What is AWS?

o AWS stands for Amazon Web Services.

o The AWS service is provided by the Amazon that uses distributed IT

infrastructure to provide different IT resources available on demand. It
provides different services such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform
as a service (PaaS) and packaged software as a service (SaaS).

o Amazon launched AWS, a cloud computing platform to allow the different

organizations to take advantage of reliable IT infrastructure.

Uses of AWS
o A small manufacturing organization uses their expertise to expand their
business by leaving their IT management to the AWS.

o A large enterprise spread across the globe can utilize the AWS to deliver the
training to the distributed workforce.

o An architecture consulting company can use AWS to get the high-compute

rendering of construction prototype.

o A media company can use the AWS to provide different types of content such
as ebox or audio files to the worldwide files.

Pay-As-You-Go
Based on the concept of Pay-As-You-Go, AWS provides the services to the
customers.

AWS provides services to customers when required without any prior commitment or
upfront investment. Pay-As-You-Go enables the customers to procure services from
AWS.

o Computing

o Programming models

o Database storage

o Networking
Advantages of AWS
1) Flexibility

o We can get more time for core business tasks due to the instant availability of
new features and services in AWS.

o It provides effortless hosting of legacy applications. AWS does not require

learning new technologies and migration of applications to the AWS provides
the advanced computing and efficient storage.

o AWS also offers a choice that whether we want to run the applications and
services together or not. We can also choose to run a part of the IT
infrastructure in AWS and the remaining part in data centres.

2) Cost-effectiveness

AWS requires no upfront investment, long-term commitment, and minimum expense

when compared to traditional IT infrastructure that requires a huge investment.

3) Scalability/Elasticity

Through AWS, autoscaling and elastic load balancing techniques are automatically
scaled up or down, when demand increases or decreases respectively. AWS
techniques are ideal for handling unpredictable or very high loads. Due to this
reason, organizations enjoy the benefits of reduced cost and increased user
satisfaction.

4) Security

o AWS provides end-to-end security and privacy to customers.

o AWS has a virtual infrastructure that offers optimum availability while

managing full privacy and isolation of their operations.

o Customers can expect high-level of physical security because of Amazon's

several years of experience in designing, developing and maintaining large-
scale IT operation centers.

o AWS ensures the three aspects of security, i.e., Confidentiality, integrity, and
availability of user's data.

What is EC2?
o EC2 stands for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.

o Amazon EC2 is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the
cloud.

o Amazon EC2 reduces the time required to obtain and boot new user instances
to minutes rather than in older days, if you need a server then you had to put
a purchase order, and cabling is done to get a new server which is a very
time-consuming process. Now, Amazon has provided an EC2 which is a virtual
machine in the cloud that completely changes the industry.

o You can scale the compute capacity up and down as per the computing
requirement changes.

o Amazon EC2 changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only
for the resources that you actually use. Rather than you previously buy
physical servers, you would look for a server that has more CPU capacity,
RAM capacity and you buy a server over 5 year term, so you have to plan for
5 years in advance. People spend a lot of capital in such investments. EC2
allows you to pay for the capacity that you actually use.

o Amazon EC2 provides the developers with the tools to build resilient
applications that isolate themselves from some common scenarios.

EC2 Pricing Options

On Demand

o It allows you to pay a fixed rate by the hour or even by the second with no
commitment.

o Linux instance is by the second and windows instance is by the hour.

o On Demand is perfect for the users who want low cost and flexibility of
Amazon EC2 without any up-front investment or long-term commitment.

o It is suitable for the applications with short term, spiky or unpredictable

workloads that cannot be interrupted.

o It is useful for the applications that have been developed or tested on

Amazon EC2 for the first time.

o On Demand instance is recommended when you are not sure which instance
type is required for your performance needs.

Reserved

o It is a way of making a reservation with Amazon or we can say that we make

a contract with Amazon. The contract can be for 1 or 3 years in length.
 o In a Reserved instance, you are making a contract means you are paying
some upfront, so it gives you a significant discount on the hourly charge for
an instance.

o It is useful for applications with steady state or predictable usage.

o It is used for those applications that require reserved capacity.

o Users can make up-front payments to reduce their total computing costs. For
example, if you pay all your upfronts and you do 3 years contract, then only
you can get a maximum discount, and if you do not pay all upfronts and do
one year contract then you will not be able to get as much discount as you
can get If you do 3 year contract and pay all the upfronts.

Types of Reserved Instances:

o Standard Reserved Instances

o Convertible Reserved Instances

o Scheduled Reserved Instances

Standard Reserved Instances

o It provides a discount of up to 75% off on demand. For example, you are
paying all up-fronts for 3 year contract.

o It is useful when your Application is at the steady-state.

Convertible Reserved Instances

o It provides a discount of up to 54% off on demand.

o It provides the feature that has the capability to change the attributes of RI
as long as the exchange results in the creation of Reserved Instances of equal
or greater value.

o Like Standard Reserved Instances, it is also useful for the steady state
applications.
Scheduled Reserved Instances
o Scheduled Reserved Instances are available to launch within the specified
time window you reserve.

o It allows you to match your capacity reservation to a predictable recurring

schedule that only requires a fraction of a day, a week, or a month.

Spot Instances

o It allows you to bid for a price whatever price that you want for instance
capacity, and providing better savings if your applications have flexible start
and end times.

o Spot Instances are useful for those applications that have flexible start and
end times.

o It is useful for those applications that are feasible at very low compute prices.

o It is useful for those users who have an urgent need for large amounts of
additional computing capacity.

o EC2 Spot Instances provide less discounts as compared to On Demand prices.

o Spot Instances are used to optimize your costs on the AWS cloud and scale
your application's throughput up to 10X.

o EC2 Spot Instances will continue to exist until you terminate these instances.

Dedicated Hosts

o A dedicated host is a physical server with EC2 instance capacity which is fully
dedicated to your use.

o The physical EC2 server is the dedicated host that can help you to reduce
costs by allowing you to use your existing server-bound software licenses. For
example, Vmware, Oracle, SQL Server depending on the licenses that you can
bring over to AWS and then they can use the Dedicated host.

o Dedicated hosts are used to address compliance requirements and reduces

host by allowing to use your existing server-bound server licenses.

o It can be purchased as a Reservation for up to 70% off On-Demand price.

Creating an EC2 instance
o Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

o Click on the EC2 service.

o Click on the Launch Instance button to create a new instance.

o Now, we have different Amazon Machine Images. These are the snapshots of
different virtual machines. We will be using Amazon Linux AMI 2018.03.0
(HVM) as it has built-in tools such as java, python, ruby, perl, and especially
AWS command line tools.
o Choose an Instance Type, and then click on the Next. Suppose I choose a
t2.micro as an instance type.

o The main setup page of EC2 is shown below where we define setup
configuration.
Where,

Number of Instances: It defines how many EC2 instances you want to create. I
leave it as 1 as I want to create only one instance.

Purchasing Option: In the purchasing option, you need to set the price, request
from, request to, and persistent request. Right now, I leave it as unchecked.

Tenancy: Click on the Shared-Run a shared hardware instance from the

dropdown menu as we are sharing hardware.

Network: Choose your network, set it as default, i.e., vpc-dacbc4b2

(default) where vpc is a virtual private cloud where we can launch the AWS
resources such as EC2 instances in a virtual cloud.

Subnet: It is a range of IP addresses in a virtual cloud. In a specified subnet, you

can add new AWS resources.

Shutdown behavior: It defines the behavior of the instance type. You can either
stop or terminate the instance when you shut down the Linux machine. Now, I leave
it as Stop.

Enable Termination Protection: It allows the people to protect against the

accidental termination.

Monitoring: We can monitor things such as CPU utilization. Right now, I uncheck
the Monitoring.

User data: In Advanced details, you can pass the bootstrap scripts to EC2 instance.
You can tell them to download PHP, Apache, install the Apache, etc.

o Now, add the EBS volume and attach it to the EC2 instance. Root is the
default EBS volume. Click on the Next.
Volume Type: We select the Magnetic (standard) as it is the only disk which is
bootable.

Delete on termination: It is checked means that the termination of an EC2

instance will also delete EBS volume.

o Now, Add the Tags and then click on the Next.

In the above screen, we observe that we add two tags, i.e., the name of the server
and department. Create as many tags as you can as it reduces the overall cost.

o Configure Security Group. The security group allows some specific traffic to
access your instance.
o Review an EC2 instance that you have just configured, and then click on the
Launch button.

o Create a new key pair and enter the name of the key pair. Download the Key
pair.
 o Click on the Launch Instances button.

o To use an EC2 instance in Windows, you need to install

both Putty and PuttyKeyGen.

o Download the Putty and PuttyKeyGen.

Security Group
o A security group is a virtual firewall which is controlling the traffic to your EC2
instances.

o When you first launch an EC2 instance, you can associate it with one or more
security groups.

o A Security group is the first defence against hackers.

Let's understand the concept of security group through an example.

o Sign in to the AWS Management console.

o Launch a new EC2 instance.

o Choose an Amazon Machine Image.

o Choose the instance type. Suppose I choose the instance, i.e., t2.micro, and
then click on the Next.

o Now, configure the Instance details. Keep all the details as default, and then
click on the Next.
o Attach the EBS Volume to your EC2 instance. By default, Root is the default
EBS volume which is attached to your EC2 instance. Click on the Next.

o Add tags.
o Configure Security Group. Select an existing security group that you created
previously, i.e., WebServer.
The above screen shows that a WebServer is a security group that consists of
inbound rules such as protocol, port range, and source address.

o Click on the Review and Launch button.

From the above screen, we observe that the security group, WebServer is open to
the world means that SSH port is open to the world.

AMI
o An AMI stands for Amazon Machine Images.

o An AMI is a virtual image used to create a virtual machine within an EC2

instance.

o You can also create multiple instances using single AMI when you need
instances with the same configuration.

o You can also create multiple instances using different AMI when you need
instances with a different configuration.

o It also provides a template for the root volume of an instance.

AMI Lifecycle
o First, you need to create and register an AMI.
o You can use an AMI to launch EC2 instances.

o You can also copy an AMI to some different region.

o When AMI is no longer required, then you can also deregister it.