This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Izuchukwu Nwachukwu
Introduction
Starting a tech startup is exciting, but keeping costs low while maintaining a robust IT environment can be challenging. Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a powerful, scalable platform that can grow with your business without breaking the bank. In this article, I will be guiding you you through setting up a cost-effective AWS environment tailored to the needs of a small tech startup. We’ll begin with familiarizing you with the AWS Management Console, where it all comes together.
Before we dive into the AWS Management Console, let’s take a moment to understand the backbone of what we’re working with, the AWS Cloud.
AWS Cloud
The AWS Cloud is a global network of data centers that offer scalable and secure cloud services. With AWS, you can deploy applications in various regions and availability zones, ensuring they remain highly available and reliable.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a wide variety of cloud-based services, with over 200 offerings spread across 26 categories. These categories encompass a wide range of solutions, including computing power, migration and transfer, storage, databases, networking, compute, machine learning, security, and more. This extensive portfolio allows businesses of all sizes to build, deploy, and scale applications efficiently on the cloud.
The AWS Cloud spans 108 Availability Zones across 34 geographic regions, serving 245 countries and territories, and has announced plans to add 18 more Availability Zones and six new regions in Mexico, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Taiwan, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud.
1. AWS Environment Familiarization
A. Introducing the AWS Management Console
The AWS Management Console is your go-to web app for managing everything in AWS. Think of it as a central hub where you can access all the individual AWS service consoles. It’s not just a place to launch and manage services; you can also search for what you need, check notifications, use AWS CloudShell, and get a handle on your account and billing info.
The home page of the AWS Management Console is called AWS Console Home. This is where you can oversee your AWS apps and explore other service consoles. Plus, you can make AWS Console Home your own by adding widgets. These widgets can show you useful info about your AWS resources and services. You can easily add, remove, or rearrange widgets like Recently Visited or AWS Health to keep the info you need right at your fingertips. Let's dive into the essentials.
Getting Started with AWS
So, you’ve read about AWS and want to get your hands dirty with cloud computing. Whether you’re new to tech or just curious about what AWS can do, this guide will help you navigate the AWS Management Console, the control center for all things AWS. Ready to explore?
Your Dashboard
When you first log in, you’ll land on the AWS Management Console Dashboard. Think of this as your command center. From here, you can see a quick overview of your AWS environment, including recent activities, shortcuts to your most-used services, and a snapshot of your spending (Remember, staying on budget is key)
The Navigation Bar
At the top of the screen, you’ll find the Navigation Bar. It’s packed with useful tools to help you get around:
Search Bar: Just type in the name of any AWS service you’re looking for, and it’ll pop up instantly.
Services Menu: Click here to see the full list of AWS services, organized into categories like Compute, Storage, and Databases. If you’re new, don’t worry about exploring every service—just focus on the ones that match what you’re working on.
Region Selector: AWS has data centers all over the world. Use this to choose where your resources live.
Account Info: Here, you can manage your account settings, security credentials, and check out your billing info.
Services Menu: Your AWS Playground
Clicking on the Services Menu opens up a treasure trove of AWS tools. Don’t get overwhelmed — AWS offers over 200 services, but you don’t need to learn them all at once. Some examples of a few key categories to get you started are, Storage, Databases, and compute.
Solutions section
The Solutions section on the AWS Console Home page offers easy-to-use workflows and guide that walk you through setting up various AWS services, making it simple to create the resources you need for your projects. It's a quick and practical way to learn AWS while getting your solutions up and running.
Personalized Widgets
With widgets, you can personalize your AWS dashboard to display exactly the information you need at a glance.
Using Markdown in the AWS Management Console
In the AWS Management Console, particularly with services like Amazon CloudWatch, you can enhance your reports and dashboards by using Markdown. Markdown is a lightweight markup language that allows you to format text in a simple and readable way. Here’s a breakdown of how you can use Markdown to customize your content:
Paragraphs, Line Spacing, and Horizontal Lines:
Markdown makes it easy to separate text into paragraphs and control line spacing. You can also use horizontal lines to create visual breaks in your content.Headings:
Organize your text with various heading levels, which help in structuring your content and making it more readable.Text Formatting:
Apply bold, italics, or other text styles to highlight important information or add emphasis where needed.Links:
Insert hyperlinks to direct users to additional resources or related content.Lists:
Create ordered or unordered lists to present information in a clear and organized manner.Tables and Buttons (CloudWatch Dashboards):
In Amazon CloudWatch dashboards, you can use Markdown to create tables for structured data and include buttons for interactive elements.
By leveraging Markdown in the AWS Management Console, you can create well-organized, visually appealing, and informative content to better manage and present your AWS resources.
User Access: Who Gets In
AWS lets you control who can access your environment. With IAM (Identity and Access Management), you can set up users, assign roles, and define permissions. Think of it as managing the entry passes to your own little AWS kingdom.
AWS-Console-Overview
B. Navigating Through Different AWS Services
After getting familiar with the AWS Management Console and setting up users and groups, the next step is navigating through the essential services like EC2, S3, and IAM. These services are key to building and managing your startup's cloud environment.
There are several ways to find and navigate the services you need in AWS. You can always click on the Services menu at the top to see a list of all the services, neatly organized by category, or just use the Search bar to quickly find what you’re looking for. On the Console Home page, you can also pick services from your Favorites or Recently visited widgets for quick access.
Navigating EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
What is EC2?
Amazon EC2 is a web service that offers scalable compute capacity in the cloud. It’s designed to make scaling of capacity up and down easier for developers.
How to Access EC2:
Sign in to the AWS Management Console:
Once logged in, use the search bar at the top to type "EC2" and select it from the dropdown.EC2 Dashboard:
The EC2 Dashboard gives you an overview of your instances, security groups, key pairs, and more. Here, you can monitor the status of your instances and access key resources.
An EC2 instance is basically a virtual server in the AWS Cloud. When you launch an instance, the type you choose decides the hardware it gets. Each instance type offers a different balance of compute, memory, network, and storage resources. Check out the Amazon EC2 Instance Types Guide for more information.
Steps to create an EC2 instance
After signing in and
- Choose an AMI (Amazon Machine Image)
- Select an instance type such as Microsoft Windows Server, Ubuntu Ss
- Configuring instance
- Adding storage
- Adding tags
- Configuring security groups
- Review
References
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Izuchukwu Nwachukwu
Izuchukwu Nwachukwu | Sciencx (2024-09-04T22:51:07+00:00) Creating a Budget-Friendly AWS Environment: A Step-by-Step Guide for Small Tech Startups. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2024/09/04/creating-a-budget-friendly-aws-environment-a-step-by-step-guide-for-small-tech-startups/
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