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Aisalkyn Aidarova
Aisalkyn Aidarova

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GitHub Docker AWS EC2 AWS ALB Application

The idea is to show them an entire deployment pipeline exactly like a real company, just simplified.

Production Story

"You joined ABC Bank as a Junior DevOps Engineer.

The developers created a website.

Your responsibility is NOT to write code.

Your responsibility is to deploy it into production."

Production Flow

Developer
     │
     ▼
GitHub Repository
     │
     ▼
Clone Repository
     │
     ▼
Docker Image
     │
     ▼
Docker Container
     │
     ▼
AWS EC2
     │
     ▼
Application Running
     │
     ▼
Application Load Balancer
     │
     ▼
Users
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Company Architecture 

                    Internet
                        │
                        ▼
               Application Load Balancer
                        │
        ┌───────────────┴───────────────┐
        │                               │
        ▼                               ▼
     EC2 Server 1                  EC2 Server 2
   Docker Container             Docker Container
        │                               │
        └───────────────┬───────────────┘
                        │
                    GitHub Code
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Explain:

Developer pushes code.

DevOps pulls code.

DevOps builds Docker image.

Docker runs application.

ALB distributes traffic.

Exactly what happens in production.

Lab Objective

Students will

✅ Create GitHub repository

✅ Push application

✅ Launch EC2

✅ Install Docker

✅ Clone GitHub

✅ Build Docker image

✅ Run container

✅ Access application

✅ Create Load Balancer

Part 1 — Create GitHub Repository

Why?

Production companies never deploy files manually.

Everything is stored in GitHub.

Students create repository

bank-website
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Upload

index.html

Dockerfile
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Repository

bank-website

│
├── Dockerfile

├── index.html

└── README.md
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Explain

Developer writes code.

Git stores versions.

GitHub stores project online.

DevOps downloads latest version.

Part 2 — Create Dockerfile

Explain

Docker packages application with everything needed.

Dockerfile

FROM nginx

COPY . /usr/share/nginx/html
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Explain each line.

FROM nginx

↓

Use official nginx image.

COPY

↓

Copy website into nginx folder.

Build Docker Image

Command

docker build -t bank-app .
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Explain

Docker reads Dockerfile

↓

Creates Image

Image is template

Container runs from image

Diagram

Dockerfile

      │

docker build

      │

      ▼

Docker Image

      │

docker run

      ▼

Container
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Verify 

docker images
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Students see

bank-app
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Run Container 

docker run -d -p 80:80 bank-app
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Explain

-d

Run in background.

-p

Map port.

80:80

Computer Port

↓

Container Port

Diagram

Browser

↓

EC2 Port 80

↓

Docker Port 80

↓

Website
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Verify 

docker ps
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Explain

Production engineers constantly check running containers.

Stop 

docker stop containerID
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Remove

docker rm containerID
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Part 3 — AWS EC2

Create Ubuntu instance.

Explain

EC2 is just a virtual Linux server.

Instead of

Dell Computer
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Company rents

AWS EC2
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Security Group

Open

22 SSH

80 HTTP
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Explain

SSH

Developers log in.

HTTP

Customers access website.

Connect 

ssh ubuntu@IP
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Explain

Now you are inside production server.

Update Server 

sudo apt update
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Why?

Install latest package information.

Install Docker

sudo apt install docker.io -y
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Start

sudo systemctl start docker
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Enable

sudo systemctl enable docker
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Check

docker --version
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Clone Repository 

git clone https://github.com/student/bank-website.git
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Explain

Production servers pull code from GitHub.

Not email.

Not USB.

GitHub.

Move

cd bank-website
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Build Docker 

docker build -t bank-app .
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Run

docker run -d -p 80:80 bank-app
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Test

Browser

http://EC2-IP
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Website appears.

Production Explanation

Developer

↓

Git Push

↓

GitHub

↓

DevOps SSH

↓

Git Pull

↓

Docker Build

↓

Docker Run

↓

Website

Part 4 — Application Load Balancer

Now explain production.

One server is dangerous.

If EC2 crashes

↓

Website dies.

Need

ALB
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Architecture

                Users

                   │

                   ▼

        Application Load Balancer

             │             │

             ▼             ▼

      EC2 Server      EC2 Server

             │             │

      Docker App      Docker App
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Create

Target Group

Add EC2

Create ALB

Listener

HTTP 80

Choose Target Group

Finish

Copy DNS

http://xxxxx.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com
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Students access website.

Explain

Instead of users visiting EC2

54.xx.xx.xx
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Users visit

company.com
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↓

ALB decides

↓

Which server receives request.

Production Request Flow 

Browser

↓

DNS

↓

Application Load Balancer

↓

Target Group

↓

Healthy EC2

↓

Docker Container

↓

Nginx

↓

Website
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Show Failure Scenario

Stop Docker

docker stop containerID
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Refresh

Website down.

Explain

In production

ALB health check detects failure.

Traffic automatically moves to healthy server.

Students understand why companies use multiple EC2 instances.

Explain Every Technology Like a DevOps Engineer

GitHub

Stores source code.

Single source of truth.

Version control.

Collaboration.

Docker

Packages application.

Runs same everywhere.

Developer laptop.

Testing.

Production.

Cloud.

EC2

Virtual Linux server.

Runs Docker containers.

Hosted in AWS.

ALB

Traffic manager.

Receives all user requests.

Routes traffic.

Performs health checks.

Improves availability.

Nginx

Web server.

Serves HTML.

Receives HTTP requests.

Returns web pages.

Real Production Workflow 

Developer
     │
git commit
     │
git push
     ▼
GitHub Repository
     │
DevOps Engineer
     │
git pull
     ▼
Docker Build
     │
Docker Image
     │
Docker Container
     ▼
AWS EC2
     │
Health Check
     ▼
Application Load Balancer
     │
Internet
     ▼
Users
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What students learn by the end

By completing this lab, beginners can confidently explain a common DevOps deployment workflow:

  • How developers use Git and GitHub to manage application code.
  • How Docker packages an application into a portable image.
  • How a Docker container runs the application on an AWS EC2 instance.
  • Why security groups must allow SSH (22) for administrators and HTTP (80) for users.
  • How an Application Load Balancer distributes incoming traffic and performs health checks.
  • Why production environments use multiple EC2 instances behind an ALB for high availability.
  • The complete request flow from a user's browser to the application running inside a Docker container.

This mirrors a simplified version of the deployment process used by many organizations and gives students a strong foundation before introducing CI/CD pipelines, container registries (ECR), ECS/EKS, Terraform, and Kubernetes.

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