Deploying a Laravel Portfolio to AWS EC2: Complete Production Setup

Ravi Sengar Rajasthan — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 10:09:35 +0000

Why AWS EC2 Over Shared Hosting?

Full server control for custom configurations

Scalability as your projects grow

Professional credibility with clients

Learning experience with cloud infrastructure

Tech Stack
Backend: Laravel 12

Frontend: Tailwind CSS

Server: Ubuntu 22.04 on AWS EC2 t2.micro

Web Server: Nginx

Database: SQLite (perfect for portfolios)

SSL: Let's Encrypt (free)

Step-by-Step Deployment
1. EC2 Setup

Launch t2.micro instance (free tier)

Configure security groups: HTTP (80), HTTPS (443), SSH (22)

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2. Server Configuration

Update system

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install PHP 8.3 and extensions

sudo apt install php8.3-fpm php8.3-mysql php8.3-xml php8.3-curl php8.3-zip

Install Nginx

sudo apt install nginx

Install Composer

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php
sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

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3. Laravel Deployment

Clone your repository

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/portfolio.git /var/www/portfolio

Install dependencies

cd /var/www/portfolio
composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev

Set permissions

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/portfolio
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/portfolio
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/portfolio/storage

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4. Nginx Configuration
server {
listen 80;
server_name yourdomain.com;
root /var/www/portfolio/public;
index index.php;

location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}

location ~ \.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $realpath_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    include fastcgi_params;
}

}

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nginx
5. SSL with Let's Encrypt

Install Certbot

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx

Get SSL certificate

sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com

Auto-renewal (already configured)

sudo systemctl status certbot.timer

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Auto-Deployment with GitHub Webhooks
Created a webhook endpoint that automatically pulls changes:

<?php
// webhook.php
$payload = json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'), true);

if (isset($payload['ref']) && $payload['ref'] === 'refs/heads/main') {
shell_exec('cd /var/www/portfolio && git pull origin main');
shell_exec('cd /var/www/portfolio && php artisan config:clear');
shell_exec('cd /var/www/portfolio && php artisan cache:clear');
echo "Deployed successfully!";
}
?>

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Workflow: Edit locally → Push to GitHub → Auto-deploy to production

Security Hardening
Security Headers Middleware
class SecurityHeaders
{
public function handle($request, Closure $next)
{
$response = $next($request);

    $response->headers->set('X-Content-Type-Options', 'nosniff');
    $response->headers->set('X-Frame-Options', 'DENY');
    $response->headers->set('X-XSS-Protection', '1; mode=block');

    return $response;
}

}

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Environment Security
Never commit .env files

Use strong database passwords

Configure proper file permissions

Regular security updates

Performance Optimizations

Enable OPcache

sudo nano /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini

opcache.enable=1

Optimize Composer autoloader

composer install --optimize-autoloader --no-dev

Laravel optimizations

php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

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Monitoring and Maintenance
Log Monitoring

Check Laravel logs

tail -f /var/www/portfolio/storage/logs/laravel.log

Check Nginx logs

tail -f /var/log/nginx/error.log

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Backup Strategy
Database backups via cron jobs

Code versioning with Git

Server snapshots (AWS AMI)

Cost Breakdown
EC2 t2.micro: Free for 12 months, then ~$9/month

Domain: ~$12/year

SSL: Free (Let's Encrypt)

Total: Essentially free for the first year

Results
The deployed portfolio (https://sengaram.com) features:

⚡ Sub-2 second load times

🔒 A+ SSL rating

📱 Mobile-responsive design

🚀 Automatic deployments

📊 Google Analytics integration

Key Takeaways
Start simple - t2.micro is perfect for portfolios

Automate everything - deployment, SSL renewal, backups

Security first - proper headers, permissions, updates

Monitor actively - logs, performance, uptime

Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Forgetting to set proper file permissions

Not configuring security groups correctly

Skipping SSL certificate setup

Ignoring log monitoring

Next Steps
Consider adding:

CDN integration (CloudFront)

Database migration to RDS for scaling

Load balancing for high traffic

CI/CD pipelines with AWS CodePipeline

Have you deployed Laravel applications to AWS? What challenges did you face?

Check out the live result at (https://sengaram.com) - built following these exact steps.

laravel #aws #deployment #portfolio #webdev #php #nginx #ssl

DEV Community: Ravi Sengar Rajasthan