cloud-resume-challenge

The Cloud Resume Challenge was created by Forrest Brazeal as a self-guided, hands-on project to incorporate a large range of skills used by DevOps Engineers and Cloud Developers.

The challenge is designed to champion self-learning as it intentionally gives only high-level guidance on how to research, navigate, and implement core topics such as DNS, APIs, Testing, Infrastructure-as-Code, and CI/CD pipelines.

My website is built on AWS using S3, CloudFront, Route 53, Certificate Manager, Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, and the Boto3 Python SDK.

Infrastructure-as-Code is implemented using Terraform, while two CI/CD pipelines are triggered and executed using GitHub Actions.

View the site at william-lewis.com.

Check out my article about completing the project here: The Cloud Resume Challenge: My DevOps Journey from Building Technology to the Cloud

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Challenge Steps & Notes:

• 1. Earn an AWS Certification

  • passed Cloud Practitioner in September 2022, the Solutions Architect Associate in October 2022

• 2. Write Resume in HTML

  • utilized Bootstrap framework for general organization & positioning
  • recreated a sample from scratch (instead of a downloaded template)

• 3. Style Resume in CSS

  • used selective overrides on top of Bootstrap framework

• 4. Deploy Resume to Static Website with AWS S3

  • utilized OAC (origin access control) to improve security by restricting access to CloudFront distribution
  • left public access blocked & static website feature disabled for compatibility with OAC

• 5. Use HTTPS Protocol with AWS CloudFront

  • redirects any HTTP requests to HTTPS
  • IPv6 enabled in addition to IPv4
  • SSL certificate validated for root domain and *. subdomains

• 6. Point Custom DNS Domain Name with AWS Route 53

  • custom domain purchased through Cloudflare (not Route 53)
  • validation CNAME records needed in Cloudflare DNS settings
  • CNAME / A / AAAA alias records not needed in Route 53 for successful DNS resolution
  • website successfully loads from multiple browsers, with & without www. subdomain

• 7. Create a Webpage Visitor Counter with Javascript

  • POST request sent to Lambda funcion using Fetch API
  • latest number of page views displayed to visitor at page bottom

• 8. Create a Visitor Counter Database with AWS DynamoDB

  • noSQL database holds single record with single attribute which is updated by Lambda function

• 9. Connect Webpage to Database with AWS API Gateway + Lambda

  • REST API exposes URL endpoint, allowing for GET and POST requests
  • API call invokes Lambda function, relaying function return value as API response to website

• 10. Write a Lambda Function with Python + AWS Boto3 SDK

  • Boto3 SDK manages DynamoDB table, retrieving and updating value of view count record
  • function checks latest count from table, increments +1, and persists new value back to table
  • function returns JSON response to API, to deliver JSON resposne back to website
  • requirements.txt file used to track module dependencies and versions for project

• 11. Perform Tests on Python Code

  • tests run on pytest framework, with lambda function imported locally to be tested
  • moto package used to mock DynamoDB resources
  • os module used to pass environmental variables to utilize mock resources
  • requests module used to make calls to API URL endpoint

• 12. Configure Resources with IaC Using Terraform

  • Terraform used to automatically provision and configure AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway
  • S3 bucket also provisioned to act as remote Terraform backend by hosting tf.state file
  • Lambda Python code uploaded as .zip file artifact using archive_file data source
  • CORS enabled using api-gateway-enable-cors module by Martin Donath

• 13. Utilize Source Control with GitHub

  • all code related to website stored in a GitHub repository
  • version control utilized to track changes and capture development over time
  • .gitignore file used to avoid committing binary / superfluous files (e.g. .terraform and pycache directories) to remote repo

• 14. Implement Backend CI/CD for Terraform with GitHub Actions

  • event trigger defined when specific .py lambda function file is pushed to main branch
  • workflow runs on GitHub-hosted Linux runner
  • Python dependencies installed on runner per requirements.txt file using pip
  • GitHub Actions configured as trusted identity provider with AWS, utilizing OpenID Connect token-based authentication for short-lived credentials
  • ARN of GitHub Actions IAM Role passed into workflow file as an environmental variable using GitHub repository secrets
  • unit tests run on new Lambda code, then Terraform changes applied, and finally integration test run on API endpoint

• 15. Implement Frontend CI/CD for Webpage Content with GitHub Actions

  • event trigger defined when any frontend files are included in a push to main branch
  • S3 bucket is synchronized to GitHub repo to contain latest .HTML, .CSS, and .JS files
  • Cache of CloudFront distribution is invalidated (cleared) to ensure latest frontend content is immediately available to website visitors

• 16. Share Your Challenges and Learnings with a Blog Post

  • article published on LinkedIn