DEV Community: Barakat

Setting Up and Configuring NGINX on an Ubuntu Server.

Barakat — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 16:05:18 +0000

Introduction

As part of my DevOps learning journey, I recently joined HNG12 internship and completed a hands-on task in setting up and configuring NGINX on a fresh Ubuntu server. This task was instrumental in strengthening my understanding of server configuration, security management, and web hosting fundamentals.
In this blog post, I will document my approach, the steps I followed, and how this experience contributes to my learning and professional growth.

My Approach

1.Set up an EC2 Instance on AWS
I started by launching an EC2 instance on AWS, selecting Ubuntu as my operating system. This provided a fresh environment to configure and deploy my web server.

2. Configured Security Group
Next, I edited the security group settings to allow necessary inbound and outbound rules:

Inbound Rules:

SSH (Port 22) – Allowed to securely connect to the instance.
HTTP (Port 80) – Enabled to serve web traffic.

Outbound Rule:

HTTP (Port 80) – Allowed outbound HTTP requests.

3. Connected to the instance via SSH
Using Git Bash, I connected to my EC2 instance via SSH with the following command:

ssh -i "key.pem" ubuntu@ec2-public-ip

4. Updated and upgraded NGINX
Before installing NGINX, I updated and upgraded the Ubuntu server to ensure it has the latest software versions:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

5. Installed NGINX
I installed NGINX using the command:

sudo apt install nginx -y
To confirm that NGINX was running, I checked its status using:

sudo systemctl status nginx

If not started or enabled, use

sudo systemctl start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx

At this point, accessing http://ec2-public-ip( mine is http://52.91.162.32/) in a browser displayed the default NGINX welcome page.

6. Replaced the default NGINX page
I then created a custom HTML file to replace the default NGINX welcome page.
Using nano, I created and edited the file:

sudo nano /var/www/html/index.html

I replaced the content with my html file content and saved it.
Visiting my public IP address(http://52.91.162.32/) in a browser now displayed my custom html welcome message.

How This Task Contributes to My Learning and Professional Goals
This experience was a great opportunity to apply DevOps best practices in a real-world scenario. I,

Gained hands-on experience with AWS EC2, Linux server administration, and NGINX configuration.
Improved my understanding of security group configurations and SSH connectivity.
Strengthened my skills in basic web hosting and automation.
Learned the importance of server updates and proper service management.

References
https://hng.tech/hire/cloud-engineers
https://hng.tech/hire/aws-solutions-architects

Conclusion

Setting up and configuring NGINX on an Ubuntu server was an enlightening experience. This task reinforced my understanding of web server configurations, security best practices, and cloud infrastructure management. I look forward to building more complex deployments and automating server configurations in my DevOps journey!

SETTING UP A COST-EFFECTIVE AWS INFRASTRUCTURE FOR YOUR STARTUP.

Barakat — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 23:21:01 +0000

Building a startup can be both time and money-consuming. While your team's passion and expertise are crucial for your startup growth, your technology infrastructure equally plays a vital role. Having the right, robust, scalable, and cost-effective tech infrastructure can accelerate your startup's journey, allowing you to focus on what matters most: your product and customers. Amazon Web Services(AWS) offers a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services that can help you achieve these goals.
This article will guide you through the process of setting up a cost-effective AWS environment tailored to the needs of a growing startup.

WHAT IS AMAZON WEB SERVICE (AWS)?
AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon that provides cloud computing platforms to individuals, organizations, and governments to help them lower costs, become more agile, save, and innovate faster.

Interesting right? Let's go ahead and dive into the numerous opportunities AWS has for your startup.

GETTING STARTED
To leverage AWS full potential for your startup or use AWS, you need to be a user. User represents the person within your organization that interact with AWS console.
There are two(2) types of user in AWS;

Root User: this is the initial owner that is created when the AWS new account is created. Do not share this with anyone.
IAM User: this user is created by the root user or an administrator of the account.

CREATING AN AWS ACCOUNT (ROOT USER)

Click on this link to start your account creation
Amazon
Click on create a free account to create your account.

Enter necessary details as indicated below or sign-in with your details if you already have an account.

You will be required to input a card details for verification.

Don't panic, you won't be charged for creating a free tier account as long as you follow the above steps.

You will receive an email after a successful account creation.

*Do not give the credential of the root user account for your AWS account to anyone. Anyone who has this information has unrestricted access to all the resources in your account, including billing information. *

AWS MANAGEMENT CONSOLE
The AWS Management Console is the web based interface for accessing and managing AWS services. It provides a user friendly way to interact with AWS resources without requiring deep technical knowledge. With the AWS Management Console, users are able to:

View/Search for Services

Access AWS CloudShell

Notification

Support, User settings, Origin, and Access Account.

NAVIGATING AWS SERVICES
To navigate through different AWS services, you can:

Search Bar: Type the service name in the search bar at the top of the console.
Services Menu: Click on the "Services" dropdown menu and select the desired services.

There are lot of AWS services that can be leverage for the growth of your startup.

Below are Key Services for a startup

EC2(Elastic Compute Cloud): provides virtual servers that can be scaled according to demand for running applications.
S3(Simple Storage Service): offers scalable object storage for storing data, content distribution and more.
IAM(Identity and Access Management): manages user access to AWS resources.

INDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT(IAM)

IAM is crucial for managing user access to AWS resources and preventing unauthorized access.It enables you to control who can access your AWS resources and what actions they can perform. It helps ensure security and compliance.

IAM COMPONENTS/RESOURCES

Users
Groups
Policies
Roles

IAM USER

User represent the person within your organization that interacts with AWS console and services.
You can create a user and add permission directly to the user.
Multiple users can be part of a group.

GROUP

A group is a collection of IAM users
A user can belong to multiple groups but groups cannot belong to other groups.
Groups can be granted permissions using access control policies. This makes it easier to manage permissions for a collection of users.

CREATING AN IAM USER

Search IAM in the Search Bar.
Click on Users and then Create User

Enter a Username and tick the box below it.

Tick the "I want to create an IAM User" box and create a custom password or use an Autogenerated Password.

Tick or Untick the box that allow user to create a new password on next login. It is advisable to tick this box if you are creating the account for others then click "Next"

Attach Policy Directly to the user.

Review and create User.

CREATING AN IAM GROUP

Type IAM in the search bar.
Click on "User Groups" then "Create Group".
Enter a group name and add users to the group.

Viola! you have just created a group with multiple users.

IAM POLICY

IAM policies are JSON documents that specify the permissions granted to a user, group, or role.
When you create an IAM user, they can't access anything in your account until you give them permission.

Types of Policy

AWS Managed: predefined policy created by AWS that can be attached to the user, group, and role.

AWS Managed - Job Function: Policy created by AWS for specific job functions, For example Data Science.

Custom: policy created by you to meet specific requirement: Click on Create policy at the top write corner and input necessary code for the permission needed. ChatGPT and google will help to learn more about this.

Common IAM Permissions

Full Access: Grants the principal full control over a resource (e.g., "AmazonS3FullAccess").
Read-Only Access: Grants the principal permission to view but not modify resources (e.g., "AmazonEC2ReadOnlyAccess").
Write-Only Access: Grants the principal permission to modify but not view resources.
Specific Actions: Grants the principal permission to perform specific actions on resources (e.g., "ec2:DescribeInstances").

IAM ROLES
Roles provide temporary security credentials to users, applications, or services that need to access AWS resources. Unlike IAM users, which have permanent credentials, roles are associated with specific use cases and provide access only when needed.

Creating and Using IAM Roles

Create an IAM Role: In the IAM console, create a role and attach appropriate policies to define the permissions granted to the role.

Assign the Role: Assign the role to a user, group, or service that needs to access AWS resources.
Assume the Role: When a user or service needs to access resources, they assume the role, obtaining temporary credentials.

You have come this far and I really commend your effort.

In conclusion, building a cost-effective and scalable AWS infrastructure is crucial for startups to achieve rapid growth and maintain competitiveness. By following the guidelines outlined in this article, you can effectively set up and manage your AWS environment, ensuring security, cost-efficiency, and flexibility.

Key Takeaways:

IAM Policies and Permissions: Understand the importance of IAM policies and best practices for managing access to AWS resources.
Cost Optimization: Implement cost optimization strategies to maximize efficiency and minimize expenses.
Awareness: make sure your teams are aware of how your resources are running. For most startup it is advisable to start with a free tier account and grow as the business and workload grows.
Continuous Learning: Stay updated with the latest AWS features and best practices to ensure your infrastructure remains relevant and secure. As your startup continues to evolve, remember to revisit and refine your AWS environment to align with your changing needs. By doing so, you can leverage the services of AWS to drive your business forward and achieve your goals.

Don't forget to follow me for more articles on AWS Cloud Computing.