AWS Help

KJustice · October 12, 2023

Hey everyone, I am very new to AWS and in my degree path I have not had a class on AWS nor have I had time until this point to dabble in AWS. This semester I have a capstone project in which my professor gave us various options and I was given AWS. I am not looking for anyone to do this for me but I am looking for some guidance or if anyone has aids or anything that could really help me as I am a visual learner. I have dabbled the last few weeks into AWS, I am starting to get some level of understanding but still feel very lost.

My project is essentially to design an AWS implementation that will use 2 VPCs on isolated networks to create two networks that cannot access each other. This implementation will be used to backup devices and files. My professor wanted isolated networks for the security aspect but other than that it seems very confusing when researching what he means by this and no clarification has fixed this confusion. I might use EC2 for the isolated server setup. AWS DataSync for data transfers between on-premises storage and s3 or EFS storage.

I am pretty lost at what would be required to accomplish this or if there is a simpler way to get two AWS isolated networks, a flexible storage solution, that is secure and flexible. I have watched a few videos so far by AWS Training Center on YouTube and AWS seems extremely complicated with all of the nuances that create the architecture, it seems that it can never be as simple as "I want storage" it's, let me deploy EC2, then Kinesis then S3, then, then it doesn't seem to end.

Any help is appreciated, I'm going crazy here. I'll check in periodically to see if anyone replies. Thanks in advance.

akat · October 12, 2023

You're on the right track.

Try reading these:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/how-it-works.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/vpc-cidr-blocks.html

(CIDR explained) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classless_Inter-Domain_Routing

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/peering/invalid-peering-configurations.html

Also, VPCs are by default isolated and private from each other. They each have their own private routers and private IP ranges. You have to manually configure them to be able to see each other (VPC peering). If you create one EC2 in VPC A and another in VPC B they won't be able to see each other by default.

Do your best to keep it simple (remember to KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid!). Work on one piece at a time and ignore anything that isn't relevant to your task for now. If you can, just start toying around to get a feel for things. Eventually, this won't be so overwhelming.

Also, use s3, you'll have an easier time. It's also commonly used for backups!

As far as DataSync goes, read this FAQ and decide from there if it's the right fit for you:
https://aws.amazon.com/datasync/faqs/

Whatever you decide to do, there are a million and one ways to do any one thing in the computing world so it's often best to choose whatever seems the simplest and most effective to your knowledge.

KJustice · October 13, 2023

On 10/12/2023 at 1:57 AM, akat said:

You're on the right track.

Try reading these:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/how-it-works.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/vpc-cidr-blocks.html

(CIDR explained) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classless_Inter-Domain_Routing

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/peering/invalid-peering-configurations.html

Also, VPCs are by default isolated and private from each other. They each have their own private routers and private IP ranges. You have to manually configure them to be able to see each other (VPC peering). If you create one EC2 in VPC A and another in VPC B they won't be able to see each other by default.

Do your best to keep it simple (remember to KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid!). Work on one piece at a time and ignore anything that isn't relevant to your task for now. If you can, just start toying around to get a feel for things. Eventually, this won't be so overwhelming.

Also, use s3, you'll have an easier time. It's also commonly used for backups!

As far as DataSync goes, read this FAQ and decide from there if it's the right fit for you:
https://aws.amazon.com/datasync/faqs/

Whatever you decide to do, there are a million and one ways to do any one thing in the computing world so it's often best to choose whatever seems the simplest and most effective to your knowledge.

Thank you for the recommendations, I will keep this open just in case there is anything else anyone can add to this topic. Also, thank you specifically for clarifying the EC2 and how the VPCs work. Very informative.