Build an AWS Migration Environment and Configure the Web Services

Step 1: Build an AWS Migration Environment and Configure the Web Services 

The BallotOnline management has asked you to build out an environment as a proof of concept on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to migrate the BallotOnline web service. This environment will consist of  virtual servers  or virtual machines made up of two instances of EC2 that will both be used to serve out the BallotOnline website.

You will use  AWS Elastic Load Balancer  to split the traffic going to this site (so each of the EC2 instance will serve half of the Internet traffic) and you will also use  AWS Auto Scaling  to ensure that the servers can scale to support the demand. (In our specific instance, we want to make sure if one of the servers is down, a new instance will automatically be spun up.)

After the basic infrastructure is provisioned, then you will configure the web servers to be able to provide web services.

As you build out this environment, you will capture your progress with screenshots as indicated in the lab instructions.

Lab results should include the following items:

· Screenshots of your progress in completing the labs (refer to lab instructions)

· URL to your test migration website

· Brief summary of your progress in completing the lab

Step 2: Test Web Services Migration 

In the previous step, you built out infrastructure on AWS as a proof of concept to support BallotOnline's website.

Now, you will configure the EC2 instances with NGIX, a widely used web service and test the migration of the BallotOnline web site to these EC2 instances.

BallotOnline is concerned about performing an actual migration, so you will instead deploy the company's website code to the web servers that you configured in the previous step. The current webmaster of the BallotOnline website has provided you with the files to migrate to AWS.  The files are compressed in a zip file and can be accessed at www.ballotonline.biz/website.zip. 

Finally, you will perform a test to ensure that the new web services are available.

As you perform your test, you will capture your progress with screenshots as indicated in the lab instructions.

Lab results should include the following items:

· Screenshots of your progress in completing the labs (refer to lab instructions)

· URL to your test migration website

· Brief summary of your progress in completing the lab

Step 3: Prepare a Test-Environment Monitoring Dashboard 

In this step, you will learn how AWS CloudWatch can be used to monitor system performance. You will create a CloudWatch dashboard in this step to monitor the resources in your test environment.

In addition to system performance, cloud users can also monitor their billing charges being accrued as cloud resources are provisioned and used. AWS provides a special set of metrics for monitoring billing charges, which can be used to set up a billing dashboard. You will not work with billing dashboards in this course, but it is worthwhile to know what they are and how to use them.

Step 4: Cause Site Outages and Report Results 

Part of the development process includes anticipating possible problems that may come up, testing them, and capturing the results in the monitoring dashboard. In order to do that, you will perform another lab.

You will cause the following outages while performing this lab:

· Shut down one web server. This should not cause any site outages but will enable you to validate that the BallotOnline website is highly available due to the Auto Scaling feature used.

· Shut down both web servers.

· Misconfigure a web server, causing it to fail to start.

The lab instructions detail the process and indicate where to capture screenshots.

Step 5: Submit Final Report to Executive Management 

In the previous step, you performed a test migration of BallotOnline's web services to AWS. Now, you will document the lessons learned during the buildout of the AWS environments and your test migration in your final report to BallotOnline management.

Here are some areas to consider:

· What challenges did you encounter while building out the AWS environment?

· Did you encounter any errors while building out the AWS environment? If so, elaborate.

· Did you encounter any issues while testing the migration? If so, elaborate. 

Compile a final report for management that includes an  executive summary , all lab reports, and lessons learned, and a summary of the lessons learned from the project.

Use the  Final Report to Executive Management Template  to submit your work to the assignment dropbox below.