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Note
The exercises in this course will have an associated charge in your AWS account. In
this exercise, you create or use the following resources:

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policy and user (policies and users
are AWS account features, offered at no additional charge)
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) load balancer
AWS Auto Scaling
Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic

Familiarize yourself with Amazon EC2 pricing, Elastic Load Balancing pricing, AWS
Auto Scaling pricing, Amazon SNS pricing, and the AWS Free Tier.

Exercise 7: Load Balancing and Auto

Scaling
For this scenario, you are tasked with setting up an ELB load balancer and an Auto Scaling
group so that your application can scale horizontally.

In this exercise, you first launch another EC2 instance. You then create an Application Load
Balancer and a launch template. Next, you set up an Auto Scaling group that uses the load
balancer and launch template that you created. Finally, you test and stress the application,
and watch your application scale in real time.

Task 1: Launching an EC2 instance

In this task, you will launch an EC2 instance that hosts the application.

1. If needed, log in to the AWS Management Console as your Admin user.

2. Search for and open EC2.

3. In the navigation pane, choose Instances.

4. Select the check box for the employee-directory-app-exercise6 instance, which

should be in the Stopped state.

5. Choose Actions and then choose Image and templates, Launch more like this.

6. For Name and at the end of the Value, append -exercise7 .

Example:

employee-directory-app-exercise7
 7. For Key pair name, select app-key-pair.

8. Under Network settings and Auto-assign Public IP, choose Enable.

9. Choose Launch instance.

10. Choose View all instances.

The instance should now be in the Instances list.

11. Wait for the Instance state to change to Running and the Status check to change to
2/2 checks passed.

12. Select the check box for employee-directory-app-exercise7.

13. On the Details tab, copy the Public IPv4 address and paste it into a new browser
window.

14. In a new browser window, paste the IP address that you copied. Make sure to remove
the ‘S’ after HTTP so you are using only HTTP instead.

Task 2: Creating the Application Load Balancer

In this task, you will create the Application Load Balancer.

1. Return to the Amazon EC2 console.

2. In the navigation pane, under Load Balancing, choose Load Balancers.

3. Choose Create Load Balancer.

4. On the Application Load Balancer card, choose Create.

5. Configure the following load balancer settings.

Load balancer name: app-alb
VPC: app-vpc
Mappings: Select both Availability Zones
Example: If you are in US West (Oregon), you would select both us-west-
2a and us-west-2b
First Availability Zone Subnet: Public Subnet 1
Second Availability Zone Subnet: Public Subnet 2

6. In the Security groups section, remove the default security group (by choosing the X)
and choose Create new security group.

A new window opens for creating a security group.

7. Configure the following security group settings:

Security group name: load-balancer-sg
Description: HTTP access
VPC: If needed, paste the VPC ID for app-vpc and choose it when it appears
under the box
Note: You can find the app-vpc ID by opening the VPC console in a new
window
Inbound rules: Add Rule
Type: HTTP
Source: Anywhere-IPv4

8. Choose Create security group.

 9. Close the security group browser window or return to the Load balancers window.

10. For Security groups, add the new load-balancer-sg group. Note: To see the new
security group, you might need to refresh the Security groups list.

11. In Listeners and routing, choose Create target group.

A new window opens for creating a target group.

12. For Specify group details, configure the following settings.

Choose a target type: Keep Instances selected
Target group name: app-target-group
Health checks: Expand Advanced health check settings and configure the
following:
Healthy threshold: 2
Unhealthy threshold: 5
Timeout: 30
Interval: 40

13. Choose Next.

14. For Register targets, select employee-directory-app-exercise7 and choose Include

as pending below.

15. Choose Create target group.

16. Close the target groups window or return to the Load balancers window.

17. Under Listeners and routing, refresh the available listener and choose app-target-
group.

18. Finally, choose Create load balancer.

19. Choose View load balancer.

20. Make sure that app-alb is selected and wait for the load balancer State to become
Active.

21. On the Description tab, copy DNS name and paste it into a text editor of your choice.

22. In the text editor, at the beginning of the URL, add http:// .

Example:

http://app-elb-123456789012.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com

23. Copy the DNS name (with http:// added) and paste it into a new browser window.

You should see the employee directory application.

Task 3: Creating the launch template

Now that you can access your application from a singular DNS name, you can scale the
application horizontally. To scale horizontally, you need a launch template. In this task, you
will create a launch template.

1. Back in the console, if needed, search for and open EC2.

2. In the navigation pane, under Instances, choose Launch Templates.

 3. Choose Create launch template and configure the following settings.
Launch template name: app-launch-template
Template version description: A web server for the employee directory
application
Auto Scaling guidance: Provide guidance to help me set up a template that I
can use with EC2 Auto Scaling
Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image) - required: Currently in
use
Instance type: t2.micro
Key pair name: app-key-pair
Security groups: web-security-group

4. Expand the Advanced details section.

5. For IAM instance profile, choose S3DynamoDBFullAccessRole.

6. Scroll to User data and paste the following code:

#!/bin/bash -ex
wget https://aws-tc-largeobjects.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/DEV-AWS-MO-GCNv2/FlaskApp
unzip FlaskApp.zip
cd FlaskApp/
yum -y install python3-pip
pip install -r requirements.txt
yum -y install stress
export PHOTOS_BUCKET=${SUB_PHOTOS_BUCKET}
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=<INSERT REGION HERE>
export DYNAMO_MODE=on
FLASK_APP=application.py /usr/local/bin/flask run --host=0.0.0.0 --port=80

7. In the user data code, replace the PHOTOS_BUCKET placeholder value with the name of
your bucket.

Example:

export PHOTOS_BUCKET=employee-photo-bucket-al-907

8. Replace the AWS_DEFAULT_REGION placeholder value with your Region (the Region is
listed at the top right, next to your user name).

Example:

This example uses US West (Oregon) (us-west-2) as the Region.

export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-west-2

9. Choose Create launch template.

10. Choose View Launch templates.

Task 4: Creating the Auto Scaling group

In this task, you will create the Auto Scaling group.
 1. In the navigation pane, under Auto Scaling, choose Auto Scaling Groups.

2. Choose Create Auto Scaling group.

3. For Choose launch template or configuration, configure these settings:

Auto Scaling group name: app-asg
Launch template: app-launch-template

4. Choose Next.

5. For Choose instance launch options, configure these settings:

VPC: app-vpc
Availability Zones and subnets: Choose the Availability Zones with Public
Subnet 1 and Public Subnet 2

6. Choose Next.

7. For Configure advanced options, use these settings:

Load balancing: Attach to an existing load balancer
Attach to an existing load balancer: Choose from your load balancer target
groups
Existing load balancer target groups: app-target-group
Health checks: ELB

8. Choose Next.

9. For Configure group size and scaling policies, use these settings:
Desired capacity: 2
Minimum capacity: 2
Maximum capacity: 4
Scaling policies: Target tracking scaling policy
Target value: 60
Instances need: 300

10. Choose Next.

11. For Add notifications, choose Add notification and configure these settings:
SNS Topic: Create a topic
Send a notification to: app-sns-topic
With these recipients: Enter your email address

12. Choose Next and then choose Next again.

13. Choose Create Auto Scaling group.

You should receive an AWS Notification - Subscription Confirmation email.

14. Open this email message and choose Confirm subscription.

A web browser window should open with a Subscription confirmed! message.

Task 5: Testing the application

In this task, you will stress-test the application and confirm that it scales.

1. Return to the Amazon EC2 console.

2. In the navigation pane, under Load Balancing, choose Target Groups.

 3. Make sure that app-target-group is selected and choose the Targets tab.

You should see two additional instances launching.

4. Wait until the Status for both instances is healthy.

5. In the navigation pane, choose Load Balancers and make sure that app-alb is
selected.

6. Again, copy the DNS name and paste it into a text editor of your choice.

7. In the text editor, at the beginning of the URL, add http:// and copy the modified
URL.

Example:

http://app-elb-123456789012.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com

8. In a new browser window, paste the URL.

9. At the end of the URL, append /info .

Example:

http://app-alb-123456789012.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com/info

You should see an Instance Info page, which shows which instance_id and
availability_zone you are being routed to.

10. Refresh the page a few times. Each time, note that the values for instance_id or
availability_zone can be different from the previous ones.

Now, you need to test auto scaling by stressing the CPU of the instance.

11. For Stress cpu, choose 10 min.

The top of the browser window should show a message that says Stressing CPU.

12. Wait for 10 minutes and after the 10 minutes are over, return to the Amazon EC2
console window.

13. In the navigation pane, under Load Balancing, choose Target Groups.

14. Select app-target-group and choose the Targets tab.

You should see additional instances were launched because of the stress test. You should
also see a notification email.

Task 6: Deleting the course resources

In this task, you will delete all the resources that you created in your AWS account so that
you don’t incur additional costs.

1. Delete the Auto Scaling group.

In the Amazon EC2 navigation pane, choose Auto Scaling groups.
Select app-asg and choose Delete.
In the box, enter delete and choose Delete.
 2. Delete the Application Load Balancer.
In the Amazon EC2 navigation pane, choose Load Balancers.
Select app-elb, choose Actions, and then chooseDelete.
Confirm the deletion by choosing Yes, Delete.
3. Delete the target group.
In the Amazon EC2 navigation pane, choose Target Groups.
Select app-target-group, choose Actions and then choose Delete.
Confirm the deletion by choosing Yes, delete.
4. Terminate all the EC2 instances that you created during this course.
In the Amazon EC2 navigation pane, choose Instances.
Select all the EC2 instances that you created for this course (all instances that
start with employee-directory-app)
Choose Instance State and then choose Terminate instance.
Confirm the deletion by choosing Terminate.
5. Delete the DynamoDB table.
Return to the DynamoDB console.
In the navigation pane, choose Tables.
Select the Employees table.
Choose Delete.
Confirm the deletion by entering delete and choosing Delete table.
6. Delete the S3 bucket.
Return to the Amazon S3 console.
Choose the radio button for employee-photo-bucket-.
Choose Empty.
In the box, enter permanently delete and choose Empty.
In the message at the top of the window, choose delete bucket configuration.
In the box, paste the bucket name and choose Delete bucket.
7. Delete the route tables.
In the console, return to the VPC dashboard.
In the navigation pane, choose Route Tables.
Select app-routetable-public and choose the Subnet Associations tab.
Choose Edit subnet associations.
Clear the following check boxes:
Public Subnet 1
Public Subnet 2
Choose Save associations.
Select app-routetable-public again, choose Actions, and choose Delete route
table.
Confirm the deletion by entering delete , and then choose Delete.
Repeat the previous steps to delete app-routetable-private.
8. Delete the internet gateway.
In the VPC dashboard navigation pane, choose Internet Gateways.
Select app-igw, choose Action, and choose Detach from VPC.
In the dialog box, choose Detach internet gateway.
Select app-igw again, choose Actions, and choose Delete internet gateway.
Confirm the deletion by entering delete , and choose Delete internet gateway.
9. Delete the subnets.
In the VPC dashboard navigation pane, choose Subnets.
Select the following subnets:
Public Subnet 1
Public Subnet 2
Private Subnet 1
Private Subnet 2
Choose Actions and then choose Delete subnet.
Confirm the deletion by entering delete , and choose Delete.
10. Delete the VPC.
In the VPC dashboard navigation pane, choose Your VPCs.
Select the app-vpc, choose Actions, and choose Delete VPC.
 Confirm the deletion by entering delete , and then choose Delete.
11. If needed, delete the security groups.
Return to the Amazon EC2 console.
In the navigation pane, choose Security Groups.
Select the following security groups:
app-sg
load-balancer-sg
Choose Actions and then choose Delete security groups.
Confirm the deletion by choosing Delete.
12. Delete the IAM role that you created.
Return to the IAM console.
In the navigation pane, choose Roles and search for S3DynamoDB .
Select S3DynamoDBFullAccessRole and choose Delete.
In the To confirm deletion box, paste S3DynamoDBFullAccessRole , and then
choose Delete.
You can also delete the IAM Admin user that you set up.
13. Delete the SNS topic.
Open the Amazon SNS console.
In the navigation pane, choose Topics.
Choose the radio button for app-sns-topic and choose Delete.
Confirm the deletion by entering delete me , and then choose Delete.

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