AWS VPC Deep Dive: Three Hands-On Networking Builds I built these three networks to understand AWS networking as one full traffic path. I didn’t want to just learn a pile of separate resources. I started with public and private subnets. Then I added controlled outbound access and a bastion. Next I connected two VPCs with peering. Last, I built a segmented hub-and-spoke design with AWS Transit Gateway. I kept asking one question the whole time. For any packet, what route does it take, and what could allow or block it? ...

Automating EC2 Patching with AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager I moved an Ubuntu EC2 instance off manual update checks and onto a repeatable patching workflow in AWS Systems Manager. First I made sure Systems Manager could manage the instance. Then I ran a scan with the AWS baseline and built my own Ubuntu baseline. Last, I scheduled it with a Maintenance Window. It uses several Systems Manager features together: Maintenance Window | v Run Command task: AWS-RunPatchBaseline | v Patch baseline + tagged managed nodes | v Compliance results and optional S3 logs I used the classic flow with a baseline, a patch group, and a Maintenance Window. AWS also has patch policies now. Compare the current options before you standardize on one for production. ...

I built a full deployment path for a static Node.js website hosted in Azure Storage. Terraform creates the infrastructure. Azure DevOps builds and publishes the app. Then I put the public site behind DNS, Cloudflare, and Azure Front Door. The work had four parts. I set up Terraform and Azure CLI on Ubuntu. I configured Azure DevOps automation. I deployed the storage-backed site. Then I added DNS and security controls in front of it. ...

I deployed a full three-tier app on Amazon EKS. It has a React frontend, a Flask backend, and PostgreSQL on Amazon RDS. I exposed it with the AWS Load Balancer Controller and pointed a custom Route 53 domain at it. Then I added HTTPS with cert-manager and AWS Certificate Manager. Important: A lot of the IDs below are specific to my environment. That includes account IDs, subnet IDs, security group IDs, hosted zone IDs, domain names, certificate ARNs, and RDS endpoints. Swap in your own. Use a unique database password and keep credentials out of Git. ...

I tested the boundary a Route 53 private hosted zone creates. I launched an EC2 instance in each of two VPCs. I linked only one VPC to the hosted zone. Then I compared DNS lookups from both instances. Only the custom VPC is associated with the Route 53 private hosted zone. These screenshots are from an older AWS console, so the layout may look different now. The VPC association behavior is what matters. ...

A basic Terraform demo proves infrastructure as code works. Real infrastructure needs more than one config and a manual terraform apply. I built this project to look more like a real workflow. It has reusable Terraform modules and separate dev and prod environments. It uses remote state, dependency handling, and automated CI/CD. It authenticates to AWS with short-lived credentials. It also runs security checks, policy checks, and cost estimates. The stack: ...

Hands-On EC2 Monitoring with Amazon CloudWatch I built a basic monitoring setup around an EC2 instance. I started with the metrics EC2 publishes on its own. Then I made a CPU alarm that emails me through SNS. I installed the CloudWatch Agent for OS metrics and Apache logs. Last, I put the useful signals on one dashboard. EC2 monitoring with CloudWatch metrics, alarms, logs, and dashboards ...