DEV Community: Caleb Onyejeme

Creating a Windows Virtual Machine in the Azure Portal and connecting to it through RDP.

Caleb Onyejeme — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 17:55:13 +0000

Step 1
Sign into the Azure Portal

Open Azure Portal in your browser.
Log in with your Microsoft Account.
On your search box, type Virtual Machine Select the Virtual Machine from the options that appear.

Step 2
Create a Resource Group

In the Azure portal, select Create a resource in the left-hand menu.

Step 3
Configure the Basic Settings

Select your subscription
Choose a Resource group (if needed)
Pick a Virtual Machine Name
Select a Region where the Virtual Machine will be hosted.

Step 4
Create Admin Credentials
Under the Administrator account Choose Password
Enter a username and password
Under the Inbound Port Rules allow RDP (3389)
Leave the other settings as default or modify them as per your requirements.

Step 5
Review and create
Review all configurations. If satisfied, click Review + Create, to start the deployment process.

Step 6
Connect to your Virtual Machine through RDP
Once the virtual machine is deployed, you can connect to it using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

Once it is deployed, go to the Virtual Machines blade in the Azure portal and find your VM.
Click on the "connect" button at the top of the virtual machine overview page.

In the "Connect" blade, select "RDP" as the connection method,
and when prompted, enter the username and password you provided while creating the virtual machine.

At this stage, your virtual desktop will be ready for use.

Congratulations! You have successfully created a Windows virtual machine in Azure and connected to it via RDP. You can now utilize the remote desktop session to manage and configure your VM as needed.

How to Host a Static Website on Azure Blob Storage.

Caleb Onyejeme — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 17:55:02 +0000

Prerequisites

Azure account: You ll need an active azure subscription
Static Website Files : JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and other assets to be hosted.
You can serve static content like HTML, CSS etc directly from a container in a general-purpose V2 or blockblob storage account.

3 MAJOR TOOLS TO BE USED

Visual Studio Code : - It must be installed on your desktop.
Install the azure subscription azure account and azure storage extension plugin on the visual studio code.
Create a Storage Account in the azure portal.

STEP 1
Enable Static Website Hosting

Go to your newly created storage account and hit the static website on the left side of the search bar.
Click Enable
Specify the index specific name (e.g. index.html)
Specify an error document path (e.g. error.html)
Click the Save button above to save your configurations.

This opens up a page with your primary and secondary endpoints.

Copy the primary endpoint, that's the URL of your static website.

STEP 2
Return to Your Storage Account
Once you are in your storage account, navigate to the Containers section, and you'll find a $web container already created to store the content of your static website.

STEP 3
Upload Your Website Files

In the storage account, navigate to Containers and open the $web container created automatically for static website hosting.
Click Upload to add your files

STEP 4
Test Your Static Website

Navigate to the Static Website in your storage account.
Click on the Primary endpoint URL to view your static website
Test the site and ensure everything uploaded completely and loads properly.

Conclusion
Hosting a static website on Azure Blob Storage is a straightforward, cost-effective solution for serving static content. By creating a storage account, enabling the static website feature, uploading your site files to the $web container, and optionally configuring a custom domain, you can quickly publish your website. Azure also provides scalability, secure HTTPS connections, and integration with Azure CDN to optimize performance.

This setup is ideal for personal projects, portfolios, and lightweight web applications. With Azure’s reliability and ease of use, you can ensure a smooth hosting experience for your static website.

EASY STEPS ON CREATING A WEBAPP ON AZURE USING CLI.

Caleb Onyejeme — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 17:54:44 +0000

This article serves as a guide to setting up a web app service in Azure using the Command Line Interface (CLI) and provides step-by-step instructions on how to scale up and scale out within the Azure web app environment.

Tools Required

Install Azure CLI
Github Account
Install Gitbash

To install Azure CLI click

STEP 1. Login to Azure from the command line
Open a command line of your choice. For this exercise I will be using Git Bash.

Type the command az login and hit enter Once you hit the 'enter' it will prompt you to choose the azure account you wish to sign into. Select the appropriate account.

STEP 2. CREATE A RESOURCE GROUP
A resource group organizes your resources. Create one by using this command :az group create --name group name --location region

from the above image, you can clearly see that the resource group has been successfully created.

STEP 3. CREATE AN APP SERVICE APP
The App Service plan determines the web app's pricing and scale. You can create it by using the command: az appservice plan create --name --resource-group --sku F1

STEP 4. CREATE A WEB APP
You can do this by using the command: az webapp create --name name of your webapp --resource-group resource group name --plan plan name hit enter. After hitting the enter buttton, it automatically creates a webapp on your azure portal.

STEP 5. Deploy your code

Go to your Github account and click on the repository that contains your website files (HTML, CSS and JavaScript)
Click on code button and copy the URL on display
Go back to the PowerShell and type the following command
az webapp deployment source config --name webapp name --resource-group resource group name --repo-url the url you copied from GitHub --branch branch of the repo --manual-integration

This command deploys your web application instantly

Access your web app
Go to the Azure portal and view the App Service plan and Web app application.

click on the web application icon to overview the page. On the Overview page, you will find the Default domain, which serves as the URL for your website. You can copy and share it to allow others to access your site.

Additionally, the page displays details such as the App Service Plan and the repository link from GitHub, which is the source of your website's content.

To view deployment details, click on Deployment Center in the left-hand menu under the Deployment section.

SCALING UP AND SCALING OUT
In most cases, after deploying your web application, it’s necessary to scale up before moving to production. This ensures your application has adequate capacity to maintain high availability and fault tolerance.

If your application is expected to experience heavy traffic, it’s crucial to enable scaling out to handle increased demand as needed.

SCALE UP
Scaling up involves enhancing an existing system by adding more resources to achieve the desired level of performance. This typically includes increasing the RAM and storage capacity of the current machine.

In azure web application services, we can achieve this by

Navigate to the App Service Plan and click on your plan to open the Overview page. Next, select Scale Up (App Service Plan) from the left-hand menu under Settings. Choose your desired capacity from the Production tiers and click the Select button to apply the changes.
Click Upgrade to upgrade to your chosen capacity.

SCALE OUT
Scaling out, which can also be called horizontal scaling, involves adding more resources such as servers to your system. This helps distribute the workload across multiple machines, thereby enhancing performance and increasing storage capacity.

In Azure App Services, you can manage scaling through your App Service Plan by navigating to the Overview page.

Click on Scale Out (App Service Plan).
Choose one of the scaling options: Manual, Automatic, or Rule-based.

For automatic scaling, adjust the Maximum Burst by dragging the slider until you reach your desired maximum.

Click SAVE to effect your changes

By following these steps, we successfully deployed our web application and scaled it to the desired capacity to ensure optimal performance.

Your easy steps in launching EC2 instance on AWS

Caleb Onyejeme — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 07:20:37 +0000

INTRODUCTION

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a comprehensive and widely adopted cloud computing platform provided by Amazon. AWS offers a broad set of infrastructure services such as computing power, storage options, networking, databases, machine learning, analytics, and much more, all available through the internet. These services enable businesses and developers to host applications and services on the cloud, reducing the need for maintaining physical servers and data centers.

Step 1: Sign into your AWS account
To get started sign into your AWS account by entering your details. If you don't have an account with AWS, you can create one by clicking the "create a new AWS account" a button AND following instructions.

Step 2: Once you are signed in the AWS, open the EC2 console
On the management console search bar, search for the "EC2" and click "EC2" from the search history and that opens the EC2 console where you will be able to manage your instances.

Step 3: Launch an Instance
In the EC2 dashboard, click on Launch Instance to start the process of creating a new instance.

After clicking on the “Launch Instance” button, you will be redirected to a page as shown below.

*Step 4: Name your EC2 instance *
Provide a name for your EC2 instance by giving your instance a unique name that can help with easy identification and management of your resources in the future.

Step 5: Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is a pre-configured template that contains the operating system and other software necessary for your instance. In this step, you can choose from a wide variety of AMIs provided by AWS or the AWS Marketplace. Select an AMI that best suits your requirements.
In this case, you can choose “Amazon Linux” as the operating system for your instance.

Step 6: Choose an instance type
Select an Instance Type (e.g., t2.micro for free tier, t3.medium, etc.). You can filter for Free Tier eligible instances if you are on the free plan.

Step 7: Create a Pair Key
To securely connect to your EC2 instance from your system, you must create a key pair. This key pair includes a public key stored by AWS and a private key that you download to your local machine. The private key is used for authentication and to establish a secure connection with your EC2 instance.

Step 8: Configure instance details, Add Storage and configure security groups
*Configure instance details: *

You can configure details like network, subnet, and IAM role. In most cases, you can leave these settings as default. Ensure that you choose the correct VPC and Subnet for your region and network setup.
Add storage:
AWS will automatically assign a default storage configuration, which you can customize by adding additional volumes or adjusting the size.

If you require more storage, click "Add New Volume" and define the desired size and type.

Configure security groups :
A Security Group acts as a virtual firewall, managing inbound and outbound traffic for your EC2 instance. You can either create a new security group or select an existing one. Set up rules to permit SSH (port 22) for Linux instances or RDP (port 3389) for Windows instances. If you intend to host a website, you can also add rules for HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443). Once you've configured the security group, click Review and Launch to proceed.

On the right side of the EC2 instance launch page, you'll find the summary details section. This section offers an overview of the configuration settings you've selected for your instance, allowing you to review and confirm them before proceeding with the launch.

Step 9: Review and Launch
Before starting the instance, carefully review the configuration details to confirm everything is correctly set up. Verify the instance type, storage options, security groups, and any additional settings you've configured. Once you're satisfied, click the "Launch Instance" button.
When you have successfully launched your instance, you will be redirected to another page that displays the success dialogue box.

Conclusion
Launching an Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instance on AWS is a straightforward yet powerful process, that enables users to deploy scalable virtual servers for various applications.
Launching an EC2 instance on AWS offers the flexibility and scalability needed to run applications in the cloud. This article has guided you through the process, including navigating the AWS Management Console, selecting an AMI, choosing an instance type, configuring instance details, adding storage, setting up security groups, and successfully launching your instance.

Hosting a static website on AWS S3 Bucket.

Caleb Onyejeme — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 16:40:25 +0000

Introduction

In today's digital landscape, having a web presence is essential for individuals and businesses alike. Whether you're showcasing a portfolio, sharing a blog, or launching a small business, a static website can be the perfect solution. But how do you get started? Enter Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3), a powerful and cost-effective platform that makes hosting static websites a breeze.

In this blog post, we'll walk you through the process of setting up your static website on an S3 bucket. With step-by-step instructions and helpful tips, you'll learn how to take advantage of S3’s scalability, durability, and ease of use. By the end, you'll have a fully functional website live on the internet, ready to share your content with the world. Let’s dive in and explore how easy it is to get started with AWS S3!

Prerequisite
1-AWS account
2-Website Files

Now that you have the required tools. Let's Dive in!!

STEP 1
log in to your AWS account
-Go to your web browser and enter https://aws.amazon.com/
create an account if you don't already have or sign in by hitting the the console button

You will need to provide a billing information, but there's a free tier available for new users

Select to sign in as a Root user if you own the account, otherwise, if given access by an organization or a third party, the select IAM user

Provide your account email and click the Next button.

STEP 2
Create an S3 bucket.

Access the S3 Console: Go to the AWS Management Console, search for S3, and select it.

Go ahead and click the 'create bucket' button

Enter a unique name for your bucket (this must be globally unique).
Choose a region close to your target audience.
Click "Create bucket" (you can leave most settings as default for now).

-Scroll down on same page.
-Leave the default ACL disabled option.
-Uncheck the Block all public access option.

You will be prompted with a warning message, but there's nothing to panic about here. It's just a message that reminds you the implications of making the bucket public. You'd have to acknowledge the message and remember to leave all the settings in default, scroll down to the end of the page and hit that Create Bucket button

STEP 3: Uploading the web files to the static website.

Click on your created bucket nonnycaleb
On the bucket page, click the upload button, it will open another panel that will help you navigate to your resources in your local environment.

Use the add files or add folder button depending on how your web files are saved.

We will upload our web resources from our local desktop.

The uploaded files

The index.html and the error.html or in this instance 404.html. They are the primary pages that display on the website.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Upload button.

STEP 4: Set Bucket Permissions

Go back to the nonnycaleb S3 bucket and click on the permission button.

Scroll down and click on the edit button then Bucket Policy

Add the policy below in the editor with your bucket name replacing the place holder. (We got the policy from AWS documentation on S3 static website hosting)

Scroll down and click on the save changes button, once you have clicked the save button you will be notified that the policy change was successful.
Then Click on property on the same nonnycaleb bucket page.

Scroll down to the "Static website hosting, click edit

Select Enable option for Static website
This will extend the pane, exposing boxes for you to input your index.html and error.html configurations.

Leave other configurations as default and click Save Changes button at the base of the page.

You will get this notification of success.

Now at the bottom of the page there will be static website bucket endpoint which we can use to access it over a browser.

Go ahead and copy the endpoint and view the static website.

Conclusion
That’s it! You’ve successfully hosted a static website on AWS. You can update your website by uploading new files to your S3 bucket whenever needed.