DEV Community: danipo87

Baby Steps

danipo87 — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 02:07:23 +0000

It's been a minute, but I haven't given up on my challenge! I took a detour for a little bit to focus on the AWS Solutions Architect certification, which I needed to complete by the end of the year for a work-sponsored program. I took the test on Saturday and I passed!

Now back to the challenge, which is giving me a bit of a headache trying to tie the API Gateway with Lambda, but it will probably take a bit (read: a lot) more research. I'll get there though!

Never quit and never surrender!

Creating a CI/CD pipeline!

danipo87 — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 03:23:33 +0000

Fairly quick post today.

I was going to work on the next step of the webpage by adding a counter in React, but the whole not-having-version-control-set-up was starting to bother me. All my projects at work use Git, so why shouldn't I be able to use it here?

I also ran into a bit of a snag, I was cleaning up some of the template features that I didn't really need, and OOPS I deleted some bootstrap code that handled the page formatting. Bad news: I deleted it. Good news: I still had the template saved. So all I had to do was just copy the files I had removed. Another reason I need to get Git set up ASAP!

So I went to my GitHub page (shameless plug, though not impressive in the least) and created a new repo.

New lesson! If you're using VSCode, you don't need to create the repo. You can push the working directory into a new GitHub repo using their built-in source control handler. I deleted the one I had made on the site, and pushed the local folder to a new repo.

That was the easy part. Next, that repo has to communicate with S3. This is where Github Actions come in. I was already familiar with pipelining previously as my work uses Gitlab and their similar CI/CD tools, so the YAML structure was very easy to set up and understand. I just needed to figure out how to talk to S3.

Luckily that was also pretty easy with a few searches. I landed on this blog which went step by step detailing adding the AWS Access Keys to my Secrets and what to add to the YAML.

From there I ran a few tests, checking in a few small changes to see if they showed up in GitHub, succeeded the pipeline, and showed up in my Bucket. Then opened up my website in my mobile browser to verify. And it was all done!

Finally some version control, peace of mind, and some sleep!

Until next time!

Finishing the Site, for now

danipo87 — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 02:25:21 +0000

And with that, I'm done with the site for the time being.

I've completed the meat and potatoes of the site, replacing the templated sections with my own information and removed many of the sections pertaining to personal info that I don't want shared, specifically my phone number and email, in case someone is using a web scraper to get information for spam.

My site is now publicly available at www.daniel-powley.com

The site still has a ways to go. I'd like to add additional pages for projects I've done, but that can be completed at a later date once everything is set up through AWS and working.

Without looking at the Cloud Resume Challenge book, I notice one immediate upgrade I'll have to make and that is version control. I'll plan on migrating the source code to Git, which will update my s3 buckets automatically. This will also let me manage the repo and push changes from VSCode, which I'm using to build the site.

Until next time!

Creating a Cloud Resume (or How to Not Rely on Certs Alone)

danipo87 — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 01:10:58 +0000

Hi! Last time I talked about getting my AWS CCP cert, and I was so happy to finally have my foot in the door (or cloud I guess). So what was next?

Well, I bit the bullet and subscribed to A Cloud Guru. I'm currently studying for the Solutions Architect exam. We'll see how that goes! I've also been checking out how to get a career in the Cloud by watching a few videos. Well everyone has said that you just can't rely on certs to get hired, which makes sense. You can't just say you know AWS services, you also have to know them.

So let's pick a project, maybe ask what to do. ACGs challenges are a bit much. I'd love to create a recommendation engine using SageMaker and machine learning, but I don't know either of those! I checked out the ACG Discord for guidance, where I was turned onto the Cloud Resume Challenge. This seems reasonable, a few steps, not a ton of handholding, and results I can use immediately! Great! I bought the book immediately.

And thus, my challenge began. Its been about a week now and I'm making some great progress.

Let me be clear, I'm not a web developer. I learned html and css during my first degree curriculum (remember DreamWeaver?) but I'm not seasoned enough to be able to make a page from memory any more. For now, I'll use and build from a template to work the cobwebs out and add some React for some bells and whistles once I get the main content satisfied.
I put together a simple index.html and style sheet and put them into an S3 bucket. Amazon's documentation is really great and leading you down the path, and while studying S3 for my cert, I was able to get both buckets for my domain and subdomain running really fast.
I registered my domain with Route 53. This way I have my own personal website to use any time I want once I'm done without the user having to know that its being hosted on AWS.
The book recommended using HTTPS for the domain, which is not provided by S3. I would need to serve the website through CloudFront to do this. First I would need to create a custom SSL certificate though AWS Certificate Manager and apply it to my CloudFront Distribution. Thankfully I'm doing all of this through AWS, so I don't have to copy and paste and troubleshoot issues through a third-party DNS.

Once those steps were created, I was able to type in my address on my browser (and on my phone) to access my basic, black-on-white resume page! This must be how they felt in the 90's! Whew, well I think that's enough for now.

Flesh out the website. I've set up VSCode with the necessary plugins to do this.
Learn basic React to get a counter for my site.

Until next time!

How I conquered the AWS CCP

danipo87 — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 00:48:10 +0000

Let's talk AWS! I'm a complete newb when it comes to cloud so I think I'd like to break down how I did the basic exam so someone who wants to follow in my footsteps can succeed as well!

But first, why AWS? Well, in March I decided to go for something different. I could practice coding on HackerRank or LeetCode all day, but would I really be getting anything out of those? I wanted a challenge that would need some work but would be very much attainable. I've always been good at school and testing so I thought "Why not go for AWS? You can get certified pretty easily, the job market is there, and it PAYS (let's be real, the most important part)."

So the challenge was then just to get started. But how???? There are sooo many pathways and resources when it comes to AWS, so maybe we should start at the beginning? And that's what I did. I decided I would become a (dun du du dun!) Cloud Practitioner!

I looked at the requirements and what it would take to get this cert and it looks reasonable; a 4 hour YouTube video, some practice exams, and that's it right? All the comments for the video said they got it in a week. I can do that!

WRONG! Compared to school, where you take a class on a single subject and get tested on the last few weeks of material, AWS is so VAST that it seemed like the questions could be on anything! I was gonna need to go deeper. Here's a breakdown of how I prepped for my certification:

Watching the freeCodeCamp.org video on Youtube twice. Once just watching the video, and a second taking notes on each of the services (once I realized that this topic was much more dense than I thought).
I ended up purchasing the CCP course from ExamPro (~$20 I think) because I wanted the utilize their chapter-by-chapter navigation and periodic quizzes. I also wanted to master their practice exams.
A free course from A Cloud Guru. It just so happened that while I was studying, a friend of mine who works at AWS turned me on to ACG and let me know that they would be offering the course for CCP free for the month. I had already bought the ExamPro course so I wasn't upset, so I used that course for additional study material.

So with the practice exams mastered, I was ready to go! I put my money where my mouth was and registered for the exam! This should be easy. ALSO WRONG! Damn, that test was NOT easy. In the advice I had seen for the certification, they had said you really need hands on experience with the different services AWS offers and not to rely on studying and practice exams alone. They were definitely correct! While some questions covered the basic topics that I had studied for, some really needed that deeper understanding of pricing and anecdotal knowledge you might need as someone who's working in AWS. Unfortunately AWS doesn't tell you your score, so I was really sweating it.

But I DID IT. Some might say "well that test was easy", like the commenter who did it in a week, but as someone with a full time job who studied while on work trips (one being out of the country), it took me a few months to get this one done!

So what's next. Well, I'm writing this post posthumously as I'm on my next step: Solutions Architect! I'll cover that road in another post but that wraps it up for the CCP. Have a good one!

First post! $Whoami

danipo87 — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 00:36:18 +0000

Here we go, my first post! Let's get caught up, shall we?

I have two Bachelor's degrees, one in graphic design and another in Computer Science.
I've been at my current job as a software engineer for a year and a half.
I want more from my career!

Be sure to look out for more from me on this page! Thanks!