Forem: Kelechi Alexander Ikechukwu

Configure Your Cloud Infrastructure using Terraform and AWS CLI: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Kelechi Alexander Ikechukwu — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 01:45:40 +0000

In this tutorial, you will set up an EC2 instance on Amazon Web Services (AWS). EC2 instances are virtual machines that run on AWS and are commonly used in infrastructure projects.

The requirements
To complete this tutorial, you'll need:

The Terraform CLI (1.2.0+) is installed.
The AWS CLI is installed.
You will need an AWS account and the necessary credentials to build resources.
Setting the AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID environment variable will allow you to authenticate the Terraform AWS provider using your IAM credentials.

Log into your AWS portal

Click on the top right-corner (Username)
Select Security credentials
Click on Create access key

Check the "I Understand Box and Create."

Copy the Access Key and Secret key to your VScode Terminal

Press the enter button on every command you input.

Input aws configure, then follow the instructions and paste your keys, respectively

Create your own working directory and cd into the directory

Open main.tf in your text editor, paste in the configuration below, and save the file.

For more information on Terraform Block, Terraform Registry
To learn more, reference the provider source documentation.

Initialise the directory.
When you create a new configuration or check out an old configuration from version control, you must initialise the directory using terraform init.

When a configuration directory is initialised, the providers defined in the configuration, in this example the aws provider, are downloaded and installed.

Input terraform: fmt, Validate, & apply respectively

Input yes to complete

Inspect the current state using terraform show

AWS Active Access Key Confirmation

I hope this article is able to guide you in configuring your infrastructure.

You can follow me up on LinkedIn

My Hashnode Articles

Kelechi Alexander Ikechukwu — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 11:03:07 +0000

https://tinyurl.com/IkelechiaArticle

How to create a pre-assigned URL for an S3 bucket in AWS.

Kelechi Alexander Ikechukwu — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 02:20:08 +0000

What is S3 and its Uses in AWS?
Get started with Amazon S3. Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is an object storage service that provides industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. Amazon S3 allows you to store and retrieve any quantity of data at any time and from any location.
Amazon S3 provides management features so that you can optimise, organise, and configure access to your data to meet your specific business, organisational, and compliance requirements.

Why is S3 useful?
S3 allows for infinite scalability, with no formal restriction on the quantity of data or objects that can be stored in an S3 bucket. The maximum size for objects kept in a bucket is 5 TB.

Please follow the instructions listed below.

Step 1: Create an S3 bucket.
Step 2: upload an image.
Step 3: Generate a pre-assigned URL

Log in to the AWS Management Console.
Type S3 on the search bar page.

Create Bucket

On General Configuration:

Bucket type: choose General Purpose
Give your bucket a universally accepted or available name.
Object Ownership: Choose ACLs disabled

Block public access settings for this bucket because the uploaded file will be timed.

Although tags are optional, it is necessary for cost management or analysis.

Default encryption is ok.
Bucket Created Successfully
Confirm the bucket is created.
Let's add a file, then upload
File uploaded!
Let's open the uploaded file in a browser.
Browser view of our file

Let's preassign a URL for our file.

Check or select the uploaded file.
Open the Action tab and select Share with a presigned URL.

Time intervals can be hourly or in minutes.

Let's use 2 minutes; please note that after 2 minutes the file will not be visible to viewers.
Click on Create presigned URL

So try to view the file again to confirm it yourself.

This article is simple; it just shows us how to Pre-assign URL for an S3 Bucket in AWS!

I hope this helps!

Installing IIS Server and Setting Up on a Windows EC2 Instance on Amazon Web Services.

Kelechi Alexander Ikechukwu — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 23:41:19 +0000

Elastic Compute Cloud
This guide covered how to set up the IIS (Internet Information Services) web server and create an EC2 instance on AWS. Following these instructions will allow you to set up a Windows-based web server in the cloud and prepare it to host websites or applications. This guide provides a solid foundation for working with AWS and IIS, regardless of your previous experience or want to develop your cloud skills.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud platform that provides compute, storage, and database services for application development and scaling.

EC2 Instances are AWS virtual servers that provide resizable compute power for cloud-based application hosting and workload execution.

Here are the Guided Steps to follow!

On the Right-Top Corner Locate and change the (1) region to suit your location.
On the search bar, type EC2 (2)
Select or click on (3) EC2

Click on Launch Instance. Give the EC2 instance a name. We can also add additional tags like department, state, e.t.c. (optional).

Select Windows as the AMI (Amazon Machine Image).
On Instance Type Select t3.mirco
Choose Instance Type and create new key pair

Notice that the key file has been downloaded!

On Network Setting Select:

Allow RDP traffic from
Allow HTTP traffic from the internet.

On Configure storage

Set your storage specifications.

Connect to your instance.

On Connect to Instance

Open RDP Client
Download Remote Desktop File
Select Get Password
Get Windows Password
Locate the downloaded RDP file, then connect to the server.
Input the password, then log in.

Install IIS Web Server

Search for PowerShell on the desktop, run as Admin

Enter the command Install-WindowsFeature -Name Web-Server-IncludeManagementTools

Install Feature
Loading
Wait for the server to install completely.
Success!

`Copy the Public IP address then paste in a browser.

Now let us test the IIS web server.
You can verify that IIS has been installed just by pasting the IP address of the VM in a browser.

Should in case you need to terminate or delete your EC2 instance for cost management, let's do it together.

Go back to your AWS Dashboard. Locate your EC2 instance.
Check or select the instance to be terminated.
Locate Instance State, then select Terminate Instance.

I hope this article is able to guide you through!
Bye for now!!!

Step-by-step guided tools needed to create an Azure App Service Using Power Shell

Kelechi Alexander Ikechukwu — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 18:28:12 +0000

Prerequisites:

Before we create our resource group let us Download Azure CLI just type Azure CLI on your browser or go to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/install-azure-cli-windows?tabs=azure-cli else choose your Operating System and the Bits

Azure CLI must be downloaded on your PC
Azure Subscription: You'll need an active Azure subscription to create resources.
Power Shell is needed to carry out assignment

Without further ado, let's begin!

1. Open your Power Shell as Administrator

2. Log in to Azure Portal

What is Azure App Service?
Azure App Service is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering in Azure that hides infrastructure maintenance and allows developers to concentrate on application development. Furthermore, it will address scalability, availability, security, patching, and other issues.

Requirements to create an App Service application in Azure

A resource group
An App Service Plan
The webapp itself

3. The resource Group
This is where everything about the app service project will be stored, and when the project is over, if we delete the resource group, everything is deleted. We can create one with the command below using Power Shell.

az login --tenant 2fa4162f-d4fa-4b87-abdc-9967dd81ffa3
az group create --name YesAppRG --location eastus

4. Create App Service Plan

Input this code: az appservice plan create --name YesAppPlan --resource-group YesAppRG

When you create an App Service plan in a certain region (for example, West Europe), a set of compute resources is created for that plan in that region. Whatever apps you put into this App Service plan run on these compute resources as defined by your App Service plan. Each App Service plan defines:

Operating System (Windows, Linux)
Region (West US, East US, and so on)
Number of VM instances
Size of VM instances (Small, Medium, Large)
Pricing tier (Free, Shared, Basic, Standard, Premium, PremiumV2, PremiumV3, Isolated, IsolatedV2)

5. Create The Webapp
az webapp create --name YesAppServiceWebApp --resource-group YesAppRG --plan YesAppPlan

Let's Login to Azure Portal to confirm if Resource Group, The Plan and WebApp has been created!

Copy the link to browser

Confirmation of empty page waiting for content

Locate Advanced Tools the left-corner search bar
Select Go

Click on Debug Console
Select CMD

Click on Site

Click on wwwroot

Click on the Pen icon to edit the content

Paste the Script

Refresh or Copy the WebApp link

Congratulations for completing this task!

Bye for now!

How to connect a Linux server via a Bash script.

Kelechi Alexander Ikechukwu — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 18:06:49 +0000

System administrators and developers frequently connect to Linux servers via SSH (Secure Shell). This method can be automated using a Bash script, saving time and reducing repetitive effort. In this tutorial, we will download and execute a basic Bash script to connect to a Linux server.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Download and install Git Bash
If you don't have Git Bash already installed on your system, then you can download the application by clicking https://git-scm.com/downloads

2. Go to Azure Portal to complete the following tasks:

[i] search and open Virtual Machine on the search bar

[ii] Create and Select the Azure VM

[iii] Create new Resource Group, give the VM name on Region choose any one from the options.

[iv] On the Image Select Ubuntu Server, on Authentication type select SSH public key

[v] Give a username on Select inbound ports thick: HTTP (80) and SSH (22) then Review + Create.

[vi] Validation passed! then select Create

[vi] Download Private key and Create resource, then return to create VM

[vii] Go to Resource

[viii] Copy the ip address and open the ip

[vix] Extend the Idle Timeout to 30, Save and exit

[x] Open your Git Bash or Power Shell. I will launch our Git Bash and run the script by typing this command below to connect to our Linux Server but ensure the downloaded key is on Downloads Directory.

At last, we have successfully logged into our server.

I hope this helps! Thanks; see you later.

Deploying a Custom Template for Linux Virtual Machines Using Password

Kelechi Alexander Ikechukwu — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 15:53:19 +0000

Making a unique template for the deployment of an Azure Linux virtual machine is a useful way to standardise and accelerate your deployments. Here is a quick rundown of the procedure:

Step 1:

Sign into your Azure Portal, then on the search button type “deploy a custom template" as shown below, select it.

Step 2:

Click on Create a Linux Virtual Machine

Step 3:

On the Resource group select Create new then give it a name
Choose any Region of your choice
On the Admin Username give a Username
On the Authentication Type Choose Password and input Password of your choice
Then Review & Create

Create

Step 4:

Go to Resource group after deployment is completed.

Step 5:

On the Resource Group Overview, select simpleLinuxVM

Step 6:

Copy the IP address beside the Public IP Address
Click on the Public IP address.

Step 7:

Increase the idle timeout to “30” minutes to enable the machine to be active for a longer duration.
save

Exit and go back to RG

Step 8:

Open either Power Shell or Git Bash
input ssh username@Ipaddress as shown below, then enter

Input the password, then enter
Note: Passwords inputted are not visible
It should show like this image below

Please like and subscribe if you find this article helpful!

Thanks, see you soon

Secure storage for Azure Files and Azure Blob Storage

Kelechi Alexander Ikechukwu — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 17:49:32 +0000

Skilling tasks

Create a storage account with high availability.
Ensure the storage account has anonymous public access.
Create a blob storage container for the website documents.
Enable soft delete so files can be easily restored.
Enable blob versioning.

[Step 1] Create a storage account to support the public website.

In the portal, search for and select Storage accounts.

Select + Create.

For resource group select new Give your resource group a name and select OK.

Set the Storage account name to publicwebsitenw. Make sure the storage account name is unique by adding an identifier.

Take the defaults for other settings.
Select Review and then Create.

Wait for the storage account to deploy, and then select Go to resource.

[Step 2] This storage requires high availability if there’s a regional outage. Additionally, enable read access to the secondary region, Learn more about storage account redundancy.

In the storage account, in the Data management section, select the Redundancy blade.

Ensure Read-access Geo-redundant storage is selected.

Review the primary and secondary location information.

[Step 3] Information on the public website should be accessible without requiring customers to login.

In the storage account, in the Settings section, select the Configuration blade.
Ensure the Allow blob anonymous access setting is Enabled.
Be sure to Save your changes.

Create a blob storage container with anonymous read access

[Step 1] The public website has various images and documents. Create a blob storage container for the content.

In your storage account, in the Data storage section, select the Containers blade.
Select + Container.

Ensure the Name of the container is public.
Select Create

[Step 2] Customers should be able to view the images without being authenticated. Configure anonymous read access for the public container blobs.

Select your public container.
On the Overview blade, select Change access level.

Ensure the Public access level is Blob (anonymous read access for blobs only).
Select OK.

Practice uploading files and testing access.

[Step 1] For testing, upload a file to the public container. The type of file doesn’t matter. A small image or text file is a good choice.

Ensure you are viewing your container.
Select Upload.

Browse to files and select a file. Browse to a file of your choice.

Select Upload.

Close the upload window, Refresh the page and ensure your file was uploaded.

[Step 2] Determine the URL for your uploaded file. Open a browser and test the URL

Select your uploaded file.
On the Overview tab, copy the URL.

Paste the URL into a new browser tab.

If you have uploaded an image file it will display in the browser. Other file types should be downloaded.

Configure simple settings in the storage account.

Kelechi Alexander Ikechukwu — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 23:48:51 +0000

The data in this storage account doesn’t require high availability or durability. A lowest cost storage solution is desired.

This Article will guide on how to setup a Simple Storage Account
Carefully follow through!

[Step 1]

In your storage account, in the Data management section, select the Redundancy blade. Note: You must have an existing Storage Account to do this.

Select Locally-redundant storage (LRS) in the Redundancy drop-down.
Be sure to Save your changes.
Refresh the page and notice the content only exists in the primary location.

[Step 2]

The storage account should only accept requests from secure connections

In the Settings section, select the Configuration blade

Ensure Secure transfer required is Enabled.

[Step 3]

Developers would like the storage account to use at least TLS version 1.2.

In the Settings section, select theConfiguration blade.
Ensure the Minimal TLS version is set to Version 1.2.

[Step 4]

Until the storage is needed again, disable requests to the storage account.

In the Settings section, select the Configuration blade.
Ensure Allow storage account key access is Disabled.
Be sure to Save your changes.

[Step 5]

Ensure the storage account allows public access from all networks

In the Security + networking section, select the Networking blade.
Ensure Public network access is set to Enabled from all networks.
Be sure to Save your changes.