DevOps & Deployment

AWS Deployment Strategies

Deploy applications to AWS using EC2, ECS, Lambda, and other AWS services with best practices. Master cloud deployment strategies for scalable applications.

TechDevDex Team

12/1/2024

28 min

#AWS#Cloud Deployment#EC2#ECS#Lambda#DevOps#Scalability

AWS Deployment Strategies

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a comprehensive suite of services for deploying and managing applications in the cloud. This guide covers various deployment strategies, from simple EC2 instances to serverless architectures.

AWS Deployment Overview

Core Services

Compute Services

EC2: Virtual servers in the cloud
ECS: Container orchestration service
EKS: Managed Kubernetes service
Lambda: Serverless compute service
Fargate: Serverless containers

Storage Services

S3: Object storage service
EBS: Block storage for EC2
EFS: Managed file system
FSx: Managed file systems

Database Services

RDS: Managed relational databases
DynamoDB: NoSQL database service
ElastiCache: In-memory caching
Redshift: Data warehouse service

Deployment Strategies

Traditional Deployment

EC2 Instances: Virtual machines
Load Balancers: Application Load Balancer (ALB)
Auto Scaling Groups: Automatic scaling
VPC: Virtual private cloud

Container Deployment

ECS: Container orchestration
EKS: Managed Kubernetes
Fargate: Serverless containers
ECR: Container registry

Serverless Deployment

Lambda: Function-as-a-Service
API Gateway: API management
S3: Static website hosting
CloudFront: Content delivery network

EC2 Deployment

Launching EC2 Instances

Basic EC2 Setup

          
bash

# Create key pair
aws ec2 create-key-pair --key-name my-key-pair --query 'KeyMaterial' --output text > my-key-pair.pem
chmod 400 my-key-pair.pem

# Launch instance
aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id ami-0c02fb55956c7d316 \
  --count 1 \
  --instance-type t2.micro \
  --key-name my-key-pair \
  --security-group-ids sg-12345678 \
  --subnet-id subnet-12345678

User Data Script

          
bash

#!/bin/bash
yum update -y
yum install -y docker
systemctl start docker
systemctl enable docker
usermod -a -G docker ec2-user

Auto Scaling Groups

Launch Template

          
json

{
  "LaunchTemplateName": "my-launch-template",
  "LaunchTemplateData": {
    "ImageId": "ami-0c02fb55956c7d316",
    "InstanceType": "t2.micro",
    "KeyName": "my-key-pair",
    "SecurityGroupIds": ["sg-12345678"],
    "UserData": "IyEvYmluL2Jhc2gKeXVtIHVwZGF0ZSAtcQ=="
  }
}

Auto Scaling Group

          
json

{
  "AutoScalingGroupName": "my-asg",
  "LaunchTemplate": {
    "LaunchTemplateName": "my-launch-template",
    "Version": "$Latest"
  },
  "MinSize": 1,
  "MaxSize": 10,
  "DesiredCapacity": 2,
  "VPCZoneIdentifier": "subnet-12345678,subnet-87654321"
}

Load Balancing

Application Load Balancer

          
json

{
  "LoadBalancerName": "my-alb",
  "Scheme": "internet-facing",
  "Type": "application",
  "Subnets": ["subnet-12345678", "subnet-87654321"],
  "SecurityGroups": ["sg-12345678"]
}

Target Group

          
json

{
  "Name": "my-target-group",
  "Protocol": "HTTP",
  "Port": 80,
  "VpcId": "vpc-12345678",
  "HealthCheckPath": "/health",
  "HealthCheckIntervalSeconds": 30,
  "HealthCheckTimeoutSeconds": 5,
  "HealthyThresholdCount": 2,
  "UnhealthyThresholdCount": 3
}

ECS Deployment

ECS Cluster Setup

Cluster Configuration

          
json

{
  "clusterName": "my-cluster",
  "capacityProviders": ["FARGATE", "FARGATE_SPOT"],
  "defaultCapacityProviderStrategy": [
    {
      "capacityProvider": "FARGATE",
      "weight": 1
    }
  ]
}

Task Definition

          
json

{
  "family": "my-task",
  "networkMode": "awsvpc",
  "requiresCompatibilities": ["FARGATE"],
  "cpu": "256",
  "memory": "512",
  "executionRoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/ecsTaskExecutionRole",
  "containerDefinitions": [
    {
      "name": "my-container",
      "image": "123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/my-app:latest",
      "portMappings": [
        {
          "containerPort": 80,
          "protocol": "tcp"
        }
      ],
      "logConfiguration": {
        "logDriver": "awslogs",
        "options": {
          "awslogs-group": "/ecs/my-task",
          "awslogs-region": "us-west-2",
          "awslogs-stream-prefix": "ecs"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Service Definition

          
json

{
  "serviceName": "my-service",
  "cluster": "my-cluster",
  "taskDefinition": "my-task",
  "desiredCount": 2,
  "launchType": "FARGATE",
  "networkConfiguration": {
    "awsvpcConfiguration": {
      "subnets": ["subnet-12345678", "subnet-87654321"],
      "securityGroups": ["sg-12345678"],
      "assignPublicIp": "ENABLED"
    }
  },
  "loadBalancers": [
    {
      "targetGroupArn": "arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-west-2:123456789012:targetgroup/my-target-group/1234567890123456",
      "containerName": "my-container",
      "containerPort": 80
    }
  ]
}

Lambda Deployment

Serverless Functions

Basic Lambda Function

          
python

import json
import boto3

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    # Process the event
    print(f"Received event: {json.dumps(event)}")
    
    # Your business logic here
    response = {
        'statusCode': 200,
        'body': json.dumps({
            'message': 'Hello from Lambda!',
            'event': event
        })
    }
    
    return response

Lambda with API Gateway

          
yaml

# serverless.yml
service: my-serverless-app

provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: python3.9
  region: us-west-2
  environment:
    STAGE: ${opt:stage, 'dev'}

functions:
  hello:
    handler: handler.lambda_handler
    events:
      - http:
          path: /hello
          method: get
          cors: true
      - http:
          path: /hello
          method: post
          cors: true

plugins:
  - serverless-python-requirements

Lambda Layers

          
bash

# Create layer
mkdir python
pip install requests -t python/
zip -r requests-layer.zip python/

# Upload layer
aws lambda publish-layer-version \
  --layer-name requests \
  --zip-file fileb://requests-layer.zip \
  --compatible-runtimes python3.9

Database Deployment

RDS Setup

RDS Instance

          
json

{
  "DBInstanceIdentifier": "my-database",
  "DBInstanceClass": "db.t3.micro",
  "Engine": "postgres",
  "MasterUsername": "admin",
  "MasterUserPassword": "password123",
  "AllocatedStorage": 20,
  "VpcSecurityGroupIds": ["sg-12345678"],
  "DBSubnetGroupName": "my-db-subnet-group",
  "BackupRetentionPeriod": 7,
  "MultiAZ": false,
  "PubliclyAccessible": false
}

RDS Proxy

          
json

{
  "DBProxyName": "my-db-proxy",
  "EngineFamily": "POSTGRESQL",
  "Auth": [
    {
      "AuthScheme": "SECRETS",
      "SecretArn": "arn:aws:secretsmanager:us-west-2:123456789012:secret:my-db-secret"
    }
  ],
  "RoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/rds-proxy-role",
  "VpcSubnetIds": ["subnet-12345678", "subnet-87654321"],
  "TargetGroupName": "my-target-group"
}

DynamoDB Setup

Table Creation

          
json

{
  "TableName": "my-table",
  "KeySchema": [
    {
      "AttributeName": "id",
      "KeyType": "HASH"
    }
  ],
  "AttributeDefinitions": [
    {
      "AttributeName": "id",
      "AttributeType": "S"
    }
  ],
  "BillingMode": "PAY_PER_REQUEST"
}

CI/CD with AWS

CodePipeline Setup

Pipeline Configuration

          
json

{
  "pipeline": {
    "name": "my-pipeline",
    "roleArn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/CodePipelineServiceRole",
    "artifactStore": {
      "type": "S3",
      "location": "my-pipeline-artifacts"
    },
    "stages": [
      {
        "name": "Source",
        "actions": [
          {
            "name": "SourceAction",
            "actionTypeId": {
              "category": "Source",
              "owner": "AWS",
              "provider": "S3",
              "version": "1"
            },
            "configuration": {
              "S3Bucket": "my-source-bucket",
              "S3ObjectKey": "source.zip"
            },
            "outputArtifacts": [
              {
                "name": "SourceOutput"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "name": "Build",
        "actions": [
          {
            "name": "BuildAction",
            "actionTypeId": {
              "category": "Build",
              "owner": "AWS",
              "provider": "CodeBuild",
              "version": "1"
            },
            "configuration": {
              "ProjectName": "my-build-project"
            },
            "inputArtifacts": [
              {
                "name": "SourceOutput"
              }
            ],
            "outputArtifacts": [
              {
                "name": "BuildOutput"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

CodeBuild Configuration

Buildspec

          
yaml

version: 0.2

phases:
  pre_build:
    commands:
      - echo Logging in to Amazon ECR...
      - aws ecr get-login-password --region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin $AWS_ACCOUNT_ID.dkr.ecr.$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION.amazonaws.com
      - REPOSITORY_URI=$AWS_ACCOUNT_ID.dkr.ecr.$AWS_DEFAULT_REGION.amazonaws.com/$IMAGE_REPO_NAME
      - COMMIT_HASH=$(echo $CODEBUILD_RESOLVED_SOURCE_VERSION | cut -c 1-7)
      - IMAGE_TAG=${COMMIT_HASH:=latest}
  build:
    commands:
      - echo Build started on `date`
      - echo Building the Docker image...
      - docker build -t $IMAGE_REPO_NAME:$IMAGE_TAG .
      - docker tag $IMAGE_REPO_NAME:$IMAGE_TAG $REPOSITORY_URI:$IMAGE_TAG
      - docker tag $IMAGE_REPO_NAME:$IMAGE_TAG $REPOSITORY_URI:latest
  post_build:
    commands:
      - echo Build completed on `date`
      - echo Pushing the Docker images...
      - docker push $REPOSITORY_URI:$IMAGE_TAG
      - docker push $REPOSITORY_URI:latest
      - echo Writing image definitions file...
      - printf '[{"name":"%s","imageUri":"%s"}]' $CONTAINER_NAME $REPOSITORY_URI:$IMAGE_TAG > imagedefinitions.json
artifacts:
  files:
    - imagedefinitions.json

Monitoring and Logging

CloudWatch Setup

Log Groups

          
json

{
  "logGroupName": "/aws/lambda/my-function",
  "retentionInDays": 14
}

CloudWatch Alarms

          
json

{
  "AlarmName": "High-CPU-Utilization",
  "ComparisonOperator": "GreaterThanThreshold",
  "EvaluationPeriods": 2,
  "MetricName": "CPUUtilization",
  "Namespace": "AWS/EC2",
  "Period": 300,
  "Statistic": "Average",
  "Threshold": 80.0,
  "ActionsEnabled": true,
  "AlarmActions": [
    "arn:aws:sns:us-west-2:123456789012:my-topic"
  ]
}

X-Ray Tracing

          
python

import json
from aws_xray_sdk.core import xray_recorder
from aws_xray_sdk.core import patch_all

# Patch all libraries
patch_all()

@xray_recorder.capture('my_function')
def lambda_handler(event, context):
    # Your function logic here
    return {
        'statusCode': 200,
        'body': json.dumps('Hello from Lambda!')
    }

Security Best Practices

IAM Roles and Policies

EC2 Role

          
json

{
  "RoleName": "EC2-S3-Role",
  "AssumeRolePolicyDocument": {
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
      {
        "Effect": "Allow",
        "Principal": {
          "Service": "ec2.amazonaws.com"
        },
        "Action": "sts:AssumeRole"
      }
    ]
  },
  "Policies": [
    {
      "PolicyName": "S3ReadOnly",
      "PolicyDocument": {
        "Version": "2012-10-17",
        "Statement": [
          {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
              "s3:GetObject",
              "s3:ListBucket"
            ],
            "Resource": [
              "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket",
              "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*"
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

VPC Security

Security Groups

          
json

{
  "GroupName": "web-servers",
  "Description": "Security group for web servers",
  "VpcId": "vpc-12345678",
  "SecurityGroupRules": [
    {
      "IpPermissions": [
        {
          "IpProtocol": "tcp",
          "FromPort": 80,
          "ToPort": 80,
          "IpRanges": [
            {
              "CidrIp": "0.0.0.0/0",
              "Description": "HTTP access from anywhere"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "IpProtocol": "tcp",
          "FromPort": 443,
          "ToPort": 443,
          "IpRanges": [
            {
              "CidrIp": "0.0.0.0/0",
              "Description": "HTTPS access from anywhere"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Cost Optimization

Reserved Instances

          
bash

# Purchase reserved instances
aws ec2 purchase-reserved-instances-offering \
  --reserved-instances-offering-id 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012 \
  --instance-count 1

Spot Instances

          
json

{
  "SpotPrice": "0.05",
  "InstanceCount": 1,
  "Type": "one-time",
  "ValidFrom": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z",
  "ValidUntil": "2024-12-31T23:59:59Z",
  "LaunchSpecification": {
    "ImageId": "ami-0c02fb55956c7d316",
    "InstanceType": "t2.micro",
    "KeyName": "my-key-pair",
    "SecurityGroups": ["sg-12345678"]
  }
}

Conclusion

AWS provides a comprehensive platform for deploying applications at any scale. By understanding the various services and deployment strategies, you can choose the right approach for your specific needs, from simple EC2 deployments to complex serverless architectures.

The key to successful AWS deployment is starting with your requirements and choosing the appropriate services and patterns. With proper planning and implementation, AWS can provide a robust, scalable, and cost-effective platform for your applications.

Popular Topics

Stay Updated

AWS Deployment Strategies

AWS Deployment Overview

Core Services

Compute Services

Storage Services

Database Services

Deployment Strategies

Traditional Deployment

Container Deployment

Serverless Deployment

EC2 Deployment

Launching EC2 Instances

Basic EC2 Setup

User Data Script

Auto Scaling Groups

Launch Template

Auto Scaling Group

Load Balancing

Application Load Balancer

Target Group

ECS Deployment

ECS Cluster Setup

Cluster Configuration

Task Definition

Service Definition

Lambda Deployment

Serverless Functions

Basic Lambda Function

Lambda with API Gateway

Lambda Layers

Database Deployment

RDS Setup

RDS Instance

RDS Proxy

DynamoDB Setup

Table Creation

CI/CD with AWS

CodePipeline Setup

Pipeline Configuration

CodeBuild Configuration

Buildspec

Monitoring and Logging

CloudWatch Setup

Log Groups

CloudWatch Alarms

X-Ray Tracing

Security Best Practices

IAM Roles and Policies

EC2 Role

VPC Security

Security Groups

Cost Optimization

Reserved Instances

Spot Instances

Conclusion