Scenario
Example University is preparing for the new school year. The admissions department has received complaints that their web application for student records is slow or not available during the peak admissions period because of the high number of inquiries.
You are a cloud engineer. Your manager has asked you to create a proof of concept (POC) to host the web application in the AWS Cloud. Your manager would like you to design and implement a new hosting architecture that will improve the experience for users of the web application. You’re responsible for building the infrastructure to host the student records web application in the cloud.
Your challenge is to plan, design, build, and deploy the web application to the AWS Cloud in a way that is consistent with best practices of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. During the peak admissions period, the application must support thousands of users, and be highly available, scalable, load balanced, secure, and high performing.
The following image shows an example of the student records web application. The site lists records of students who have applied for admission to the university. Users can view, add, delete, and modify student records.
Solution requirements
The solution must meet the following requirements:
Functional: The solution meets the functional requirements, such as the ability to view, add, delete, or modify the student records, without any perceivable delay.
Load balanced: The solution can properly balance user traffic to avoid overloaded or underutilized resources.
Scalable: The solution is designed to scale to meet the demands that are placed on the application.
Highly available: The solution is designed to have limited downtime when a web server becomes unavailable.
Secure:
The database is secured and can’t be accessed directly from public networks.
The web servers and database can be accessed only over the appropriate ports.
The web application is accessible over the internet.
The database credentials aren’t hardcoded into the web application.
Cost optimized: The solution is designed to keep costs low.
High performing: The routine operations (viewing, adding, deleting, or modifying records) are performed without a perceivable delay under normal, variable, and peak loads.
Assumptions
This project will be built in a controlled lab environment that has restrictions on services, features, and budget. Consider the following assumptions for the project:
The application is deployed in one AWS Region (the solution does not need to be multi-Regional).
The website does not need to be available over HTTPS or a custom domain.
The solution is deployed on Ubuntu machines by using the JavaScript code that is provided.
Use the JavaScript code as written unless the instructions specifically direct you to change the code.
The solution uses services and features within the restrictions of the lab environment.
The database is hosted only in a single Availability Zone.
The website is publicly accessible without authentication.
Estimation of cost is approximate.
Disclaimer: A security best practice is to allow access to the website through the university network and authentication. However, because you are building this application as a POC, those features are beyond the scope of this project. You are encouraged to implement this additional functionality.
Approach
Recommendation: Develop your project solution in phases. This will help you ensure that basic functionality is working before the architecture becomes more complex. After the application is working, you are encouraged to enhance the solution with additional requirements.
Phase 1: Planning the design and estimating cost
In this phase, you will plan the design of your architecture. First, you will create an architecture diagram.
Next, you will estimate the cost of the proposed solution, and present the estimate to your educator. An important first step for any solution is to plan the design and estimate the cost. As necessary, review the various components in the architecture to adjust the estimated cost. Cost is an important factor when building a solution because cost can help to determine the components and architecture pattern to use.
Note: You don’t need to use the lab environment for this phase of the project, but you might want to use it to refer to AWS services and features as you plan your design.
Task 1: Creating an architectural diagram
Create an architectural diagram to illustrate what you plan to build. Consider how you will accomplish each requirement in the solution.
References
AWS Architecture Icons: This site provides tools to draw AWS architecture diagrams.
AWS Reference Architecture Diagrams: This site provides reference architecture diagrams for a variety of use cases.
Task 2: Developing a cost estimate
Develop a cost estimate that shows the cost to run the solution in the us-east-1 Region for 12 months. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator for this estimate.
If required by your instructor, add your architectural diagram and cost estimate to presentation slides. Your educator might want to evaluate this information as part of assessing your work on this project. A presentation template is provided.
References
What Is AWS Pricing Calculator?
PowerPoint presentation template
Phase 2: Creating a basic functional web application
In this phase, you will start to build the solution. The objective of this phase is to have a functional web application that works on a single virtual machine in a virtual network that you create. By the end of this phase, you will have a POC to demonstrate hosting the application on the AWS Cloud. You can then build upon your work in later phases.
Task 1: Creating a virtual network
Create a virtual network to host the web application.
Tip: Create networking resources such as a virtual private cloud (VPC) and subnets.
Reference
AWS Academy Cloud Architecting – Lab: Creating a Virtual Private Cloud
Task 2: Creating a virtual machine
Create a virtual machine in the cloud to host the web application.
To install the required web application and database on the virtual machine, use the JavaScript code from the following link: SolutionCodePOC
Tips:
Use a compute service such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2).
Use the latest Ubuntu Amazon Machine Image (AMI).
Task 3: Testing the deployment
Test the deployment of the web application to ensure it is accessible from the internet and functional. Perform a few tasks, such as viewing, adding, deleting, or modifying records.
Tip: To access the web application, use the IPv4 address of the virtual machine.
