The Ultimate Guide to Mastering EC2 Compute Instances and a Step-by-Step Deployment Project
Tags: aws, devops, virtualmachine, cloud
Published: 2024-06-26 17:20:38

## **Introduction**

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a cornerstone of Amazon Web Services (AWS), providing resizable compute capacity in the cloud. EC2 allows users to launch virtual servers, known as instances, which can be configured to meet specific needs. This flexibility makes EC2 a critical tool in cloud computing, enabling scalable and cost-effective solutions for a variety of applications.

**

## Types of EC2 Instances
**
AWS offers a wide range of EC2 instance types, each optimized for different workloads. Understanding these options helps you choose the right instance for your specific needs.

## General Purpose
General Purpose instances are versatile and provide a balanced mix of compute, memory, and networking resources. They are ideal for a wide range of applications.
**

- t3
**: Burstable performance instances that provide a baseline level of CPU performance with the ability to burst to higher levels. Suitable for general-purpose workloads such as web servers, small databases, and development environments.
**

- m5:
** Offer a balance of compute, memory, and networking resources. These instances are ideal for applications like web servers, app servers, and back-end servers for enterprise applications.
Compute Optimized
Compute Optimized instances are designed for compute-bound applications that benefit from high-performance processors.
**

- c5:
** Provide a high ratio of compute to memory and are ideal for CPU-intensive tasks such as high-performance web servers, scientific modeling, and batch processing workloads.

## Memory Optimized
Memory Optimized instances are designed to deliver fast performance for workloads that process large datasets in memory.
**r5:** These instances are optimized for memory-intensive applications such as high-performance databases, big data analytics, in-memory caching, and real-time processing of large datasets.

## Storage Optimized
Storage Optimized instances are designed for workloads that require high, sequential read and write access to large datasets on local storage.
**

- i3:
** Ideal for storage-heavy workloads, these instances offer high IOPS for databases, data warehousing, Elasticsearch, and other data-intensive applications.
**

## Accelerated Computing

Accelerated Computing instances use hardware accelerators, or co-processors, to perform functions such as floating-point number calculations, graphics processing, or data pattern matching more efficiently than software running on general-purpose CPUs.
**

- p3:
** These instances are optimized for machine learning, high-performance computing (HPC), computational fluid dynamics, computational finance, seismic analysis, speech recognition, autonomous vehicles, and video transcoding.
**

## Availability Zones and Regions

**

- Availability Zones (AZs):
** Physically separate data centers within an AWS region. Each AZ is isolated but interconnected with other AZs in the region through low-latency links.
**

- Regions:
** Geographically separate areas that contain multiple availability zones. Each region operates independently and is designed to be isolated from failures in other regions.
**

## Importance
**
Selecting the right region and availability zone is crucial for optimizing latency, ensuring compliance with local regulations, and achieving high availability and fault tolerance.
**

## Selection Criteria

- 
**Latency:**
Choose a region geographically close to your users for lower latency.

**- Compliance:**
 Ensure the region meets any data residency requirements.

**- Cost:**
 Pricing can vary by region, so consider cost-efficiency when selecting a region.
**

- Service Availability:
** Not all AWS services are available in every region, so ensure the required services are supported in your chosen region.


**

## Step-by-Step Project: Deploying Jenkins on AWS
**


## Step 1: Creating an Ubuntu EC2 Instance


- 
Launch EC2 Instance:

- 
Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

- 
Navigate to EC2 Dashboard.

- 
Click on “Launch Instance.”

- 
Choose the “Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS” AMI.

- 
Select an instance type (e.g., t3.medium).

- 
Configure instance details, add storage, and tag the instance.

- 
Configure security group: Allow SSH (port 22) and HTTP (port 80).

- 
Review and launch the instance, and download the key pair for SSH access.

## **2. Configure Security Groups:**
Ensure your security group allows inbound traffic on the necessary ports (SSH, HTTP).



## Step 2: Connecting to the EC2 Instance


- 
Open Terminal and SSH into Instance:

```
ssh -i /path/to/your-key-pair.pem ubuntu@your-ec2-public-dns
```

**2. Troubleshooting Tips:**
Ensure the key pair file permissions are set to read-only:

```
chmod 400 /path/to/your-key-pair.pem
```

## Step 3: Installing Jenkins

- 
Update Package List and Install Java:

```
sudo apt update sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk -y
```

- 
Install Jenkins:

```
wget -q -O - https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian/jenkins.io.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo sh -c 'echo deb http://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable binary/ > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jenkins.list'
sudo apt update
sudo apt install jenkins -y
```

- 
Start Jenkins:

```
sudo systemctl start jenkins 
sudo systemctl enable jenkins
```

## Step 4: Configuring Jenkins

- 
Unlock Jenkins:

_Open a web browser and navigate to http://your-ec2-public-dns:8080.
Retrieve the initial admin password:_
```
sudo cat /var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPassword
```

- 
Complete Setup:
_Follow the on-screen instructions to install suggested plugins.
Create the first admin user._

## Step 5: Securing the Jenkins Instance
- 
Configure Firewall:
_Update your security group to restrict access to Jenkins.
Set up rules to allow only specific IP addresses._

- 
Set Up HTTPS:
_Install and configure a reverse proxy (e.g., Nginx) to handle HTTPS connections._
**

## Conclusion
**
Amazon EC2 offers a versatile and powerful platform for deploying a wide range of applications. Understanding the different instance types and how to effectively use availability zones and regions can help you optimize performance and cost. By following the detailed steps to deploy Jenkins on an EC2 instance, you can leverage the full potential of AWS for your development and operational needs. Experimenting with different configurations will allow you to tailor your environment to best meet your specific requirements.