Cloud Resume Challenge Blogstravaganza
Published: 2020-07-31 19:43:45

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That was me after five mornings and late nights of completing the [Cloud Resume Challenge] (https://forrestbrazeal.com/2020/04/23/the-cloud-resume-challenge/) set forth by Forrest Brazeal. I've been delving into cloud since a brief stint as a network engineer when I was somehow just...expected...to know how AWS networking worked. Because Cisco switches and VPCs are the same thing, apparently. Anyway, I enjoyed what I learned and decided to go further. After getting my Solutions Architect Associate cert in May I stumbled across the challenge on LinkedIn. I decided to undertake it, but didn't start until 5 days before a deadline I had previously not known existed. That was...not smart. BUT I knocked it out and now you get to hear about all my trials and tribulations! WHO'S EXCITED? Oh yeah, here's the [finished product] (https://forteric.com).

Brief background on me: I know a lot about servers, switches, routers, cables, and all manner of horrific user interaction, but very little about development. I worked on one AWS network but was confined to changing security groups, messing with subnets, etc.; didn't get to see too much cool stuff apart from designing one Lambda to turn some servers off. I had abandoned around six Python courses halfway through before attempting this challenge.

I won't detail every step but I'll try to get some relatable trouble spots out there.

THE BEGINNING:

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I had my cert already, so I had to get a website done. I did what any lazy person would do and used a template. Only once I was deep into the project did I see another challenger used the same one; c'est la vie. Changed the HTML to match my info and that was that. The single easy part of the challenge was over.

THE REST OF IT. ALL QUITE DIFFICULT FOR LIL' OL' ME:

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All right. So we have to make a website counter. I used to see those all the time in the golden web age of the late 90s. Can't be too difficult, right? WELL WAIT RIGHT THERE. We need to create a Lambda function that queries DynamoDB to return a response and I think my head will explode. This was the first big hurdle; just being comfortable with being totally lost. Luckily there are a lot of kind people in the world who put their knowledge on the internet for free for us newbies to look at. I was able to get everything up and running after two days of crushing failure. I WAS SO HAPPY.

Then I realized I had to make this whole thing into infrastructure as code. MORE. CODE. WHY. I guess it's important. This was another knowledge black hole for me, but AWS actually has a [tutorial] (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/serverless-application-model/latest/developerguide/serverless-getting-started-hello-world.html) which gave me enough hand-holding to get through. I was on a roll. Feeling good about myself. Plenty of time left.

Then Github Actions happened.

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I barely knew how to use Git, which made the assumed knowledge of its "Actions" features a huge obstacle. I did a brief Git refresher to get the basics down, then hit a wall. I COULD NOT get these things to work.

Here's a secret though: PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY MADE ACTIONS. They just give 'em away! For you to use!!! So after two days of despair I used a couple of pre-builts and what do you know; things worked. I made a Python test (took it straight from SAM INIT) and wrote enough dirty code for it to eventually pass and deploy. Did the same for the front end sans testing.

Last thing was to create my Cloudfront distro. I already had a domain name from some abandoned venture or another. I put this off until the end because someone told me it would rack up charges but I guess it's in free tier so TRUST NO ONE.

So there it is. I got it done. It feels...good! There are so many steps involved but each one is a treasure trove of learning if you take the time. I feel at least 26% smarter now. Now once anyone sees my code, it may be a different story, but let me bask in this moment!