Week 9 – System Operations, EC2, and Rainy Days 🌧️
Day 40
Today at Restart, as we entered Week 9, we started rounding up our lessons on system operations. We discussed the best ways to access AWS.
Personally, I prefer using the AWS CLI—the programmatic method. It feels cleaner and faster than the GUI, less prone to errors, and ideal for automation. From there, we moved into tooling and automation, exploring AWS Systems Manager, OpsWorks, and other related tools that make managing infrastructure easier.
Day 41
What a rainy day! ☔ Today started with heavy rain, and honestly, I was so thankful our class is virtual. I can’t imagine going out in that weather—being wet and then catching a cold? It can never be me.
Anyway, back to Restart. We continued with AWS Systems Manager, learning how it helps automate repetitive administrative tasks and manage EC2 instances effectively.
Day 42
Today at Restart was bright and calm. We learned how to create EC2 instances and attach roles for users and services with the right permissions. We also went over the lifecycle of an EC2 instance and best practices for managing them.
Then came the practical session—this one was tricky! Instead of the usual SSH connection, we had to create a bastion host before connecting to our private instance. It was quite the troubleshooting experience. I’m still trying to fully understand how the bastion host connects with the subnet and the instance, but I’m getting there.
Day 43
Today at Restart, we continued with EC2, but this time it was all about troubleshooting. We created a new instance, installed Apache HTTPD, and used the LAMP stack to support a customer’s database setup. It was a hands-on day, applying what we had learned step by step.
Day 44
Today at Restart, we focused on load balancers and auto scaling, integrating them with our EC2 instances. For a refresher, we also troubleshooted an instance with a private IP using a bastion host as our jump server. From there, we retrieved the instance name and ID and created a new AMI image dynamically.
Reflection – My Week 9 Takeaway
This week felt more technical but also very rewarding. I’m starting to see how all the AWS services connect—from creating instances to scaling them automatically.
I struggled a bit with the Bastion host setup, but it taught me that confusion is a natural part of the learning process. The rainy day also reminded me how nice it is to learn from the comfort of home. ☕
Resources
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