In this post we are going to set up our website to serve up https traffic so that our traffic can be encrypted.  In this post the first part of the series we are going to request a certificate from the Certificate Manager in AWS.

1. The first thing we need to do is create a certificate, In the AWS search field search for Certificate Manager then click on the drop down auto complete choice.

        var product = new Object();

        product.name = "Chai";
        product.category = "Tea";
        product.country = "India";
        product.supplier = {
            name: "ACME Tea Of India",
            location: "New Delhi"
        };

        console.log(product);

        var product = new Object();

        product.name = "Chai";
        product.category = "Tea";
        product.country = "India";
        product.supplier = {
            name: "ACME Tea Of India",
            location: "New Delhi"
        };

 In this pose we are going to implement auto scaling on our instances.  Auto scaling is a feature on AWS that automatically scaled horizontally either based on metrics or the health of an instance. In this post we are going to setup auto scaling on an Application Load Balancer.  

1. The first thing we have to do is setup an Auto Scaling Group under "Auto Scaling" click on "Auto Scaling Groups"

        var product = new Object();

        product.name = "Chai";
        product.category = "Tea";
        product.country = "India";
        product.badProperty = "Bad Property";
        product.badProperty2 = "Bad Property 2";
        product.supplier = {
            name: "ACME Tea Of India",
            location: "New Delhi"
        };

console.log(product);

        var game = {

            $n: "Awesome Game!",

            get name() { return this.$n}
        };

 In the previous post we went over how to create a Application Load Balancer, based on routes in the URL.  In this post we are going to change the rules so that it directs traffic based on host names.  For example we could have acmebanking.com route to target group 1 and accounts.acmebanking.com route to target group 2.  It's the same concept as the previous setup but instead of routes, we are using hostnames instead.

In order to implement this solution we need to setup a record in Route 53, which is AWS domain registration service.  You can follow along with the DNS names, but if you have a hostname registered with AWS that's even better.

1. So the first thing you want to do is go to Route 53 dashboard, go to Hosted Zones

 In the previous post we went over how to create a Network Load Balancer, in this post we are going to create one of types of load balancer AWS offers.  We are going to create a Application Load Balancer, this balancer  is designed to work best with the typical line of business web applications.  It deals mostly with the requests/response scenarios on the web, therefore it supports the HTTP, and HTTPS protocols exclusively.  It can be setup to respond to the routes that configured or the hosts.  It all depends on how your web applications serves the client.  In a way it's the easiest load balancer type to understand because it deals with headers, URLs,  routes,  parameters, query strings and etc.

Before we create the load balancer we need to create more than one instances with a web server because we need to test that the load balancer is able to switch.

1. Create four instances with the user data to create Apache Web Servers with these commands in the User Data for instance, if you need the full instruction on how to create instances with User Data you can read this post . 

 In the previous post we went over how to create a Classic Load Balancer, in this post we are going to create one of types of load balancer AWS offers.  We are going to create a Network Load Balancer, this balancer  is for websites that require high performance and low latency websites, think of streaming data.  If your website needs real time streaming data, this is probably the load balancer for you. It supports layer 4 protocols such as UDP, TLS and TCP protocols. If you need a static IP or Elastic IP assigned to your load balancer this is your only choice because the other two load balancer does not give you the option to assign Elastic IPs.

Before we create the load balancer we need to create more than one instances with a web server because we need to test that the load balancer is able to switch.

1. Create two instances with the user data to create Apache Web Servers with these commands in the User Data for instance, if you need the full instruction on how to create instances with User Data you can read this post

 If your website starts to become popular, especially if it's not static you might noticed that the performance is starting to degrade.  The most logical step is to scale your architecture with a load balancer.  AWS offers three types of load balancers, there are:

• Application Load Balancer
• Protocols (HTTP, HTTPS)
• Specializes in web applications, deals with traffic at the request level (layer 7)
• Supports query strings, path routing, parameter routing, IP routing
• Supports IP addresses, Lamda Functions (serverless, microservices), and containers
• Network Load Balancer
• Protocols(TCP, TLS, UDP, TCP_UDP) - Layer 4
• When high performance and low latency is required
• TLS offloading
• Elastic IPs can be assigned
• Classic Load Balancer
• Protocols (TCP, SSL, HTTP, HTTPS) - Layer 4, 7
• Old generation, not recommended unless you are running EC2-Classic instance

1. Go the WildFly website and download the latest version, https://wildfly.org/downloads/

 In the last post we created a new partition for a new disk that we've just added, in this post we are going to mount the partition and create a filesystem for the partition so that we can use it.  First lets check to see that we have a new partition by running the fdisk -l command

As you can see a new partition called /dev/sdb1 has been created with 8 GB of disk space.  Now we all good to go.

Here are the steps to mount and create a file system in Linux:

1. First we need to create a filesystem so that the Linux system can read and write to it.  Linux uses the xfs filesystem so that's what we are going to use.  To do that we have to run the mkfs command. To make an xfs filesystem you simply type mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb1

2. Now that we have a filesystem that Linux could understand, it is time to mount the partition so that we could use in our server.  It's a two step process to accomplish that, first you have to create a directory, type mkdir /data to create /data directory.  Then you are going to mount the partition to that directory with this command mount /dev/sdb1 /data now if you run the command df -h you will see the partition has been mounted to the /data director

3. We still have one more step before we are finished.  Everything will work like it should, but once you reboot the settings will not persist in it's current state.  To make the settings persist we have to edit the fstab file.  So type the command vi /etc/fstab make sure you have your system backed up and you can revert back because if you messed up you will not be able to log in. When you are in the fstab file type in the following line at the end of the file

/dev/sdb1               /data                   xfs     defaults        0       0

 In the previous post we went over what a load balancer is, in this post we are going to create one of types of load balancer AWS offers.  We are going to create a Classic Load Balancer, this balancer is not recommended by Amazon, you should only create this if you have to support EC2-Classic instances.

Before we create the load balancer we need to create more than one instances with a web server because we need to test that the load balancer is able to switch.

1. Create two instances with the user data to create Apache Web Servers with these commands in the User Data for instance, if you need the full instruction on how to create instances with User Data you can read this post

 In the previous post we used the df and fdisk commands to gather storage information about our Linux system.  In this post we are going to add a new disk and partition to our system.  I am using VBox and you can create a new storage by going to settings and adding a new disk, it will be just like adding a real physical disk on a physical machine except it's virtual.  You can go to this post if you want to know how to do it

Here are the steps to adding a new disk and creating a partition for the disk:

1. First we want to see what the new disk is identified as in our Linux system, we can do that by typing the command fdisk -l

As you can see the new disk is identified as /dev/sdb and it has 8 GB which is correct

2. We want to go into the fdisk utility to work with our new disk, to do that you type fdisk /dev/sdb then press enter

3. Press m to see all the options that are available

From the help menu we know that we have to use the n option to add a new partition

4. Type n and then press Enter to get into the create partition steps

5. You will be given a choice of the partition being a primary or extended, since this is a new disk we want to make it a primary partition, so press p and ENTER

6. For the partition number accept the default 1 by pressing ENTER, once again it's a new disk so it's going to be the first partition on the disk

7. Accept the default again for the first sector by pressing ENTER

8. Accept the default again by pressing ENTER, if you want to create more than one partition and not use the entire disk you enter the size so that there's disk space left like this +4G, and it would use only 4 GB for the partition, but since we want to use the entire disk we just going to press ENTER

A new partition has been created for the new disk.  Or have you? A lot of beginners forget to do the next step and the partition is not created even though they went to through all the steps. The final step to the process is that you have to type w to write your changes else nothing will happen.  It's just a confirmation that fdisk needs, for you to confirm that the changes are correct in the final step.

 In the next post we are going to mount the partition and create a filesystem for the new partition.

 In the world of AWS you have to be familiar with the different features and what they are called.  Well two very important building blocks of all the services that AWS offers are the S3 and the IAM Role.  S3 is basically an object storage repository that are called buckets, but it is more than just a storage, you can turn to the storage into a static website. We'll get into that later. It's public facing, so you can access it over the internet. 

IAM Role is an identity that you can assign policies to and that role assumes the permission.  Therefore only instances with a role that has a policy to access S3 can assume that role and have access to the S3.

So let's start creating the assets on the diagram above:

 To simulate a real world scenario often times you have to add components to your virtualize Linux operating system.  In this post we are going to add a new disk to our virtual machine in Oracle's VirtualBox.  

Here are the steps to adding a new disk to a VM:

1.  Right click on your virtual machine and select settings then select "Storage", the power must be off.  Click on the second icon next to the "Controller: SATA" section

2. On the next dialog click on the "Create" icon

3. Click "Next"

4. Click "Next"

5. Type in a name for the disk and then click "Create"

6. Select the disk under "Not Attached" and then click on "Choose"

7. Now your new disk is attached to the Virtual Machine, click "OK"

SELECT MAX(UnitPrice) AS HighestPrice, MIN(UnitPrice) AS LowestPrice
FROM Products

 In the previous post  we created a public and private subnet in our VPC.  In this post we are going to create a NAT gateway so that our private instances can access the internet.  That's useful when there's a need to update the instance.  For example if we ping google.com right now there will be 100% package lost in our private instance because we cannot get to the internet.  After we attach the instance to the NAT gateway we will be able to ping google.

It would go on for a while but eventually it would say the package is lost.

Now let's create our NAT Gateway, it is important that we delete the NAT Gateway if it's not in use because you have to pay for it.

 As a Linux administrator there will be times when you go in blind and do not know why system you are logging into, one way to CSI your way through the system is with the fd and fdisk command.  Which will tell you who murdered Sideshow Bob.  Not really it will just tell you the systems disk information and the partition it has.  The first command you can run is the df command, if you run it by itself it would look a little cryptic.  So most of the time you will see people run it with the -h option

The df command which is an abbreviation of the words disk free is a command used to display the amount of available disk space for file systems.  It gives you amount of disk space available for each mount points.

The next command you can run is the fdisk command, as with df if you just type fdisk by itself, you won't get anything useful.  So you usually see it with the -l option

fdisk gives you the disk partition information as you can see we have two partitions and mount points, the first is a boot partition which does not have a lot of space which it does not need a lot of space.  The second partition has the bulk of space and is the system that we as users and administrators interact with.  It also tells you the swap size and mount points.  The home sector is also shown, you will often see the system administrator use this command when the system is running out of space.

SELECT UnitPrice, ProductName
FROM Products
ORDER BY UnitPrice DESC, ProductName

SELECT FirstName + ' ' + LastName  AS Employee, HireDate
FROM Employees
WHERE DATEPART(yyyy,HireDate) = 1994

 In most scenarios you don't want to expose all of your servers to be public facing.  You probably want to configure your network so that only the server that is hosting your web application is public facing.  What you want to do is put your web application on the public subnet and your backend servers on the private subnet.  This private subnet can access the internet through a NAT gateway for software updates and other functions that require internet access.  However, the outside world cannot establish a connection to servers in the private subnet.  The NAT gateway resides in the public subnet, acting as a bridge between the public subnet and private subnet.