I'm choosing Ubuntu server
Choose your instance type ( I'm choosing t2.micro free tier eligible)
Beside key pair name, click on create new key pair
Choose RSA
In key name, name it anything (e.g aws-login)

Note: this key pair is an encrypted SSH key. It has a public key and a private key that is automatically generated by AWS for you.

Click on create key pair
Then, under the key pair drop-down menu, choose the key pair you just created (this is your public key)
Leave the configuration storage at T×8, GB gp2
Click on launch instance

Step 2: Connecting to the EC2 Instance

If you are connecting with AWS CLI or Powershell, then open it and login in with this command. ssh -i your key pair name Ubuntu@your EC2 public IP address

Note: Your key pair ends with .pem and it is located at your downloads in your laptop. That is your private key.

Once you are in, type chmod 600 your key pair.pem SSH -i your key pair.pem Ubuntu@your EC2 public IP address
If you are login in with mobaxterm (also known as putty)
Open your mobaxterm
Click on session in the top left
Select SSH
Put the public IP of your EC2 where you see remote host
Enter the name of your EC2 where you see Username
Leave the default port (unless you have a port you want to access)
Click on advance settings
Check the box next to "use private key"
Select your key pair.pem
Click on Ok to save
Click on Ok again to connect to your instance.
Once you are logged in, type sudo apt update ( this is to update your instance)

Part 3: Installing and Configuring Jenkins
To install Jenkins, we need to install Java firstly because Jenkins is a Java-based application, and it requires a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to run.

After doing sudo apt update
Next is to type sudo apt install openjdk-17-jdk -y, then hit enter

Note: 17 is the latest version of Java. -y means yes.

Type Java --version (to see the Java version installed.

Step 2: Adding Jenkins Repository & Installing

You can go to your browser and search for how to install Jenkins in Ubuntu, copy the command and paste it in your instance you are working on, then hit enter
Or you can simply type sudo apt install Jenkins -y then hit enter
Type sudo systemctl start Jenkins (to start the Jenkins)
Type sudo systemctl enable Jenkins
Check if the Jenkins is running by typing systemctl status Jenkins, hit enter

Note: Jenkins runs on port 8080 by default

Let's set security group

Go back to your AWS Management Console
Navigate to your EC2
Click on the instance ID
Scroll down to security and click on it
Click on security group
Click on edit inbound
Click on add rule
Choose custom TCP
Under port range, put 8080 (you can still change the port. It's not security wise to use default port)
Under source, click on the drop-down box and select anywhere IPV4 (or customize it)
Save rule

Step 4: Accessing Jenkins Web Interface

Go to your browser, paste your EC2 public IP address:8080, hit enter
Copy the command you see once you enter ( the link should look like this /var/lib/Jenkins/secrets/initialAdminpassword
Go to your instance you are working on, type cat and paste it command without space please
Copy the password generated once you hit enter
Go back to your browser where you logged in your Jenkins, paste the password
Click on connect
Create an Admin User