Performance efficiency pillar in AWS - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Implementing AWS Performance Efficiency Pillar Basics

📖 Scenario: You are working as a cloud engineer for a small e-commerce startup. The company wants to ensure their AWS infrastructure is designed to be efficient and scalable as their user base grows. You will create a simple AWS CloudFormation template to set up an EC2 Auto Scaling group with a load balancer to distribute traffic efficiently.

🎯 Goal: Build a CloudFormation template that defines an EC2 Auto Scaling group with a launch configuration and an Application Load Balancer. This setup will help the application handle varying traffic loads efficiently, demonstrating the Performance Efficiency pillar of AWS Well-Architected Framework.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Launch Configuration named MyLaunchConfig with instance type t3.micro and Amazon Linux 2 AMI.

Create an Auto Scaling Group named MyAutoScalingGroup using MyLaunchConfig with minimum size 1 and maximum size 3.

Create an Application Load Balancer named MyLoadBalancer with a listener on port 80.

Attach the Auto Scaling Group to the Load Balancer target group.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

This project models a common real-world scenario where applications need to handle changing traffic efficiently using AWS Auto Scaling and Load Balancing.

💼 Career

Understanding how to implement scalable infrastructure on AWS is essential for cloud engineers and architects to ensure performance efficiency in production environments.

1

Create the Launch Configuration

Write the CloudFormation YAML code to create a Launch Configuration named MyLaunchConfig with instance type t3.micro and Amazon Linux 2 AMI. Use the parameter AmiId for the AMI ID.

AWS

# Your code here to create MyLaunchConfig launch configuration

Need a hint?

The Launch Configuration defines the EC2 instance settings for the Auto Scaling Group.

2

Create the Auto Scaling Group

Add CloudFormation YAML code to create an Auto Scaling Group named MyAutoScalingGroup that uses the MyLaunchConfig launch configuration. Set the minimum size to 1 and maximum size to 3. Use MyTargetGroup as the target group for the load balancer.

AWS

Resources:
  MyLaunchConfig:
    Type: AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration
    Properties:
      ImageId: !Ref AmiId
      InstanceType: t3.micro

# Your code here to create MyAutoScalingGroup

Need a hint?

The Auto Scaling Group manages the number of EC2 instances based on demand.

3

Create the Application Load Balancer and Target Group

Add CloudFormation YAML code to create an Application Load Balancer named MyLoadBalancer with a listener on port 80. Also create a Target Group named MyTargetGroup for the Auto Scaling Group to register instances.

AWS

Resources:
  MyLaunchConfig:
    Type: AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration
    Properties:
      ImageId: !Ref AmiId
      InstanceType: t3.micro

  MyAutoScalingGroup:
    Type: AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup
    Properties:
      LaunchConfigurationName: !Ref MyLaunchConfig
      MinSize: 1
      MaxSize: 3
      TargetGroupARNs:
        - !Ref MyTargetGroup
      VPCZoneIdentifier:
        - subnet-12345678
        - subnet-87654321

# Your code here to create MyLoadBalancer and MyTargetGroup

Need a hint?

The Load Balancer distributes incoming traffic to the instances in the Auto Scaling Group.

4

Add Parameters and Outputs

Add a CloudFormation parameter named AmiId of type AWS::SSM::Parameter::Value to allow dynamic AMI selection. Also add an output named LoadBalancerDNS that outputs the DNS name of MyLoadBalancer.

AWS

Resources:
  MyLaunchConfig:
    Type: AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration
    Properties:
      ImageId: !Ref AmiId
      InstanceType: t3.micro

  MyAutoScalingGroup:
    Type: AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup
    Properties:
      LaunchConfigurationName: !Ref MyLaunchConfig
      MinSize: 1
      MaxSize: 3
      TargetGroupARNs:
        - !Ref MyTargetGroup
      VPCZoneIdentifier:
        - subnet-12345678
        - subnet-87654321

  MyLoadBalancer:
    Type: AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::LoadBalancer
    Properties:
      Name: MyLoadBalancer
      Subnets:
        - subnet-12345678
        - subnet-87654321
      Scheme: internet-facing

  MyTargetGroup:
    Type: AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::TargetGroup
    Properties:
      Name: MyTargetGroup
      Port: 80
      Protocol: HTTP
      VpcId: vpc-12345678

  MyListener:
    Type: AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::Listener
    Properties:
      LoadBalancerArn: !Ref MyLoadBalancer
      Port: 80
      Protocol: HTTP
      DefaultActions:
        - Type: forward
          TargetGroupArn: !Ref MyTargetGroup

# Your code here to add AmiId parameter and LoadBalancerDNS output

Need a hint?

Parameters allow dynamic input. Outputs show important information after deployment.