🖥️ AWS 3-Tier Web App Lab

This project demonstrates a classic 3-tier architecture on AWS using EC2, RDS, and Apache. The walkthrough includes full CLI configuration, MySQL database creation, and custom webpage deployment — all documented with real output and screenshots.

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🧱 Architecture Overview

• Frontend: EC2 running Apache HTTPD
• Backend: MySQL 8 on Amazon RDS
• Storage (optional): S3 static hosting
• Security: SSH key access and Security Groups
• Tools Used: CLI, yum, MySQL client, nano, bash

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📁 Folder Structure

aws-3tier-webapp-lab/
├── app/
│   └── index.html
├── assets/
│   └── users.sql
├── docs/
│   ├── ec2-setup-guide.md
│   ├── rds-connection-guide.md
│   ├── load-balancer-setup.md
│   └── s3-static-hosting.md
├── screenshots/
│   └── *.png (all referenced images)
└── README.md

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✅ Setup & Screenshots

1️⃣ Project Initialization

Created folder structure and initialized GitHub repo.

📸 Initial folder structure

📸 GitHub repo

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2️⃣ Create RDS Instance and Configure

RDS created via AWS Console.
Security Group updated to allow EC2 access on port 3306.

📸 RDS created

📸 RDS summary

📸 Inbound SG rules

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3️⃣ Launch EC2 and SSH In

Connected via .pem key from macOS terminal.

📸 EC2 summary

📸 EC2 dashboard

📸 SSH key permissions

📸 SSH from macOS

📸 SSH confirmation

📸 whoami + yum update

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4️⃣ Install Apache Web Server

sudo yum install -y httpd
sudo systemctl start httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd

📸 Install started

📸 Install complete

📸 Service enabled

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5️⃣ Serve a Web Page

echo "<h1>Hello from Chet's EC2 Web Server!</h1>" | sudo tee /var/www/html/index.html

📸 Broken echo command

📸 Fixed echo command

📸 Apache default page

📸 Custom EC2 HTML served

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6️⃣ Install MySQL Client on EC2

sudo yum install -y https://dev.mysql.com/get/mysql80-community-release-el9-1.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm --import https://repo.mysql.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-mysql-2022
sudo yum install -y mysql-community-client

📸 Install repo

📸 Import GPG

📸 Install client

📸 Client install failed

If install fails:

sudo yum clean packages
sudo yum clean metadata
sudo yum makecache
sudo yum install -y mysql-community-client --nogpgcheck

📸 Cleaned metadata

📸 Final install success

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7️⃣ Connect to RDS from EC2

mysql -h webapp-db.cuxami6yiy1p.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com -u admin -p

📸 Login successful

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8️⃣ Create Database and Table

CREATE DATABASE webapp;
USE webapp;

CREATE TABLE users (
  id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  username VARCHAR(50),
  email VARCHAR(100),
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

INSERT INTO users (username, email) VALUES
('chet', 'chet@example.com'),
('admin', 'admin@example.com'),
('Alice Smith', 'alice@example.com'),
('Bob Jones', 'bob@example.com');

SELECT * FROM users;
DESCRIBE users;

📸 Created DB and inserted users

📸 Selected and described users

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9️⃣ Export Table (Optional)

mysqldump -h webapp-db.cuxami6yiy1p.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com -u admin -p webapp users > users.sql

📸 Exported via mysqldump

💾 File saved to /assets/users.sql

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📸 Screenshot Summary

All screenshots are stored under /assets/, named according to the step.

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🧾 Lessons Learned

• Security Groups must allow specific port access between EC2 and RDS
• Amazon Linux 2023 requires special handling for MySQL GPG key verification
• Echoing HTML in bash needs careful escaping (!, ', ")
• Documenting every step with screenshots makes troubleshooting and handoff easier

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🧠 Interview Tip

"This lab shows I can configure full-stack infrastructure on AWS — EC2 frontend, RDS backend, and Apache + MySQL integration — while solving CLI issues and documenting the full flow."

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📚 Related Documentation

• docs/rds-connection-guide.md
• docs/ec2-setup-guide.md
• docs/load-balancer-setup.md
• docs/s3-static-hosting.md