🚀 AWS Learning Guide

A comprehensive, hands-on guide to Amazon Web Services (AWS) fundamentals covering core services, security, and best practices. This repository contains detailed documentation, practical examples, and real-world scenarios to help you master AWS from beginner to intermediate level.

📚 Table of Contents

☁️ Cloud Concepts & Foundation

• 00. AWS Shared Responsibility Model

  • Definition: Fundamental security model that defines what YOU are responsible for vs AWS.
  • Key: Security OF the Cloud (AWS) vs Security IN the Cloud (Customer).

• 00. Deployment Models

  • Definition: Understanding Public, Private, Hybrid, Multi-Cloud, and Community clouds.

  • Use Case: Deciding where to host sensitive data (Private) vs scalable web apps (Public).

  • Use Case: Deciding where to host sensitive data (Private) vs scalable web apps (Public).

• 00a. Cloud Service Models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)

  • Definition: Understanding IaaS (EC2), PaaS (Elastic Beanstalk), and SaaS (Salesforce) models.
  • Use Case: Deciding between managing OS/Hardware (IaaS) vs focusing on code (PaaS).

• 00. Monolith vs Microservices

  • Definition: Comparing tightly coupled (Monolith) vs loosely coupled (Microservices) architectures.
  • Use Case: Understanding when to break down a legacy app into smaller, independent services (ECS, Lambda).

• 00. Stateless Applications

  • Definition: Designing apps that store no local state, enabling infinite scaling.
  • Use Case: Building horizontally scalable web tiers using ELB and Auto Scaling Groups (ASG).

• 00. Stateful Applications

  • Definition: Apps that require session affinity (Sticky Sessions) or store data locally.
  • Use Case: Legacy applications, Databases, and Real-time gaming.

• 00. Scalability & Auto Scaling

  • Definition: Concepts of Vertical vs Horizontal Scaling and AWS Auto Scaling Groups (ASG).
  • Use Case: Automatically adjusting capacity to maintain steady performance at the lowest possible cost.

• 00. Virtualization & Nitro System

  • Definition: Core technology enabling cloud computing (Hypervisors) and AWS-specific hardware offloading (Nitro).
  • Use Case: Understanding why Bare Metal instances exist and how AWS isolates workloads.

🔐 Core Services

• 01. IAM - Identity & Access Management

  • Definition: AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) securely manages access to AWS services and resources.

  • Use Case: Creating users and roles to control who can access your S3 buckets or EC2 instances.

  • User management, roles, policies, and permissions

  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA) setup

  • Best practices for secure access control

• 02. S3 - Simple Storage Service

  • Definition: An object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance.

  • Use Case: Storing backups, static websites, and data archives.

  • Bucket creation, object storage, and lifecycle policies

  • Static website hosting and CDN integration

  • Security configurations and access controls

• 03. EC2 - Elastic Compute Cloud

  • Definition: Resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale cloud computing easier for developers.

  • Use Case: Hosting websites, applications, and databases.

  • Launching instances (Linux, Windows, Mac)

  • Security Groups and Key Pairs

  • Elastic IP addresses and Placement Groups

• 00. Load Balancers (ELB)

  • Definition: Distributing incoming application traffic across multiple targets (ALB vs NLB vs GWLB).

  • Use Case: High Availability, Fault Tolerance, and Scaling web applications.

  • Definition: A web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud.

  • Use Case: Hosting web applications, databases, and backend servers.

  • Virtual server deployment and management

  • SSH access, key pairs, and remote connections

  • Instance lifecycle and cost optimization

⚙️ EC2 Deep Dive

• 04. Instance Types

  • Definition: Varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity for EC2 instances.

  • Use Case: Selecting CPU-optimized for compute jobs or Memory-optimized for caches.

  • Choosing the right instance for your workload

  • Performance characteristics and use cases

  • Cost comparison and optimization strategies

• 05. Security Groups

  • Definition: A virtual firewall for your EC2 instances to control incoming and outgoing traffic.

  • Use Case: Allowing SSH access only from your specific IP address.

  • Network-level security and firewall rules

  • Inbound/outbound traffic configuration

  • Common security patterns and troubleshooting

• 06. Ports Configuration

  • Definition: Identifying specific process endpoints on a network.

  • Use Case: Opening port 80 for HTTP traffic and 443 for HTTPS.

  • Essential port configurations for web services

  • SSH, HTTP, HTTPS, and custom application ports

  • Security considerations and best practices

💾 Storage & Images

• 07. EBS - Elastic Block Store

  • Definition: High-performance block storage service designed for use with Amazon EC2.

  • Use Case: Primary storage for databases or file systems on EC2.

  • Persistent storage for EC2 instances

  • Volume types, performance, and encryption

  • Backup and disaster recovery strategies

• 08. Versioning & Snapshots

  • Definition: Tools for data backup and recovery in S3 and EBS.

  • Use Case: Recovering accidentally deleted files or rolling back database state.

  • Data protection through versioning

  • Automated backup strategies

  • Point-in-time recovery procedures

• 09. AMI - Amazon Machine Images

  • Definition: A supported and maintained image provided by AWS that provides the information required to launch an instance.

  • Use Case: Launching multiple identical instances for horizontal scaling.

  • Creating custom server images

  • Image sharing and marketplace usage

  • Version control for infrastructure

🔧 Operations

• 10. Cleanup Scripts
  • Definition: Automation to remove unused resources.
  • Use Case: Removing dev resources at night to save cost and prevent lingering charges.
  • Automated resource cleanup procedures
  • Security hardening before AMI creation
  • Cost optimization through proper resource management

🗄️ Database Services

• 20. All-in-One Database Guide

  • Definition: A comprehensive overview of AWS database services.

  • Use Case: Choosing the right database engine (SQL vs NoSQL) for your specific workload.

  • Deep dive into RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, and Redshift

  • Comparison of SQL vs NoSQL services

  • Design patterns for performance and high availability

• 21. Amazon Aurora Deep Dive

  • Definition: A customized, high-performance relational database built for the cloud (MySQL/PostgreSQL compatible).

  • Use Case: High-performance enterprise applications requiring auto-scaling storage and rapid failover.

  • Architecture: Storage vs Compute decoupling

  • Serverless, Global Database, and Cloning features

  • Exam tips for high-availability scenarios

• 22. RDS Deployments & Workflows

  • Definition: Deployment strategies for Relational Database Service (RDS).

  • Use Case: Setting up Multi-AZ for high availability or Read Replicas for performance scaling.

  • Visual diagrams for Multi-AZ, Read Replicas, and Multi-Region

  • Understanding replication logic (Sync vs Async)

  • Deployment strategies for specific use cases

• 23. Amazon ElastiCache Deep Dive

  • Definition: Fully managed in-memory caching service supporting Redis and Memcached.

  • Use Case: Speeding up dynamic websites by caching user sessions and query results.

  • Redis vs Memcached comparison table

  • Caching strategies: Lazy Loading vs Write-Through

  • Architecture patterns for session management

• 24. Amazon DynamoDB Deep Dive

  • Definition: Fast, flexible NoSQL database service for single-digit millisecond performance at any scale.

  • Use Case: Serverless applications, shopping carts, gaming leaderboards, and mobile backends.

  • Data Types (Scalar, Document, Set)

  • DAX for Microsecond latency

  • Global Tables for Multi-Region Active-Active architecture

• 25. Amazon Redshift Deep Dive

  • Definition: Petabyte-scale data warehouse service.

  • Use Case: Running complex analytic queries against massive datasets (Business Intelligence).

  • Leader vs Compute Node Architecture

  • OLAP vs OLTP differences

  • Redshift Spectrum for S3 querying

• 26. Amazon EMR (Elastic MapReduce)

  • Definition: Cloud big data platform for running large-scale distributed data processing jobs.

  • Use Case: Running Apache Spark, Hive, or Presto jobs for log analysis and machine learning.

  • Architecture: Master, Core, and Task Nodes

  • Storage: HDFS vs EMRFS (S3)

  • Use cases: Hadoop, Spark, Big Data Processing

• 27. Amazon Athena Deep Dive

  • Definition: Interactive query service that makes it easy to analyze data in S3 using standard SQL.

  • Use Case: Ad-hoc querying of CSV/JSON logs stored in S3 without managing servers.

  • Serverless SQL querying on S3

  • Cost/Performance optimization (Parquet/ORC)

  • Federated Query overview

• 28. Amazon QuickSight Deep Dive

  • Definition: Scalable, serverless, embeddable, machine learning-powered business intelligence (BI) service.

  • Use Case: Creating and publishing interactive dashboards to visualize sales data.

  • SPICE In-memory Engine

  • Machine Learning Insights (Anomaly Detection)

  • Row-Level Security (RLS)

• 29. Amazon Neptune Deep Dive

  • Definition: Fast, reliable, fully managed graph database service.

  • Use Case: Social networking feeds, recommendation engines, and fraud detection.

  • Graph Database fundamentals (Nodes, Edges)

  • Gremlin vs SPARQL Query Languages

  • Use cases: Social Networks, Fraud Detection

• 30. Amazon Timestream Deep Dive

  • Definition: Fast, scalable, and serverless time series database service.

  • Use Case: Storing IoT sensor readings, DevOps metrics, and industrial telemetry.

  • Time Series Database architecture

  • Storage Tiering: Memory Store vs Magnetic Store

  • Use cases: IoT and DevOps monitoring

• 31. Amazon QLDB Deep Dive

  • Definition: Fully managed ledger database that provides a transparent, immutable, and cryptographically verifiable transaction log.

  • Use Case: Tracking supply chain history, banking transactions, or vehicle records immutably.

  • Immutable Transaction Log (The Journal)

  • Cryptographically Verifiable

  • QLDB vs Managed Blockchain comparison

• 32. Amazon Managed Blockchain Deep Dive

  • Definition: Fully managed service that makes it easy to create and manage scalable blockchain networks.

  • Use Case: Decentralized finance (DeFi) apps or supply chain transparency using Hyperledger Fabric or Ethereum.

  • Hyperledger Fabric vs Ethereum

  • Decentralized Trust & Consensus

  • Architecture: Members, Peers, and Ordering Service

• 33. AWS Glue Deep Dive

  • Definition: Serverless data integration service (ETL - Extract, Transform, Load).

  • Use Case: Preparing, cleaning, and transforming data for analytics and machine learning.

  • Serverless ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)

  • Data Catalog & Crawlers (Schema Discovery)

  • Workflow: Source -> Crawler -> Catalog -> Job -> Target

• 34. AWS DMS Deep Dive

  • Definition: Database Migration Service to migrate databases to AWS securely.
  • Use Case: Moving an on-premise Oracle database to Amazon Aurora with minimal downtime.
  • Homogenous vs Heterogenous Migrations
  • Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) necessity
  • Continuous Replication (CDC)

📦 Container Services

• 35. Docker Fundamentals for AWS

  • Definition: A platform for developing, shipping, and running applications in containers.

  • Use Case: Packaging applications and their dependencies to run consistently on any environment.

  • Virtual Machines vs Containers

  • Dockerfile, Image, and Container concepts

  • Amazon ECR (Elastic Container Registry) basics

• 36. Amazon ECS Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed container orchestration service.

  • Use Case: Running and scaling Docker containers for microservices.

  • Fargate vs EC2 Launch Types

  • Clusters, Services, and Task Definitions

  • Auto Scaling and Load Balancer integration

• 37. AWS Fargate Deep Dive

  • Definition: A serverless compute engine for containers that works with ECS and EKS.

  • Use Case: Running containers without having to manage servers or clusters.

  • Serverless Compute for Containers

  • Task Isolation and Security (VM-level)

  • Fargate vs EC2 Launch Type pricing

• 38. Amazon ECR Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed Docker container registry.

  • Use Case: Storing, sharing, and deploying container images securely.

  • Public vs Private Repositories

  • Security Scanning (Basic vs Enhanced)

  • Lifecycle Policies (Cost Optimization)

• 39. Amazon EKS Deep Dive

  • Definition: a managed service to run Kubernetes on AWS.
  • Use Case: Running complex, scalable microservices architectures using standard Kubernetes.
  • Managed Kubernetes Service
  • Control Plane vs Data Plane (Nodes)
  • EKS Distro & EKS Anywhere

Serverless Services

• 40. AWS Lambda Deep Dive

  • Definition: A serverless compute service that lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers.

  • Use Case: Running code in response to events (e.g., file uploads) or building serverless backends.

  • Serverless Compute Basics

  • Triggers (API Gateway, S3, DynamoDB)

  • Execution Limits and Pricing

• 41. AWS API Gateway Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed service for creating, publishing, maintaining, monitoring, and securing APIs.
  • Use Case: Creating a REST API frontend for Lambda functions or other AWS services.

• 71. Advanced Serverless (FaaS, XFaaS, XFBench)

  • Definition: Advanced research concepts: Cross-Platform FaaS (XFaaS) and Benchmarking (XFBench).

  • Use Case: Designing multi-cloud serverless architectures and performance testing.

  • REST vs HTTP vs WebSocket APIs

  • Endpoint Types (Edge, Regional, Private)

  • Security (Cognito, IAM, Lambda Authorizer)

• 42. AWS Batch Deep Dive

  • Definition: Fully managed batch processing service.

  • Use Case: Running hundreds of thousands of computing jobs like financial risk analysis or media transcoding.

  • Batch Computing (Jobs, Queues, Environments)

  • Orchestrating Spot Instances

  • Batch vs Lambda for long-running jobs

• 43. Amazon Lightsail Deep Dive

  • Definition: An easy-to-use cloud platform that offers everything needed to build an application or website.

  • Use Case: Quickly launching a WordPress blog or a simple development environment.

  • Virtual Private Server (VPS) made easy

  • Fixed Monthly Pricing vs EC2

  • One-Click Apps (WordPress, LAMP)

• 48. AWS Elastic Beanstalk Deep Dive

  • Definition: An easy-to-use service for deploying and scaling web applications and services.

  • Use Case: Deploying a Python web app without configuring the underlying OS or web server manually.

  • Platform as a Service (PaaS)

  • Deployment Policies (Rolling, Immutable)

  • Extensions (.ebextensions) and Configuration

  • One-Click Apps (WordPress, LAMP)

Management & Developer Tools

• 44. AWS CloudFormation Deep Dive

  • Definition: A service that gives developers and systems administrators an easy way to create and manage a collection of related AWS resources.

  • Use Case: Defining infrastructure as code (templates) to standardizing environments.

  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

  • Stacks, Change Sets, and Intrinsic Functions

  • Drift Detection (Syncing Manual Changes)

• 45. AWS CDK Deep Dive

  • Definition: An open-source software development framework to define your cloud application resources using familiar programming languages.

  • Use Case: Defining infrastructure using Python/TypeScript logic constructs instead of YAML/JSON.

  • Cloud Development Kit (TypeScript/Python)

  • Constructs (L1, L2, L3 Patterns)

  • Workflow: Code -> cdk synth -> CloudFormation

• 49. AWS CodeDeploy Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed deployment service that automates software deployments to a variety of compute services.

  • Use Case: Automating code rollouts to EC2 instances or Lambda functions to minimize downtime.

  • Deployment Types (In-Place vs Blue/Green)

  • Application Lifecycle Hooks (appspec.yml)

  • Troubleshooting Deployments

• 50. AWS CodeCommit Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed source control service that hosts secure Git-based repositories.

  • Use Case: Hosting private source code in a scalable, secure, and managed environment.

  • Private Git Repositories

  • Authentication (HTTPS Git Credentials vs SSH)

  • Cross-Account Access with IAM Roles

• 51. AWS CodeBuild Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed continuous integration service that compiles source code, runs tests, and produces software packages.

  • Use Case: Running unit tests and building Docker images automatically on commit.

  • Fully Managed Build Service (CI)

  • buildspec.yml Configuration

  • Artifacts & Caching (S3/Local)

• 52. AWS CodePipeline Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed continuous delivery service that helps you automate your release pipelines.

  • Use Case: Orchestrating the workflow from source change -> build -> test -> deploy to production.

  • CI/CD Orchestration (Source -> Build -> Deploy)

  • Artifact Transmission via S3

  • Manual Approvals

• 53. AWS CodeArtifact Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed artifact repository service.

  • Use Case: Securely storing, publishing, and sharing software packages (npm, pip, maven) used in your software development process.

  • Managed Artifactory (npm, pip, maven)

  • Domains vs Repositories (De-duplication)

  • Upstream Caching (Proxy for public repos)

• 54. AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Deep Dive

  • Definition: A secure, end-to-end management solution for your hybrid cloud environment.
  • Use Case: Patching fleets of instances, managing secrets, or connecting to instances without SSH keys.
  • SSM Session Manager (No Ports/SSH)
  • Parameter Store (Secrets/Config)
  • Run Command & Patch Manager

🔗 Cloud Integration

• 63. Cloud Integration & Decoupling

  • Definition: Patterns and services to decouple application components for scalability and reliability.
  • Use Case: Using queues (SQS) or pub/sub (SNS) to handle traffic spikes without crashing services.

• 64. Amazon SQS Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed message queuing service for decoupling microservices.
  • Use Case: Buffering requests from a web server before processing them on backend instances.

• 65. Amazon Kinesis Deep Dive

  • Definition: A service for real-time processing of streaming large data.
  • Use Case: Ingesting clickstream logs or IoT telemetry for real-time dashboards (using Firehose or Analytics).

• 66. Amazon SNS Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed Pub/Sub messaging service (Push Notifications).
  • Use Case: Sending one message to multiple subscribers (Email + SQS + Lambda) simultaneously (Fan-Out).

• 67. Amazon MQ Deep Dive

  • Definition: Managed ActiveMQ and RabbitMQ service.
  • Use Case: Migrating legacy on-premise applications to the cloud without rewriting messaging code (Lift & Shift).

• 69. Amazon EventBridge Deep Dive

  • Definition: A serverless event bus service for building event-driven applications (formerly CloudWatch Events).
  • Use Case: Integrating SaaS applications (Zendesk, Shopify) with AWS Lambda or filtering events by content.

Global Infrastructure & Networking

• 62. AWS Local Zones Deep Dive

  • Definition: An infrastructure deployment that places compute and storage closer to large population and industry centers.
  • Use Case: Running latency-sensitive applications like video rendering or gaming in a specific city.

• 61. AWS Wavelength Deep Dive

  • Definition: An infrastructure offering optimized for mobile edge computing applications.
  • Use Case: Deploying ultra-low latency applications to 5G devices (e.g., AR/VR).

• 60. AWS Outposts Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed service that offers the same AWS infrastructure, AWS services, APIs, and tools to virtually any datacenter.

  • Use Case: Running applications that need low latency to on-premises systems or local data processing.

  • Hybrid Cloud (On-Premises Extension)

  • Racks vs Servers

  • Local Gateway & Connectivity

• 59. AWS Global Accelerator Deep Dive

  • Definition: A networking service that improves the performance of your users' traffic by up to 60% using the AWS global network.

  • Use Case: Improving global application availability and performance for UDP/TCP traffic (e.g., gaming).

  • Unicast vs Anycast IP

  • Traffic Dials & Endpoint Weighting

  • Client IP Preservation

• 58. Amazon CloudFront Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fast content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs.

  • Use Case: Accelerating delivery of static website content (images, CSS, JS) to users globally.

  • Caching Strategies (TTL, Invalidations)

  • Security (OAI/OAC, Signed URLs)

  • CloudFront Functions vs Lambda@Edge

• 57. Amazon Route 53 Deep Dive

  • Definition: A highly available and scalable cloud Domain Name System (DNS) web service.

  • Use Case: Routing end users to your site reliably and performing health checks on your resources.

  • Routing Policies (Weighted, Latency, Failover)

  • Hosted Zones (Public vs Private)

  • Alias vs CNAME Records

• 56. AWS Global Infrastructure Deep Dive

  • Definition: The physical locations (Regions, AZs, Edge Locations) where AWS data centers are clustered.

  • Use Case: Designing highly available, fault-tolerant, and compliant global architectures.

  • Regions vs Availability Zones (AZs)

  • Edge Locations & Points of Presence

  • Local Zones, Wavelength, and Outposts

• 55. AWS Global Application Architecture

  • Definition: Architecture patterns for building multi-region, resilient applications.
  • Use Case: Designing standard Active-Passive or Active-Active disaster recovery strategies.
  • Route 53 (DNS Routing Policies)
  • CloudFront vs Global Accelerator
  • S3 Cross-Region Replication

🔍 Monitoring & Audit

• 68. Amazon CloudWatch Deep Dive
  • Definition: A monitoring and observability service for DevOps engineers, developers, and site reliability engineers (SREs).
  • Use Case: Monitoring EC2 CPU usage, triggering alarms for high latency, and analyzing logs.

🤖 Machine Learning

• 70. Amazon Rekognition Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed machine learning service that automates image and video analysis (Face Detection, Content Moderation).
  • Use Case: Identity verification (KYC), detecting inappropriate content in user uploads, or counting people in a store image.

• 72. Amazon Transcribe Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) service that converts speech into text.
  • Use Case: Generating subtitles for videos, transcribing call center recordings, or clinical documentation.

• 73. Amazon Polly Deep Dive

  • Definition: A cloud service that turns text into lifelike speech (TTS).
  • Use Case: Building speech-enabled apps, narration for videos, or educational platforms.

• 74. Amazon Translate Deep Dive

  • Definition: A neural machine translation service that delivers fast, high-quality language translation.
  • Use Case: Localizing websites, translating real-time chat, or processing multi-lingual documents.

• 75. Amazon Lex Deep Dive

  • Definition: A service for building conversational interfaces (Chatbots) using voice and text (same engine as Alexa).
  • Use Case: Customer service chatbots, automated Q&A bots.

• 76. Amazon Connect Deep Dive

  • Definition: A self-service, omnichannel cloud contact center.
  • Use Case: Setting up a call center in minutes, creating IVR flows with Lex integration.

• 77. Amazon Comprehend Deep Dive

  • Definition: A natural language processing (NLP) service that finds insights and relationships in text.
  • Use Case: Sentiment analysis of customer reviews, PII detection, or document classification.

• 78. Amazon SageMaker Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed service to build, train, and deploy machine learning models.
  • Use Case: Building custom ML models, data labeling (Ground Truth), or using AutoML (AutoPilot).

• 79. Amazon Kendra Deep Dive

  • Definition: An intelligent enterprise search service powered by machine learning.
  • Use Case: Searching across S3, SharePoint, and Salesforce using natural language questions.

• 80. Amazon Personalize Deep Dive

  • Definition: A fully managed machine learning service for real-time personalized recommendations.
  • Use Case: "Customers who bought this also bought...", product ranking, and content recommendation.

• 81. Amazon Textract Deep Dive

  • Definition: A machine learning service that extracts text, handwriting, and data from scanned documents.
  • Use Case: Digitizing invoices, extracting data from forms/tables, or processing identity documents (AnalyzeID).

🛡️ Security, Identity & Compliance

• 82. AWS STS (Security Token Service) Deep Dive

  • Definition: A web service that enables you to request temporary, limited-privilege credentials.
  • Use Case: Cross-account access, Identity Federation (SAML/Web Identity), and Mobile App authentication.

• 83. Amazon Cognito Deep Dive

  • Definition: A service for user identity and data synchronization (User Pools & Identity Pools).
  • Use Case: Adding user sign-up/sign-in to mobile/web apps, and granting access to AWS resources.

• 84. AWS Directory Service Deep Dive

  • Definition: Managed Microsoft Active Directory (AD) in the AWS Cloud.
  • Use Case: Authenticating Windows workloads, centralized credential management, and extending on-prem AD to cloud via trusts.

• 85. IAM Identity Center (AWS SSO) Deep Dive

  • Definition: The successor to AWS SSO for centralized multi-account access.
  • Use Case: Single Sign-On (SSO) for managing access to AWS accounts and business applications via Okta/Azure AD.

Architecture Patterns

• 46. AWS 3-Tier Web Architecture
  • Definition: A modular client-server architecture that consists of a presentation tier, an application tier, and a data tier.
  • Use Case: Standard, secure pattern for hosting scalable web applications on AWS.
  • Web, App, and Data Layers
  • Security Groups Chaining
  • High Availability with Multi-AZ

Developer Guides

• 47. Common Developer Problems (Troubleshooting)
  • Definition: A guide to diagnosing and fixing common errors encountered during AWS development.
  • Use Case: Troubleshooting "Connection Refused" on EC2 or "403 Access Denied" on S3.
  • EC2 Connection Issues (SSH/HTTP)
  • S3 403 Errors & Lambda Timeouts
  • CloudFormation Rollbacks, CodeDeploy Hooks, & 502/504 Errors
  • Database Connections & ASG Thrashing

🎯 Structured Learning Path

Phase 1: Foundation (Week 1-2)

1. 🔐 IAM Fundamentals

   • Create your first IAM user
   • Set up MFA for enhanced security
   • Understand the principle of least privilege

2. 💾 S3 Basics

   • Create and configure your first bucket
   • Upload files and set permissions
   • Enable versioning and lifecycle policies

Phase 2: Compute Services (Week 3-4)

3. ⚙️ EC2 Essentials

   • Launch your first EC2 instance
   • Connect via SSH and configure basic services
   • Understand instance states and billing

4. 🛡️ Security Configuration

   • Configure security groups and NACLs
   • Set up proper port access
   • Implement security best practices

Phase 3: Advanced Storage (Week 5-6)

5. 💿 EBS and Storage

   • Attach additional storage to instances
   • Create and restore from snapshots
   • Implement backup strategies

6. 📸 AMI Management

   • Create custom AMIs from configured instances
   • Share AMIs across accounts
   • Version control your infrastructure

Phase 4: Operations (Week 7-8)

7. 🔧 Automation and Cleanup
   • Implement automated cleanup procedures
   • Create deployment scripts
   • Monitor and optimize costs

🛠️ Prerequisites & Setup

Required Knowledge

• Basic Linux/Unix commands (ls, cd, chmod, ssh)
• Networking fundamentals (IP addresses, ports, protocols)
• Basic understanding of virtualization concepts
• Command line comfort (Terminal/PowerShell)

Required Accounts & Tools

• AWS Free Tier Account - Sign up here
• AWS CLI - Installation guide
• SSH Client (PuTTY for Windows, built-in for Mac/Linux)
• Text Editor (VS Code, Sublime, or similar)

Initial Setup Checklist

• Create AWS account and verify email
• Set up billing alerts (recommended: $10 threshold)
• Install AWS CLI and configure credentials
• Create your first IAM user (don't use root account)
• Enable MFA on root and IAM accounts

📖 How to Use This Guide

Document Structure

Each guide follows a consistent format:

• 🎯 Purpose - Clear objectives and use cases
• 🧠 Key Concepts - Essential terminology and theory
• 🛠️ Hands-on Labs - Step-by-step practical exercises
• ⚠️ Common Pitfalls - Mistakes to avoid
• 💡 Best Practices - Industry-standard recommendations
• 🔍 Troubleshooting - Common issues and solutions
• 📊 Cost Optimization - Tips to minimize expenses

Learning Approach

1. Read the theory - Understand concepts before implementation
2. Follow labs step-by-step - Hands-on practice is essential
3. Experiment safely - Use Free Tier resources for testing
4. Document your progress - Keep notes of configurations
5. Clean up resources - Avoid unexpected charges

🎓 Learning Objectives

By completing this guide, you will be able to:

Security & Access Management

• ✅ Implement proper IAM policies and user management
• ✅ Configure multi-factor authentication
• ✅ Apply principle of least privilege
• ✅ Secure AWS resources using best practices

Storage & Data Management

• ✅ Design and implement S3 storage solutions
• ✅ Configure EBS volumes for optimal performance
• ✅ Create and manage snapshots for backup/recovery
• ✅ Implement data lifecycle and retention policies

Compute & Networking

• ✅ Deploy and manage EC2 instances effectively
• ✅ Configure security groups and network access
• ✅ Choose appropriate instance types for workloads
• ✅ Implement auto-scaling and load balancing concepts

Operations & Automation

• ✅ Create and manage AMIs for consistent deployments
• ✅ Implement automated cleanup and maintenance scripts
• ✅ Monitor resource usage and optimize costs
• ✅ Troubleshoot common AWS issues

🧪 Hands-on Labs & Projects

Beginner Projects

1. Personal Website Hosting - Deploy a static website using S3 and CloudFront
2. Secure File Storage - Create encrypted S3 buckets with proper access controls
3. Web Server Setup - Launch and configure a basic web server on EC2

Intermediate Projects

4. Multi-tier Application - Deploy a web app with separate database server
5. Backup Strategy Implementation - Automated EBS snapshots and S3 lifecycle
6. Custom AMI Pipeline - Create standardized server images for deployment

Advanced Challenges

7. High Availability Setup - Multi-AZ deployment with load balancing
8. Disaster Recovery Plan - Cross-region backup and recovery procedures
9. Cost Optimization Audit - Analyze and optimize existing AWS resources

🔗 Essential Resources

Official AWS Documentation

• AWS Free Tier - Start with free resources
• AWS Well-Architected Framework - Best practices
• AWS CLI Reference - Command line tools
• AWS Pricing Calculator - Cost estimation

Learning Resources

• AWS Training and Certification - Official courses
• AWS Whitepapers - In-depth technical guides
• AWS Architecture Center - Reference architectures
• AWS Blog - Latest updates and tutorials

Community & Support

• AWS Forums - Community discussions
• AWS re:Post - Q&A platform
• AWS Reddit Community - Informal discussions
• Stack Overflow AWS Tag - Technical questions

⚠️ Important Considerations

Security Best Practices

• Never share AWS credentials in code or public repositories
• Always use IAM users instead of root account for daily operations
• Enable MFA on all accounts with console access
• Regularly rotate access keys and review permissions
• Monitor billing to detect unauthorized usage

Cost Management

• Set up billing alerts before starting any labs
• Use Free Tier resources whenever possible
• Clean up resources immediately after completing exercises
• Understand pricing models before launching paid services
• Monitor usage through AWS Cost Explorer

Free Tier Limits (12 months)

• EC2: 750 hours/month of t2.micro instances
• S3: 5GB storage, 20,000 GET requests, 2,000 PUT requests
• EBS: 30GB of General Purpose SSD storage
• Data Transfer: 15GB outbound per month

🚨 Troubleshooting Guide

Common Issues

Connection Problems

• SSH key permissions (chmod 400 keyfile.pem)
• Security group configuration
• Instance state verification

Permission Errors

• IAM policy attachments
• Resource-based policies
• Cross-account access issues

Billing Surprises

• Data transfer charges
• EBS snapshot storage
• Elastic IP addresses

Getting Help

1. Check AWS Service Health - status.aws.amazon.com
2. Review CloudTrail logs - Audit API calls and changes
3. Use AWS Support - Basic support included with all accounts
4. Community forums - Often fastest for common issues

📊 Progress Tracking

Completion Checklist

• [1] IAM: Created users, roles, and policies
• [2] S3: Configured buckets with proper security
• [3] EC2: Launched and managed instances
• [4] Security Groups: Configured network access
• [5] EBS: Attached storage and created snapshots
• [6] AMI: Created custom images
• [7] Cleanup: Implemented automation scripts
• [8] Project: Completed at least one end-to-end project

Next Steps

After completing this guide, consider:

• AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification
• Advanced services: RDS, Lambda, CloudFormation
• DevOps practices: CI/CD with AWS CodePipeline
• Monitoring: CloudWatch and AWS X-Ray
• Networking: VPC, Route 53, and Load Balancers

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📞 Support & Contributions

Found an Issue?

• Create an issue in this repository
• Include detailed steps to reproduce
• Specify which guide section needs correction

Want to Contribute?

• Fork this repository
• Add improvements or new content
• Submit a pull request with clear description

Stay Updated

• ⭐ Star this repository for updates
• 👀 Watch for new content releases
• 🔄 Pull latest changes regularly

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🎉 Ready to start your AWS journey? Begin with 01. IAM - Identity & Access Management!

Last updated: October 2025 | AWS Free Tier compatible