AWS-website

Build AWS Cloud Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform and deploy a Static Website on it.

Project Description

This application creates (and destroys) the necessary cloud infrastructure resources to host a static website on AWS. It also uploads (and destroys) the static website (located in the directory: s3_content/) to the S3 backend.

Requirements/Scope

A combination of AWS CloudFront and AWS S3 is used to implement:

• high availability of the website,
• no latency for visitors worldwide,
• automatic scaling of infrastructure components to serve high amounts of user traffic.

Architecture

How to Setup the Project

This section describes the steps and installations that were necessary to create and run the code in Visual Studio Code on macOS Sonoma.

1. Install Terraform (i.e. via Homebrew)

https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/terraform

2. Upgrade Terraform (i.e. via Terminal)

https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/install?product_intent=terraform

3. Install Terraform Formatter for VS Code (optional)

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=HashiCorp.terraform

4. Install AWS CLI

https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/awscli

5. Create AWS IAM User with Administrator Access

Go to IAM console, create IAM User, do not click checkbox "Provide access to AWS Console", select "attach policy directly" and give AdministratorAccess rights, review and create user

6. Generate Access Key for IAM User

click on the user, click on tab "Security credentials" and generate "new access key", select for (CLI) and create access key.

7. Configure AWS (Terminal Connection)

Open Terminal (i.e. terminal inside VS Code) and enter "aws configure", provide both keys from #6 and default zone "eu-central-1", then click enter.

8. note on ami specifics

When using an ami (amazon machine image - i.e. when creating an EC2 instance) in the Terraform code, the region (i.e. eu-central-1) of the provider in the file config.tf must be the same region as selected in the AWS console (website) when you are choosing an ami (amazon machine image) number from the AWS Console.

How to Run the Project

After cloning the project to your computer and setting up the described configurations, use the following commands.

Terraform commands:

terraform init

run this after writing a new terraform configuration or cloning the project from github

terraform validate

to validate the terraform code

terraform plan

to preview the execution plan

terraform apply

confirm with "yes" - to create the cloud infrastructure
and wait for the deployment to complete

Check the result

In the AWS Console navigate to the newly created "CloudFront" distribution
copy the "Domain name" (i.e. abc123123123xyz.cloudfront.net) and access it using a browser

The result should look similar to this image:

Cleanup of Infrastructure

In order to destroy all resources (i.e. the static website files) as well as all created cloud infrastructure resources, run the following command.

Terraform commands:

terraform delete

confirm with "yes" - to destroy the cloud infrastructure

Confirm deletion

It is recommended to verify successful deletion of all resources by navigating through the AWS Console and making sure of it.