Getting started with Amazon Web Services

Posted on by Panther

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing platform by Amazon, offering a wide range of cloud computing services such as storage, computing power, analytics, and more. AWS provides an on-demand, scalable infrastructure that businesses can use to run their web applications, websites, and online services.

In this tutorial, we will cover the basics of AWS and guide you through setting up your first AWS account, creating a virtual machine, and deploying your first web application. Once you’re finished, you’ll have the tools to start building your own applications on AWS.

Creating an AWS Account

Before you can use AWS, you need to create an account. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Go to aws.amazon.com and click the “Create an AWS Account” button.
  2. Fill out the registration form, including your name, email address, and credit card details.
  3. Once you’ve filled out the form, click the “Create Account and Continue” button.
  4. You’ll be prompted to select a payment method. Choose “Credit Card” and enter your credit card details.
  5. Finally, you’ll be asked to verify your identity by phone. Once you’ve completed the verification process, your account will be live.

Creating a Virtual Machine on AWS

AWS provides a wide range of services, but for this tutorial, we’ll focus on creating a virtual machine (also known as an “instance”) on AWS. We’ll use an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) containing the Ubuntu operating system. The steps to create the instance are as follows:

  1. Log in to your AWS account.
  2. Click the “Launch Instance” button, which will take you to the AWS Management Console.
  3. On the console, search for “Ubuntu” and select the AMI you’d like to use.
  4. Select the instance type you’d like to use. For this tutorial, we recommend selecting the “t2.micro” instance type, which is a low-cost, general-purpose instance type.
  5. Configure the instance’s details, such as the number of instances you’d like to launch, the VPC you’d like to use, and the subnets you’d like to launch the instance in.
  6. Add any additional storage you’d like to use for your instance. By default, your instance will be launched with 8GB of storage.
  7. Configure the security group for your instance. Security groups control the inbound and outbound traffic for your instance. In this case, we’ll allow inbound traffic on port 80 (HTTP) and port 22 (SSH).
  8. Review and launch your instance.

Deploying Your First Web Application on AWS

Now that you have an instance up and running, you can deploy your first web application. For this tutorial, we’ll use the Flask web framework.

  1. Connect to your instance via SSH. You can use a tool like PuTTY to connect to your instance using SSH.
  2. Install the necessary dependencies for Flask:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python3-pip python3-dev build-essential
sudo pip3 install --upgrade pip
sudo pip3 install flask
  1. Create a new file in your home directory called “app.py”.
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def hello_world():
    return 'Hello, World!'
  1. Run your Flask app:
export FLASK_APP=app.py
flask run --host=0.0.0.0
  1. Open your web browser and navigate to your instance’s public DNS or IP address. You should see “Hello, World!” displayed in your web browser.

Conclusion

Amazon Web Services provides a powerful toolkit for building and deploying web applications. With AWS, you can easily create virtual machines, configure security settings, and deploy your applications to the cloud. This tutorial has provided an overview of how to get started with AWS and deploy a basic web application. With these skills, you’re ready to start building your own applications on AWS.

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