Introduction to AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s leading cloud platform, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally. It helps businesses scale without investing in physical infrastructure.

AWS Basics

AWS Management Console

A web-based user interface for accessing all AWS services, creating resources, and monitoring usage. Ideal for beginners to explore.

AWS CLI

The Command Line Interface allows automation of AWS tasks, scripting deployments, and batch operations.

# Configure AWS CLI with credentials
aws configure
      

Regions & Availability Zones

AWS resources are deployed in specific regions (geographic locations). Each region has multiple Availability Zones (data centers) to ensure redundancy.

Compute Services

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Virtual servers to run applications, websites, and workloads.

# Launch an EC2 instance
aws ec2 run-instances \
--image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 \
--count 1 \
--instance-type t2.micro \
--key-name MyKeyPair \
--security-group-ids sg-12345 \
--subnet-id subnet-67890
      

Lambda (Serverless Computing)

Run code without provisioning servers. Automatically scales based on demand.

# Create a Lambda function
aws lambda create-function \
--function-name MyFunction \
--runtime python3.9 \
--role arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/execution_role \
--handler lambda_function.lambda_handler \
--zip-file fileb://function.zip
      

Storage Services

S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Object storage for files, images, backups, and big data.

# Create an S3 bucket
aws s3 mb s3://mybucket

# Upload a file
aws s3 cp myfile.txt s3://mybucket/
      

EBS (Elastic Block Store)

Persistent disk storage for EC2 instances.

# Create EBS volume
aws ec2 create-volume --size 10 --availability-zone us-east-1a --volume-type gp2
      

Glacier

Long-term archival storage at very low cost.

Networking & Security

VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)

Create isolated networks for your resources with subnets, route tables, and gateways.

Security Groups & IAM

# List IAM users
aws iam list-users

# Attach Admin policy
aws iam attach-user-policy \
--user-name John \
--policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess
      

Database Services

RDS (Relational Database Service)

Managed SQL databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server.

DynamoDB

Fully managed NoSQL database for high performance and scalability.

# Create DynamoDB table
aws dynamodb create-table \
--table-name Users \
--attribute-definitions AttributeName=UserId,AttributeType=S \
--key-schema AttributeName=UserId,KeyType=HASH \
--provisioned-throughput ReadCapacityUnits=5,WriteCapacityUnits=5
      

Monitoring & Management

CloudWatch

Monitor logs, metrics, and create alarms for resources.

CloudTrail

Track all API activity for auditing and compliance.

# Enable CloudTrail
aws cloudtrail create-trail --name MyTrail --s3-bucket-name my-bucket
      

Advanced AWS Concepts

Auto Scaling

Automatically scale EC2 instances based on demand.

Load Balancing

Distribute traffic across multiple servers for availability.

Elastic Beanstalk

Deploy apps without managing infrastructure.

CloudFormation

Define infrastructure as code.

# Deploy CloudFormation stack
aws cloudformation create-stack \
--stack-name MyStack \
--template-body file://template.yaml
      

Hands-On Exercises

• Launch a free-tier EC2 instance and connect via SSH.
• Create an S3 bucket and upload/download files.
• Write a Lambda function that triggers on S3 upload.
• Configure IAM users with least privilege policies.
• Create a DynamoDB table and perform CRUD operations.