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Lawal Tobiloba
Lawal Tobiloba

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HNG Internship: DevOps Stage 0 - NGINX Configuration and Optimization for High-Performance Web Servers

#devops #cloudengineers #platformengineer #hng

Web server configuration is a fundamental aspect of DevOps engineering. This article presents a case study of NGINX deployment on a freshly provisioned Ubuntu server on Amazon Web Services, as undertaken for the HNG DevOps Stage 0 challenge. The subsequent section details the methodology employed and highlights the key takeaways from this technical exercise.

Technical Requirements

To successfully set up and configure NGINX on a fresh Ubuntu server hosted on AWS, ensure you have the following tools:

1. AWS Account: To provision and manage EC2 instances.
2. SSH Client: For secure remote access to your Ubuntu server.
3. Ubuntu Server on AWS EC2: The virtual machine where NGINX will be installed.
4. NGINX: The web server software to be installed.
5. Text Editor:For editing configuration files and creating custom HTML pages.
6. Web Browser:To test and verify the web server's functionality.

Steps

Step 1: Setting Up an Ubuntu Server on AWS

  • Log in to the AWS Management Console.
  • Navigate to EC2 and create a new instance.
  • Select Ubuntu 22.04 LTS as the operating system.
  • Chose an instance type (free-tier eligibility works fine).
  • Configure security groups to allow:
    • SSH access (port 22)
    • HTTP traffic (port 80)
  • Downloaded the private key (.pem) file to securely connect to the instance. 
ssh -i /path/to/key.pem ubuntu@your-server-ip
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Step 2: Install NGINX

  • Once connection to the server is Establish, proceed with installing NGINX: 
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y sudo apt install nginx -y
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  • After installation, start and enable NGINX: 
sudo systemctl start nginx sudo systemctl enable nginx
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  • To verify that NGINX is running, use: 
sudo systemctl status nginx
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  • Open a browser and navigate to http://your-server-ip this displays the default NGINX welcome page, confirming a successful installation.

Step 3: Configuring NGINX to Serve a Custom Page

  • To personalize the default page, edit the index.html file: 
sudo nano /var/www/html/index.html
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  • replace the existing content with the following HTML code: 
<html> <head> <title>Welcome</title> </head> <body> <h1>Welcome to DevOps Stage 0 - [Your Name]/[Your Slack Name]</h1> </body> </html>
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  • After saving the file then restart the NGINX service to apply the changes: 
sudo systemctl restart nginx
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  • Finally, verify that the custom welcome message is displayed by visiting http://your-server-ip in a web browser.

Key Takeaways
Here are the top things to take away from this project:

  1. Provisioning an AWS EC2 instance: how to create a virtual server on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using EC2. This is a fundamental skill for anyone working in cloud computing.
  2. Linux command-line operations: The use of Linux commands to navigate, install software, and configure the server. This is an essential skill for any developer or system administrator.
  3. Installing and configuring a web server: how to install and set up a web server using NGINX. This involved configuring files, restarting the server, and testing everything to making sure it works.
  4. Troubleshooting common server issues: As I worked on this project, I encountered some errors and issues. I learned how to troubleshoot these problems using online resources, documentation, and good old-fashioned debugging techniques.

These skills are crucial for anyone working in DevOps, cloud computing, or web development.

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