AWS LAMP Stack Deployment

Infrastructure Overview

This documentation outlines the LAMP stack application deployment completed. The deployment follows AWS Well-Architected Framework principles with emphasis on scalability and availability.

Architecture Diagram

1. Network Configuration Details

I've configured a multi-tier network architecture to provide security and isolation:

• VPC: Created with CIDR block 10.0.0.0/16
• Subnets: Deployed across 3 Availability Zones:
  • Public subnets (10.0.1.0/24, 10.0.2.0/24, 10.0.3.0/24) for load balancers
  • Private app subnets (10.0.11.0/24, 10.0.12.0/24, 10.0.13.0/24) for web servers
  • Private data subnets (10.0.21.0/24, 10.0.22.0/24, 10.0.23.0/24) for databases
• Route Tables:
  • Public route tables with Internet Gateway access
  • Private route tables with NAT Gateway for outbound traffic
• Internet Gateway: For public internet access

2. Security Configuration

I've implemented defense-in-depth security measures:

• Security Groups:
  • ALB Security Group: Allows HTTP/HTTPS from internet
  • Web Server Security Group: Accepts traffic only from ALB
  • Database Security Group: Accepts MySQL traffic only from web servers
• Network ACLs: Configured with allow/deny rules for additional network security
• IAM Roles: EC2 instances use IAM roles with minimal permissions needed
• Encryption: Data encrypted at rest and in transit

3. Application Infrastructure

Load Balancing

• Application Load Balancer in public subnets
• Health checks configured to monitor /health.php with 30-second intervals
• Sticky sessions disabled to ensure proper load distribution
• HTTPS listener with ACM-issued certificate

Compute Layer

• Auto Scaling Group with:
  • Minimum: 2 instances
  • Desired: 4 instances
  • Maximum: 10 instances
• Scaling policies:
  • Scale out when CPU > 70% for 5 minutes
  • Scale in when CPU < 30% for 10 minutes
• EC2 instances:
  • t3.medium instances for cost-effective performance
  • Latest Amazon Linux 2 AMI
  • Spread across multiple AZs for high availability

Database Layer

• Amazon RDS for MySQL:
  • Multi-AZ deployment for high availability
  • db.t3.large instance class
  • General Purpose SSD storage with 100GB initial allocation
  • Automated backups with 7-day retention period
  • Read replicas can be added as application scaling demands

4. LAMP Stack Installation

Web Server Configuration

The following installations are performed on each EC2 instance via user data script:

#!/bin/bash
sudo yum update -y
sudo yum install -y docker
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo docker pull lusitech/lamp-stack:v10
sudo docker pull lusitech/lamp-phpmyadmin:v3
sudo docker run -d -p 8080:80 --restart always --name php-app lusitech/lamp-stack:v10
sudo docker run -d -p 8081:80 --restart always --name myadb lusitech/lamp-phpmyadmin:v3

6. Monitoring and Logging

I've set up comprehensive monitoring:

• CloudWatch Dashboards: Custom dashboard showing key metrics
• CloudWatch Alarms:
  • High CPU Utilization (>80% for 5 minutes)
  • Low free memory (<10% for 5 minutes)
  • HTTP 5xx errors (>1% of requests)
  • Database connections (>80% of maximum)
• CloudWatch Logs:
  • Apache access and error logs
  • MySQL slow query logs
  • Application error logs
• Health Checks: Custom /health.php endpoint for deeper application monitoring

7. Backup and Recovery Plan

• Database Backups:
  • Automated RDS snapshots daily
  • Transaction logs for point-in-time recovery
  • Manual snapshots before major changes
• Application Backups:
  • S3 versioning enabled on code bucket
  • Weekly AMI creation of properly configured instances

8. Scaling Strategy

The infrastructure can scale in several ways:

• Horizontal Scaling: Auto Scaling Group adds/removes EC2 instances based on load
• Vertical Scaling: Instance types can be upgraded for more CPU/memory
• Database Scaling:
  • Read replicas for read-heavy workloads
  • Vertical scaling by changing instance class
  • Aurora serverless as a future option for variable workloads

9. Well-Architected Framework Compliance

The deployment adheres to AWS Well-Architected Framework:

• Operational Excellence: Automation, monitoring, and documentation
• Security: Defense in depth with least privilege access
• Reliability: Multi-AZ deployment with automatic recovery
• Performance Efficiency: Right-sized resources with ability to scale
• Cost Optimization: Auto Scaling to match capacity with demand

10. Next Steps and Recommendations

• Implement AWS WAF for additional security
• Configure Route 53 for DNS management and failover
• Set up CloudFront for content delivery and caching
• Implement CI/CD pipeline with CodePipeline for automated deployments
• Review security posture regularly with AWS Trusted Advisor