Tanbouz / apps-on-cloud

CloudFormation templates to set up web apps on AWS

AWS CloudFormation templates for web applications.

Autoscaling infrastructure for a web application with basic deployment.

1- Getting started

• Usage of a new AWS account is recommended.
• Create two SSH Keys in EC2 AWS console under Key Pairs in the left sidebar under Networks & Security. One key for the bastion host and another for your application.
• Sample application - https://github.com/Tanbouz/cloudformation-django-sample

These CloudFormation templates will exceed your free tier. They will cost at least 70 USD / month.

2- Create the infrastructure stack

This creates a VPC with public and privates subnets. Internet gateway and a NAT gateway. An EC2 instance acting as your SSH access server or bastion host and other core resources.

• Go to AWS CloudFormation console. Make sure you are in the AWS region of your choice.
• Create a new stack
• Upload cloud.yml Upload a template to Amazon S3.
• Next
• Name your Stack. Example: base,cloud or infrastructure
• Select your bastion key.
• Name your project. A project can host multiple apps.
• You can leave everything else as default.
• Next to Options page.
• Skip Options page, Next.
• Verify Details.
• Click Create button to deploy.
• Once done, go to AWS EC2 console and under Security Groups on the left sidebar, allow inbound SSH traffic to bastion host security group to your IP address. Save.

3- Create the application stack

• Go to AWS CloudFormation console. Make sure you are in the AWS region of your choice.
• Create a new stack
• Upload app.yml Upload a template to Amazon S3.
• Next
• Create a GitHub Personal access tokens https://github.com/settings/tokens. Tick the repo group for a private repository or only public_repo for public repository. Keep this token safe (Don't commit the token to git)
• Name your Stack. Your app name for example.
• Fill in the fields or leave to default. Read description next to parameters fields for instructions.
• Select the app SSH key you created earlier.
• Next to Options page.
• Skip Options page, Next.
• Verify Details.
• Tick I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources with custom names.
• Click Create button to deploy.

4- Usage

• Once done, the app will be available under the load balancer DNS name in AWS EC2 console "Load Balancers".
• The app will be deployed using CodePipeline and CodeDeploy.

5- Manual extras

• Create a SSL certificate in AWS Certificate manager and attach to the load balancer to enable HTTPS.
• Use a domain name to route traffic to your load balancer DNS name using a CNAME record or an alias record if using Route 53.
• Add IAM access to the instance role to allow access to AWS services required by the application.
• Build this stack in a different AWS account for a staging or production environment (Use AWS Organizations to manage your AWS accounts)
• Edit CodePipeline to add a build stage or manual approval stage.
• Add an e-mail or a subscriber to the deployment SNS notification topic to be notified to deployment events.
• Tweak scaling policy and autoscaling group parameters.
• Create a CloudFront deployment to optimize your web application.

6- Notes

• These templates do NOT create stateful services except deployment S3 bucket. Create RDS databases, cache instances and application buckets manually.
• Make sure to delete all files in the deployment S3 bucket before deleting the app CloudFormation stack.