Forem: Hossam ELMansy

Installing LAMP on Amazon Linux 2

Hossam ELMansy — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 09:17:19 +0000

In this tutorial you'll learn how to install LAMP stack on Amazon Linux 2. LAMP is an acronym for Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL.

You'll install Apache web server with PHP and MariaDB. You can use this server to host a static website or dynamic PHP application (ex. Wordpress).

Prerequisites

Before started, I assume you have an Amazon Linux 2 EC2 instance and you have connected to it. Also, your instance's security group must be configured to allow SSH (port 22) and HTTP (port 80). If you don't have, follow my previous tutorial Creating Your First Amazon EC2 Linux Instance.

Getting Started

First, you need to connect to your EC2 instance.

Ensure that all of your software packages are up to date:

sudo yum update -y

Install LAMP Stack

Install lamp-mariadb10.2-php7.2 and php7.2 Amazon Linux Extras repositories to get the latest versions of LAMP MariaDB and PHP packages for Amazon Linux 2:

sudo amazon-linux-extras install -y lamp-mariadb10.2-php7.2 php7.2

Install Apache web server and MariaDB:

sudo yum install -y httpd mariadb-server

Start the Apache web server:

sudo systemctl start httpd

Enable the Apache Web Server so it can start each time the system boot:

sudo systemctl enable httpd

Test your web server. Open a web browser and type the public IPv4 DNS address or the public IPv4 address of your instance. You should see the Apache test page:

Update Apache File Permissions

Apache httpd serves files that are kept in a directory called Apache Document Root which by default /var/www/html and owned by root.

To allow ec2-user to work with this directory, you need to modify the ownership and permissions of this directory.

First, add ec2-user (or your user) to apache group:

sudo usermod -aG apache ec2-user

Change the group ownership of /var/www directory and its contents to the apache group:

sudo chown -R ec2-user:apache /var/www

Add group write permissions to /var/www directory and its future subdirectories:

sudo chmod 2775 /var/www && find /var/www -type d -exec sudo chmod 2775 {} \;

Add group write permissions to /var/www directory files recursively:

find /var/www -type f -exec sudo chmod 0664 {} \;

Logout and login again to pick the new group permissions.

Now, any member of the apache group (ex. ec2-user) can add, delete and edit files in the Apache Document Root.

To test your LAMP server, create a PHP file in the Apache Document Root:

echo "<?php phpinfo(); ?>" > /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Open a web browser, type your instance public IPv4 DNS address or public IPv4 address followed by the file you just created http://[public-dns-address]/phpinfo.php, you should see the PHP information page:

Delete the phpinfo.php file as it shouldn't be exposed to the Internet because it exposes information about your server:

rm /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Now you have a fully functional Apache web server that's configured with PHP and MariaDB installed.

Secure the MariaDB Server

The default installation of the MariaDB server is great for testing and development, but for production servers you need to secure your database. There's a command mysql_secure_installation that walks you through the process of securing your MariaDB server.

Start the MariaDB Server:

sudo systemctl start mariadb

Enable the MariaDB Server so it can start each time the system boot:

sudo systemctl enable mariadb

Run mysql_secure_installation:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

By default, the root account doesn't have a password. press Enter:

Enter current password for root (enter for none):

Enter Y to set the root password:

OK, successfully used password, moving on...

Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MariaDB
root user without the proper authorisation.

Set root password? [Y/n] Y

Type your root password twice:

New password: 
Re-enter new password:

Enter Y to remove anonymous user:

By default, a MariaDB installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MariaDB without having to have a user account created for
them.  This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation
go a bit smoother.  You should remove them before moving into a
production environment.

Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y

Enter Y to prevent root user to login remotely:

Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'.  This
ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] Y

Enter Y to remove the test database:

By default, MariaDB comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can
access.  This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed
before moving into a production environment.

Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Y

Enter Y to reload table privileges:

Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far
will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] Y

Congratulations🎉🎉 You have successfully installed the LAMP web server. In the next tutorial you'll learn how to host a Wordpress website on your LAMP web server.

Thank you for following through this tutorial. If you have any questions and/or if you want me to write about anything related to AWS please let me know.

Hosting static Next.js website on AWS S3

Hossam ELMansy — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 21:52:11 +0000

In this tutorial you will learn how to host a static Next.js app on AWS S3.

To complete this tutorial you must have both NodeJS and NPM
installed and AWS CLI installed and configured.

Getting started

First, create a new Next.js app and change into the directory:

npx create-next-app next-website

cd next-website

Start your Next.js app locally:

npm run dev

The server will start on port 3000. Access your app with http://localhost:3000:

Build Next.js App

Before building your app you need to know the following Next.js commands:

next build creates an optimized build of your app.
next export allows you to export your app to static HTML.

To build your app you need to combine both commands.

Update your scripts in your package.json like this:

"scripts": {
    "build": "next build && next export",
  }

Then run:

npm run build

Now you now have a static version of your app in the out directory.

Create and Configure S3 Bucket

Open AWS Management Console and Click Services -> S3 to open S3 Management Console.

Choose Create bucket.

In Bucket name, enter your bucket name. Bucket name must meet the following:

DNS-compliant.
Unique across all Amazon S3 buckets.
Between 3 and 63 characters long.
Doesn't contain uppercase characters.
Start with a lowercase letter or number.

Select Region your S3 bucket will be created in.

Choose Create bucket.

Configuring your S3 bucket as a static website requires three steps:

1- Disable Block Public Access settings.
2- Add a Bucket Policy that grants public read access.
3- Enable bucket Static website hosting.

Choose your bucket. And let's begin configure it.

1. Disable Block Public Access Settings

Choose Permissions.

Under Block public access (bucket settings) choose Edit.

Unckeck Block all public access and choose Save changes.

Confirm your changes.

2. Add a Bucket Policy

In the same page under Bucket policy choose Edit.

In policy section copy the following and replace [bucket-name] with your bucket name:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": "*",
            "Action": "s3:GetObject",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::[bucket-name]/*"
        }
    ]
}

Choose Save changes.

3. Enable Bucket Static Website Hosting

Choose Properties.

Under Static website hosting choose Edit.

Select Enable static website hosting and Host a static website. In Index document enter index.html and in Error document enter 404.html.

Choose Save changes.

Now that you have created and configured your bucket, it's time to publish your Next.js app to it.

Publish Next.js App to S3 Bucket

I'll use AWS CLI to upload Next.js app files and folders to S3 as this method easy and more practical than using AWS Console.

To configure AWS CLI click here and follow the instructions.

Change into your Next.js app directory and enter the following command (Don't forget to change bucket name with yours):

aws s3 sync ./out/ s3://next-website/

Now all your files and folders in out directory have been uploaded to your bucket.

To access your website Choose Properties.

Under Static website hosting you'll find your Bucket website URL.

Open the URL:

Congratulations🎉🎉 You have successfully published your Next.js website on AWS S3.

Thank you for following through this tutorial. If you have any questions and/or if you want me to write about anything related to AWS please let me know.

Creating Your First Amazon EC2 Linux Instance

Hossam ELMansy — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 08:12:30 +0000

In this tutorial you will learn how to launch Linux EC2 instance. You can use Amazon EC2 to launch virtual servers, configure security and networking, and manage storage. Amazon EC2 enables you to scale up or down to handle changes in requirements or spikes in popularity.

To complete this tutorial you must have an AWS account. To create an AWS account click here and follow the instructions.

Launch an instance

First, Open AWS Management Console and select the region you want to create your instance. I'll use N. Virginia (us-east-1).

Next, click Services -> EC2 to open Amazon EC2 Console.

Next, choose Launch Instance.

Next, choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) which serves as a template for your instance. Select Amazon Linux 2 AMI (HVM). Note that it's marked as Free tier eligible (won't cost money if your account is in the Free tier). Click Select.

Next, choose an Instance Type which means the hardware configurations of your instance. Select t2.micro instance type. Note also it's marked as Free tier eligible. Click Next: Configure Instance Details.

Next, in Configure Instance Details page make sure that Auto-assign Public IP option is Use subnet setting (Enable). When enabled, your instance will have public IPv4 address which is needed to connect to your instance later. If it's Disable, enable it. Click Next: Add Storage.

Next, in Add Storage page you can any additional storage volumes you need. Click Next: Add Tags.

Next, in Add Tags page you can add one tag. Click Add Tag, let Key=Name and Value=WebServer. Click Next: Configure Security Group.

Next, in Configure Security Group page let's create a new security group:

Select Create a new security group option.
In Security group name enter WebServer-SG and for Description enter Allows SSH and HTTP.
You'll notice that a rule with type SSH already added. Click Add Rule and for the new rule type select HTTP.
For both rules make sure Source is set to Custom with 0.0.0.0/0 to make your instance accessible from the Internet.

This security group allows your instance to receive traffic on port 22 and 80 from any IPv4 address. You many want to restrict source to your IPv4 address, so no one can access it except you.

Click Review and Launch.

Next, in Review Instance Launch page make sure all your instance settings are correct and click Launch.

When prompted for a key pair, if you have a key pair select Choose an existing key pair. If you don't have a key pair, select Create a new key pair and name it. Let's name it WebServerKP. Click Download Key Pair to download it, then click Launch Instances.

Now your instance is launching. Click View Instances to close this page and return to the console.

On the Instances page, you can view the status of your instance launch. When you launch an instance, its initial state is Pending. After the instance starts, its state changes to Running.

Select your instance, and in the details section you can view your instance attributes like:

Instance ID
Instance state
Instance type
Public IPv4 address
Public IPv4 DNS
etc.

Now that our instance is running, lets connect to it. Write down your instance IPv4 address, as you will need it to connect to the instance.

Connect to your instance

There are several options to connect to the instance and it all depends on the operating system of your local computer. If your local computer operating system is Linux/macOS (like mine) you can use SSH client. If your local computer operating system is Windows you can use PuTTY.

In this tutorial I will use SSH client as I'm using Linux as my local operating system. This SSH client will be already installed by default on most Linux distributions.

First, navigate to Downloads directory where your downloaded keypair WebServerKP.pem resides:

cd ~/Downloads/

You will use this key to connect to your instance. Copy your instance Public IPv4 address and enter the following command:

ssh -i WebServerKP.pem ec2-user@54.84.177.115

You will get a response like the following:

The authenticity of host '54.84.177.115 (54.84.177.115)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:6mrCwTMUa+2wZwjhMC0lldEmzuYqjk2JrLMoDdeSh6c.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

Verify the fingerprint in the security alert, and enter yes.

You will receive the following error message:

Warning: Permanently added '54.84.177.115' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@         WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!          @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Permissions 0664 for 'WebServerKP.pem' are too open.
It is required that your private key files are NOT accessible by others.
This private key will be ignored.
Load key "WebServerKP.pem": bad permissions
ec2-user@54.84.177.115: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic).

Which means that the WebServerKP.pem key can be accessed by other users which is not secure. You need to change this file permissions and make it only accessible by you. To change permissions enter the following command:

chmod 400 WebServer.pem

Now connect to your instance:

ssh -i WebServerKP.pem ec2-user@54.84.177.115

With the following response you successfully connected to your instance:


       __|  __|_  )
       _|  (     /   Amazon Linux 2 AMI
      ___|\___|___|

https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-2/
[ec2-user@ip-172-31-85-146 ~]$

Clean up your instance

After you have finished with the instance, you should clean up by terminating the instance. If you forget to terminate your instance it will incur charges if you are not within the AWS Free Tier. If you want to use your instance later you can stop it and start it again later.

To terminate your instance:

In Instances page, select your instance.
Choose Instance state -> Terminate instance.
When prompted click Terminate.

After your instance is terminated, it remains visible on the console for a short while until data on instance store volumes deleted, and then the entry automatically deleted.