AWS User Group Dubai 2021 Container Series Meetups
Tags: aws, cloud, devops
Published: 2021-09-14 20:37:50

## Details

This series of talks and hands-on workshops around the concept of "_AWS cloud-native modern applications_" introduces AWS cloud platform in that light. Starting with the core building blocks of modernizing traditional applications, and how to capitalize on AWS services and capabilities to build a better resilient, reliable application with cloud-native design in mind.

It's 2021. There is a need to find ways to speed up the process of deploying, scaling, and automating our applications, also enable developers and operations teams "_DevOps_" to collaborate effectively, work efficiently, save resources, and solve the matrix from Hell problems. The magic word here is Containers. This is a pragmatic hands-on series of workshops to introduce members to AWS container workloads focusing on the fundamentals and where to start, AWS Containers 101 workshop.

- Conception & leadership: AWS Container Hero **Walid Shaari**
- Organizer: AWS Community Hero **Anas Khattar**
- Outreach: AWS Community Hero **Ahmed Samir**
- Speakers:
    - AWS Container Hero **Walid Shaari**
    - AWS Container Hero **Vlad Ionescu**

Follow AWS UG Dubai on Twitter: [@awsdubai](https://twitter.com/awsdubai) and [@AWSomeMENA](https://twitter.com/AWSomeMENA)!

## Intro to Containers 101

![Cover image for the first talk](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/07rqf2tjsg5yefrb5up6.png)

In the first talk of this new series, we will introduce the format for this multi-talk series. After that, we’ll discuss containers in an abstract way. Why do we use containers? What are some different ways of running containers?

Agenda:
- Intro to this series: speakers, format, sponsors
- What are some ideal use cases for containers?
- How can we run containers in production?
- Open discussions, Q&A

Keywords:
- Containers, Docker, OCI
- AWS ECS, Amazon EKS, Kubernetes, Lambda Containers, Serverless
- Immutable Infrastructure, Virtual Machines, VMs
- Gitpod, GitHub Codespaces

📆 Date: Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, at 8:30 PM UTC +4

🌍 Venue: online, see all the details at [AWS UG Dubai Meetup #8 (virtual): Part 1 - Intro to Containers 101](https://www.meetup.com/AWS-Dubai/events/280711543/)

🎥 Video recording of the meetup: [here on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwbPlk-KE7s)

## Building Containers 102

![Cover image for the second talk](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/oo0xm708vdyg3q206zdj.png)

In this session we will discuss everything about building containers. What’s a container image? how do we build a container image? and the definition of OCI will be covered. We will end this talk with some best practices, and we will build up some excitement for the workshop!

Agenda:
- Container workflows
- Docker
- Dockerfiles
- Building an image
- Tagging an image
- Running a container from an image
- Best practices and helpful tools

Keywords:
- Dockerfiles
- Docker, OCI, Open Container Initiative
- GitHub Actions, CircleCI
- AWS ECR, Github Container Registry, Dockerhub, Quay
- Hadolint, Snyk, Dependabot, Dive

📆 Date: Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021, at 8:30 PM UTC +4

🌍 Venue: online, see all the details at [AWS UG Dubai Meetup #9 (virtual): Part 2 - Building Containers 102](https://www.meetup.com/AWS-Dubai/events/280722294/)

🎥 Video recording of the meetup: [here on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTzAD0s3kd4)

## Building Containers 102 Lab

![Cover image for the workshop](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/79jq2bko622tqt8rwpuv.png)

In this hands-on lab you will learn how to build containers for different applications. After a short introduction, each student will open a pre-configured Gitpod workspace and build container images for 3 applications: one Go app, one Python app, and a React app! Once an image is built, we will push the image to Amazon Elastic Container Registry. For extra credit, we will also inspect the image we built. No previous experience with Docker, Go, Python, React, or Javascript is required!

This will be a live and guided workshop, leveraging Zoom, Slack, and Gitpod.

Requirements:
- GitHub account
- Gitpod account (can be created instantly)
- An active AWS account (if you don’t have an AWS account, you can do the first half of the workshop)

Keywords:
- AWS, ECR, Amazon Elastic Container Registry, Github Container Registry, Dockerhub, Quay
- Workshop, Interactive, Live, Guided
- Docker, OCI, Containerd, Buildkit, GitHub Actions

📆 Date: Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021, at 8:30 PM UTC +4

🌍 Venue: online, see all the details at [AWS UG Dubai Meetup #10 (virtual): Part 3 - Building Containers Lab](https://www.meetup.com/AWS-Dubai/events/280722765/)

🎥 Video recording of the meetup: [here on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87KSsZtH1uw)

Links:
- [The React exercise](https://github.com/Vlaaaaaaad/aws-ug-dbx-2021-building-containers-workshop-react-app)
- [The Go exercise](https://github.com/Vlaaaaaaad/aws-ug-dbx-2021-building-containers-workshop-golang-app)
- [The Python exercise](https://github.com/Vlaaaaaaad/aws-ug-dbx-2021-building-containers-workshop-python-app)
- [The React exercise](https://github.com/Vlaaaaaaad/aws-ug-dbx-2021-building-containers-workshop-react-app)
- [The source for all the apps: poc-hello-world](https://github.com/poc-hello-world)
- [Docker's build-and-push GitHub Action](https://github.com/docker/build-push-action)
- [Gitpod, the development environment we used](https://gitpod.io)

## Application Modernization with Amazon EKS

![Cover image for the fourth talk](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/sq0897hj7ivyuf0hstgt.png)

In this session, we will explore the popular workload manager and scheduler Kubernetes. Amazon managed Kubernetes service, Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (Amazon EKS)  takes care of the heavy-lifting and lets one focus on managing the containerized workloads. EKS, however, still gives you the flexibility and choice where to run, and how to efficiently run your data-plane that hosts your workloads. In this session, we cover what you need to know to get your application up and running with Kubernetes on AWS. We show how Amazon EKS makes deploying Kubernetes on AWS simple and scalable.

Agenda:
- Review the general Kubernetes architecture and relate to EKS
- How to set up and provision your Kubernetes cluster using console and eksctl.
- Discuss the important abstractions that developers use to map their traditional application into any kubernetes platform.
- How to deploy software efficiently, while sustaining reliable and scalable applications. 
- Deploy your first microservices on EKS
- EKS possible development deployment workflow

Keywords:
- EKS-Distro, EKS-Anywhere
- Fargate, data plane
- YAML, Helm, Gitops, Operators
- Pod, Deployment, Service, ConfigMap, Secret

📆 Date: Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, at 8:30 PM UTC +4

🌍 Venue: online, see all the details at [AWS UG Dubai Meetup #11: Part 4 - Application Modernization with Amazon EKS](https://www.meetup.com/AWS-Dubai/events/280723703/)

🎥 Video recording of the meetup: [to be posted here on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/c/AWSomeMENA/videos)