Setting Up Your First Web App in the Cloud with AWS

Embarking on the journey to deploy a web app in the cloud can be both exciting and challenging. This post walks you through the foundational steps of connecting to an AWS EC2 instance and preparing for a full-fledged web app deployment. We'll use AWS, EC2, and Remote - SSH in VS Code for this .

*Initial Setup Steps - *

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following:

IAM User: Created with programmatic access.

Key Pair: Downloaded .pem file for secure access.

VS Code: Installed with the Remote - SSH extension.

AWS EC2 Instance: Launched with the necessary configuration.

Connect to Your EC2 Instance

Follow these steps to set up the connection between your local machine and the EC2 instance:

Step 1: Install the Remote - SSH Extension

Open VS Code.

Go to the Extensions view by clicking on the square icon in the sidebar or pressing Ctrl+Shift+X.

Search for "Remote - SSH" and install it.

Step 2: Add Your SSH Host

Click the double arrow icon in the bottom-left corner of the VS Code window.

Select Remote-SSH: Connect to Host... > + Add New SSH Host....

Enter your SSH command in the format:
ssh -i [PATH TO YOUR .PEM FILE] ec2-user@[YOUR PUBLIC IPV4 DNS]

Replace [PATH TO YOUR .PEM FILE] with the location of your .pem file (e.g., ~/Desktop/devops-keypair.pem) and [YOUR PUBLIC IPV4 DNS] with the EC2 instance's public DNS.

Select the configuration file (e.g., /Users/username/.ssh/config) to save this host.

Step 3: Open the EC2 Instance in VS Code

Open the Remote Explorer view from the left sidebar.

Locate your added SSH Host and click on it to connect.

If successful, you’ll see the EC2 file system in your VS Code workspace.

Verify Your Configuration

Ensure that your .ssh/config file contains the correct details:
Host your-ec2-instance
HostName [YOUR PUBLIC IPV4 DNS]
User ec2-user
IdentityFile [PATH TO YOUR .PEM FILE]