Getting Started with AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the leading cloud platform. This guide covers the essentials: EC2, S3, IAM, and VPC. You'll be deploying to the cloud in no time.

What is AWS?

AWS provides on-demand cloud computing resources. Pay for what you use. No upfront hardware costs. Global infrastructure with data centers worldwide.

Setting Up AWS CLI

The AWS Command Line Interface lets you manage AWS services from your terminal.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install awscli
aws --version

Configuring AWS Access

Create an IAM user and configure your credentials:

aws configure
AWS Access Key ID [None]: your-access-key
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: your-secret-key
Default region name [None]: us-east-1
Default output format [None]: json

EC2 - Elastic Compute Cloud

EC2 provides virtual servers in the cloud. Launch, manage, and scale instances programmatically.

Launch an Instance

aws ec2 run-instances \
    --image-id ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0 \
    --instance-type t2.micro \
    --key-name my-key-pair \
    --security-group-ids sg-12345678

List Instances

aws ec2 describe-instances

Stop an Instance

aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0

Terminate an Instance

aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0

S3 - Simple Storage Service

S3 provides object storage. Store files, backups, and static websites.

Create a Bucket

aws s3 mb s3://my-unique-bucket-name

Upload a File

aws s3 cp myfile.txt s3://my-bucket/

List Bucket Contents

aws s3 ls s3://my-bucket/

Download a File

aws s3 cp s3://my-bucket/myfile.txt ./

Delete a Bucket

aws s3 rb s3://my-bucket --force

IAM - Identity and Access Management

IAM manages who can access your AWS resources. Always follow the principle of least privilege.

Create an IAM User

aws iam create-user --user-name developer

Create Access Keys

aws iam create-access-key --user-name developer

Attach a Policy

aws iam attach-user-policy \
    --user-name developer \
    --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess

VPC - Virtual Private Cloud

VPC lets you launch AWS resources in an isolated virtual network.

Create a VPC

aws ec2 create-vpc --cidr-block 10.0.0.0/16

Create a Subnet

aws ec2 create-subnet \
    --vpc-id vpc-12345678 \
    --cidr-block 10.0.1.0/24 \
    --availability-zone us-east-1a

Essential Services Overview

RDS - Managed relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle)
Lambda - Serverless functions
CloudFront - Content delivery network
Route 53 - DNS service
ELB - Load balancers

Cleaning Up

Always terminate unused instances and delete unused resources to avoid charges:

aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0
aws s3 rb s3://my-bucket --force

You're now ready to start deploying to AWS!

Learn More

AWS Guide - Interactive lessons
Terraform Blog - Infrastructure as code
CI/CD Blog - Deploy automatically