DEV Community: Uduakabasi Umo-Odiong

CONFIGURING NGINX ON A FRESH UBUNTU SERVER

Uduakabasi Umo-Odiong — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 22:44:28 +0000

OVERVIEW
This is simply a blog post highlighting my approach and the steps I took to configure Nginx on an Ubuntu server. This was the first task for my HNG 12 Internship and I am happy to share the steps in case you ever get a similar task.

INTRODUCTION
Nginx is a fast and efficient web server that helps deliver websites quickly and manage traffic. In this task, we will configure nginx on an Ubuntu AWS instance(virtual server) and then create and launch a custom HTML page on the server. The Virtual Server is where the Nginx web server will be deployed.

PREREQUISITE

An AWS Account
A Terminal

STEPS
Step 1: Create your ubuntu server(AWS EC2 Instance)
Create an Ubuntu server, and download the keypair for the instance to your device. It is important that when setting up your security group you allow inbound rules for SSH and HTTP.

Step 2:Connect to your instance
To Connect to your instance, on your terminal change your present working directory to the directory where you downloaded your private key pair, copy the command to make your keypair private and the ssh command then go to the terminal and make the keypair private then ssh into the server.

Step 3: Install the Nginx Web server
Update your terminal and install nginx running the commands
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nginx -y

Step 4:configure the Nginx Web server
At this point, you start up the server, confirm its status that it is actually running and then ensure whenever the ec2 instance restarts, the nginx server starts automatically.

-To start the server and verify its status enter the following commands
sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx

-To enable the nginx server and ensure starts automatically enter the command
sudo systemctl enable nginx

Step 5:Run the default nginx webpage
Copy your public IP address from your AWS instance and paste it into a fresh tab once you hit enter the NGINX webpage should be on display

Step 6:Customize your Nginx Default Web Page
Navigate to the Directory with the default index.html file which is /var/www/html/ and create a custom index.html file which will contain your custom code. Using any text editor of your choice, enter the code for your custom code, save and then refresh the tab with the IP address of your instance.

CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
I. Understanding the task: This was due to the way the project was communicated. The details of the task were confusing at first read.
Solution: I carefully read what was required of me over and over again till I understood and ensured that I picked out the key details that needed to be included in the task.

ii. Connecting to my Instance using SSH: This was because in the past I had mistakenly deleted my Internet gateway and I did not realize this until today.
Solution: I utilized documentation and videos to see what I missed then noticed the missing internet gateway.

LESSONS AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO PROFESSIONAL GOAL
The major lesson here was how to set up my server on Ec2, connect to my terminal using SSH and install/customise the Nginx Server. This has contributed significantly and added to my knowledge and experience of Deploying web servers which is on a need-to-know basis for a Cloud/DevOps Engineer.

CONCLUSION
This task has better equipped me with how to go about deploying web servers on a Cloud platform and how to handle obstacles when performing any task. This article is highly recommended for anyone trying to configure Nginx on an Ubuntu Server and feel free to reach out in situations where you get stuck or to give feedback. Thank you for reading.

ps: Incase you need a professional for this sort of task reach out or visit the websites below.
DevOps Engineers - https://hng.tech/hire/devops-engineers
Cloud Engineers - https://hng.tech/hire/cloud-engineers

Git Command Line Mastery: 10 Essential Commands for Version Control Using Git

Uduakabasi Umo-Odiong — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 17:55:59 +0000

OVERVIEW
Using the command line to carry out version Control on Git. In this article, I will highlight the important commands you need to know, what they are used for and how to use them.

INTRODUCTION
Version control is a game-changer in the tech world, especially when things change and evolve. It’s all about keeping track of the different versions and updates you make to your applications or websites, making monitoring progress and integrating new features easier.
The most popular tool for this task is Git and then there's GitHub, an online platform that brings Git into the cloud, making it even simpler to work together with others.

VERSION CONTROL
Version control can simply be defined as the systematic monitoring and management of versions and changes made to your application, allowing for easy modification, integration, and collaboration among developers. This approach enables teams to keep a detailed history of all modifications, making it possible to track who made specific changes, when they were made, and why.

GIT
Git is a powerful version control system that allows developers to manage and track changes in applications and websites effectively. It supports developers by enabling them to create branches for new features or bug fixes without affecting the main code. It is important to note that GitHub is a web-based platform that utilizes Git.

COMMAND LINE INTERFACE(CLI)
Sometimes referred to as a terminal. This can simply be seen as an essential tool for developers that gives them a text-based way to interact with their operating systems. It enables users to run commands swiftly and carry out other tasks much more efficiently than they could with graphical interfaces.

PREREQUISITE
i) An Ubuntu terminal
ii)Basic knowledge of what Git does and how it works

COMMANDS YOU NEED

GIT CONFIG
The git config command is like your personal settings menu for Git. It lets you customize how Git works for you by adjusting your username and email.

To configure your name :

git config --global user.name <Your Name>

To configure your email address:

 git config --global user.email "me@gmail.com"

To view all your current Git configuration settings (including user credentials):

git config --list

GIT INIT
The git init command creates a new Git repository in a folder, setting it up to track changes to your files. It's the first step to start using Git for version control on a project.

To Create a new repository:

git init <repository-name>

GIT CLONE
The git clone command makes a copy of an existing Git repository from a remote location to your local machine. You just need the URL of the remote repository which can be gotten from the GitHub website to carry this out.
Clone an existing repository:

git clone <repository-url>

GIT STATUS
The git status command shows you the current state of your Git repository. It tells you which files have been changed, which are staged for the next commit, and which are untracked.
Check the status of the repository:

git status

GIT ADD
When you modify files in your repository, those changes are not automatically tracked by Git until you run git add. This command instructs git to monitor changes and any action carried out in that repo.

Add changes to the staging area:

git add <file>

NB: To add all files

git add .

GIT COMMIT
The git commit command is how you save your changes in a Git repository. When you run it, Git creates a new commit that captures everything you've added with git add. Each commit comes with a message that explains what changes were made.

Commit changes:

git commit -m "Commit message"

GIT LOG
The git log command lets you view the history of commits in your Git repository. When you run it, Git displays a list of all the commits, along with their unique identifiers, dates, and messages.
View commit history:

git log

GIT BRANCH
In Git, a branch is a separate space for development within your project repository. The git branch command is what you use to manage these branches. It lets you create new ones, see a list of all the branches you have, and delete.
Create a new branch:

git branch <branch-name>

Delete a branch:

git branch -d <branch-name>

GIT DIFF
The git diff command is a tool that helps you see the differences between files or changes in your project.

Show changes in the working directory:

git diff

GIT PUSH
When you’ve made changes to your project or website and you’re ready to share those changes with your team or just want to back them up, you use git push.

To send changes to the remote repository:

git push origin main

BONUS COMMAND
GIT HELP
The git help command is like having a handy reference guide right in your terminal. It provides you with information about Git commands, options, and how to use them.
To get all git commands and their options:

git help

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, version control is a system used to monitor and track changes to your project or website. The usual way to go about this is over the Githug website but from the commands above, I have explained them and how they are used in case there is a need for you to use git on the command line.

This article seeks to highlight the essential commands needed to carry out version control using git. However, there are other secondary commands that are still implemented on git over the command line. As explained above, these can be seen and accessed through the git help command.

On this note, if you ever find yourself using Git on the command line for a Version Control task, do well to follow this article. If you come across any challenges or have any feedback to give, I would appreciate it if you reached out to me through my LinkedIn.
Thank You.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AWS VPC PEERING

Uduakabasi Umo-Odiong — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 21:52:05 +0000

OVERVIEW
Creating a network using the virtual private cloud service on AWS and connecting the network to another Virtual private cloud network to aid easy communication and exchange of resources between the networks

INTRODUCTION
I believe growing up we had friends and some of us belonged to peer groups where we had one or two people who shared similar interests. We can also apply this reasoning to networks with similar goals and objectives. To achieve these objectives resources would have to be exchanged to allow each network to play its part in the project properly. This is where you have to apply the concept of VPC peering.

VIRTUAL PRIVATE CLOUD (VPC)
Virtual Private Cloud has to do with the act of building your private network on the cloud and other resources are able to leverage the network. In other words, A virtual private cloud (VPC) is a secure, isolated private cloud hosted within a public cloud. VPC customers can run code, store data, host websites, and do anything else they could do in an ordinary private cloud, but the private cloud is hosted remotely by a public cloud provider.
It is important you know that we have other concepts under VPC which include subnets, IP Addressing, CIDR, Route Tables, Internet Gateway, NAT- Gateway and Elastic IP.

VPC PEERING
In simple terms, this is the communication between networks. The exchange of resources is easier when shared in the same network therefore creating the need for VPC peering which is the establishment of a connection whereby VPCs in different networks can share resources and communicate with each other.

PREREQUISITE

An AWS account
Knowledge of basic networking concepts (Subnets, Route Tables, Internet Gateway, IP Addressing, CIDR)

STEPS
i. Create a network using the AWS VPC service

Log into your AWS console and use the search bar to search for VPC and click on it

Click on Create VPC to create the first network in network peer

Create the second network in the peer using the same VPC service

select 'your VPCs' to see a list of all the VPCs you have created to be paired together

ii. Create Subnets for the networks you created (for this report we will be creating only public subnets)

Go to subnet under your VPC dashboard and click Create Subnet
While creating the first and second subnets select the Correct VPC you are creating

select 'subnets' to see a list of all the sub-networks you have created

iii. Create Route tables for both networks

Go to Route tables under your VPC dashboard and click Create a route table

Create route tables for both networks that is VPC 1 and VPC 2

Select route tables to get a list of all subnets you have created

iv. Create Internet Gateway for both networks because we are working with public subnets

Go to Internet Gateway under your VPC dashboard and click Create Internet

Create IGW for both networks and attach to their respective networks

Select internet gateway to get a list of all IGWs you have created

v.Edit Routes and subnet association

Select the route table you want to edit
Select routes and click on edit routes

-Add route and set it to 0.0.0.0/0 then afterwards select next box, pick Interner Gateway, and finally select the IGW you created for that particular network. Save changes afterwards.

select subnet association and click on edit subnet association

Select the subnet for that route table and save the association

-Carry out these configurations on both networks to be paired together.

vi. Create Elastic Compute Cloud (Ec2) Instances for both networks

Go to the search bar and type Ec2 then click on Ec2

Click on launch instance to create your virtual server

-Input the name of your server, select Amazon Linux as your Amazon machine image, and leave instance type as default because it's one of the free tier available instance types

Create a login key that will be used to access your server. Next, you edit network settings and link your server to the VPC you created. Then select auto-assign public IP because it is a public subnet.
Leave all other settings on default then lunch instance

Apply all the procedures stated above and create another server for your second network

vii. VPC Peering

use the search bar to search for VPC and click on it

Scroll down the list of services under VPC and select peering connection

Click on create peering connection

-Select the first VPC as requester VPC

-select the second VPC as the accepter VPC. please if the accepted is in another region or another account this is where you specify the location of your second VPC

-The requester VPC will have to be accepted by the accepter VPC so there is need to configure this. Simply click on actions and select accept the peering connection request

-Edit the routes between the two VPCs. This will be done in two places for the two VPCs that are being connected

After selecting modify route tables, click on first route table created for first VPC and add destination. Add a route, CIDR will be the CIDR of second VPC and next select the peering connection then save changes.

-Go through similar steps for second route table

Viii. Connect your Instance to command line to test the peering connection

-Go to the first instance you created and click on it. After highlighting your instance, click on connect to connect it to the command line.

To connect, select EC2 instance connect and scroll down and click on connect.

On the command line run the command curl alongside the private IP address of your second server and the contents of the second second should come up and this means the connection is successful.

Conclusion
In conclusion, in this article we have successfully covered the concept behind VPC peering which is simply an AWS service that enables you to connect two or more VPCs in different AWS accounts or in the same AWS account and also the benefits of VPC peering which includes improved scalability, private connectivity, and ability to communicate between two different networks. If you need to communicate between two networks the most effective method is through peering the networks using the VPC peering service on AWS and to carry this out properly you should use this article as a guide.

Creating a web application using AWS Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancer (ELB)

Uduakabasi Umo-Odiong — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 23:27:20 +0000

Overview
Create a highly available and scalable web application using AWS Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancer(ELB).

Introduction
One of the advantages of working with the cloud is autoscaling, which automatically changes your infrastructure and resources to meet the current level of demand. Another advantage is load balancing which is needed to help control and regulate the traffic demanding your resources. Having a web application with these features makes room for optimal performance and efficiency so walk with me let's create one together.

Autoscaling
Autoscaling is a cloud computing feature that allows an application to automatically scale its resources up or down based on changing workload demands. This means that as the number of requests or traffic increases, the cloud provider automatically adds more instances or resources to handle the market, and conversely, as the demand decreases, it removes unnecessary resources to save costs.

Load Balancing
A load balancer is a software or hardware component that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers or instances to improve responsiveness, reliability, and scalability. It acts as a single entry point for incoming traffic. It routes it to the available server with the lowest load, ensuring that no single server is overwhelmed and becomes a bottleneck.

AWS Ec2 Instance for Web Application
AWS EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is a service that provides scalable and reliable computing resources for web applications.

Prerequisite

An AWS account
Basic knowledge of VPC and subnet
Script for the web application

Steps

Step 1: Create and Configure your network for the Ec2 Instance

i. Log into your AWS console, use the search bar to search for VPC and click on it.

ii. Create your network using the VPC service

iii. Create two public subnets in two different availability zones

iv. Create one public route table

v. Create an Internet Gateway (IGW)

vi. Attach the Internet gateway to the VPC you created

vii. Select the route table created and configure the routes and subnet association

viii. Edit routes and add routes then select Internet gateway

ix. Select Subnet association, Edit subnet association then select both subnets created and save changes.

Step 2: Create your Servers using AWS EC2 service
i. Use the search bar to search for Ec2 and click on it.

ii. Create 2 servers for the two subnets you created by clicking on launch instance

iii. Set the name of your first server and leave everything after as default until you get to network settings where you select the VPC you created and select one subnet out of the two you created.

iv. After network settings set your security group inbound details to SSH from anywhere and HTTP from anywhere because we are working with a public subnet

v. Leave everything after the security group as default and once you get to Advanced details select it and scroll down to user data, this is where you input the script for your web application and then click on launch instance.

vi. Create another server for your second public subnet and follow the same steps to launch your instance.

Step 3: Set up your Elastic Load Balancer

i. Use the search bar to search for Load balancer and click on it Or Search Ec2, click on it and the left panel of services under Ec2 Scroll down to load balancers

ii. Click on create the load balancer

iii. We are working on a web application so select the application load balancer and click on create

iv. Input the name of the load balancer, It is for internet users so leave the scheme as internet facing and leave the IP address as default

v. Under the network mapping, select the VPC you created then under availability zones select both.

vi. Create a new security group, select the VPC you created and for the inbound rules add HTTP from anywhere. Leave every other thing as default and click on Create a security group.

vii. Go back to set up and at security group select the security group you just created

viii. Under listening and routing, for listening select HTTP as protocol and Port 80. Then create a target group for where the traffic will be channeled to

ix. After clicking Create target group select the instance and leave other details as default and HTTP where applicable

x. Click on next then select both instances created to register them as target

xi. Include the selected instances as pending and they will appear under review targets.

xii. Click on Create Target Group to create

xiii. Go back to setting up the load balancer and select the target group you just created

xiv. Scroll down and Click on Create the load Balancer to complete the set-up

xv. To test your load balancer, scroll down copy the DNS and paste it into another tab. After it opens refresh to see if it connects you to another server. Then you know that your load balancer has been set up properly.

xvi. Paste the link in a new tab and click enter. The details of the first instance will appear.

Xvii. Click refresh, and the load balancer will take you to the second server. This means the Load balancer setup is successful.

Step 4: Set up your Auto Scaling

i. Use the search bar to search for Auto-Scaling and click on it Or Search Ec2, click on it and the left panel of services under Ec2 Scroll down to Auto-Scaling.

ii. To continue you will need to set up an AMI so go back to your instances and select the first server then go to actions, click on images and template then select create image. Input the name of your image and go on to create the image.

iii. Under the panel on the left-hand side of your console, scroll down and select AMI to confirm if your AMI is up and available

iv. Go back to create your auto-scaling group

v. Enter the name of the auto-scaling group then scroll down and click on Create launch a launch template which will contain your AMI created earlier

vi. While creating the launch template, input the name and under Amazon Machine Image select owned by me and click on the image you created then scroll down to security group and select already existing which is the one you created earlier then.

vii. Go back to Creating your Auto-Scaling group and refresh the launch template so select the template you just created

viii. Click on next to continue

xi. Leave everything before network on default and under network select the VPC you created earlier and under availability zones select the availability zones you created then click on next

x. Attach the load balancer you created then select the target group. Leave every other as default and select and click on next to continue.

xi. Set your group size and scaling capacity based on what you want

x. Leave other settings on default and click Create an Auto Scaling group

xi. Stress test your auto-scaling by connecting your instance to the Command Line

xii. Confirm the connection

xiii. Install the stress utility using the command: sudo yum install stress -y

xiv. Run the Stress Test:
Use the stress command to generate load by running the stress command to simulate high CPU load for a set period (e.g. 100 seconds use the command "stress -c 1 -i 1 -m 1 --vm-bytes 128M -t 100s")

Xv. Click on the auto-scaling group as well as instances to see the additional instance that has been created because of the stress command.

Conclusion
In conclusion, Auto scaling and Load Balancing are important concepts that every cloud/DevOps Engineer or individual learning cloud computing needs to know due to the value they bring to any Cloud project.

Auto-scaling would help you adjust your instance to the volume of traffic coming in. If there's an increase in traffic, this service creates more instances. With a reduction in traffic, well, you guessed right, it will help reduce the instances, and this is very effective for cost optimization.

On the other hand load balancing helps to navigate, control and balance the traffic coming into an infrastructure to ensure smooth flow. From the explanation, it is a must-know and should be applied while creating your infrastructure so the steps highlighted above should be carefully followed when implementing auto-scaling and load balancing.