Automated Deployment of 2-Tier Web Application on AWS

This project shows how I deployed a 2-tier web application on AWS using Terraform, Docker, and Bash scripting. The frontend is built using HTML + CSS, and the backend uses MySQL. The entire infrastructure and deployment process is automated.

Project Overview

The architecture has two tiers:

1. Frontend (Public Subnet)

• Static website built with HTML & CSS
• Hosted on an EC2 instance in the public subnet
• Accessible through the Internet Gateway

2. Backend (Private Subnet)

• MySQL database running inside a Docker container
• EC2 instance in the private subnet
• Only accessible from the frontend instance

What I Automated

Created a complete VPC using Terraform

• Public subnet for frontend, private subnet for backend
• Configured Internet Gateway + NAT Gateway
• Added route tables and associations
• Launched EC2 instance for frontend (HTML/CSS site)
• Launched EC2 instance for backend (MySQL container)
• Implemented bastion host for SSH access
• Wrote Bash scripts for:
• Starting frontend
• Setting up MySQL
• Automating service start
• Stored Terraform state remotely for reproducible deployments

Tools & Technologies Used

• AWS EC2, VPC, Subnets
• Terraform (IaC) = Docker
• MySQL
• HTML + CSS (Frontend UI)
• Bash Scripting
• Security Groups
• NAT Gateway, Internet Gateway

File-Structure

2Tier-DevOps-Project/
|-- app/
|   |-- backend/
|       │-- index.html
|       │-- style.css
|				|-- Dockerfile
|	  		|-- script.js
|   |-- frontend/
| 			|-- Dockerfile
| 			|-- server.js
│-- terraform/
│   │-- main.tf
│   │-- vpc.tf
│   │-- frontend.sh
│   │-- backend.sh
│   │-- variables.tf
│   │-- outputs.tf

How to Deploy

1. Initialize Terraform

• terraform init

2. Validate

• terraform validate

3. Preview deployment

• terraform plan

4. Apply

• terraform apply

Terraform will create everything:

• VPC
• Subnets
• EC2 instances
• NAT + IGW
• Security groups
• Then your Bash scripts will:
• Start frontend (HTML/CSS)
• Deploy MySQL container
• Initialize database

What I Learned

• How to deploy a 2-tier architecture on AWS
• Using Terraform to automate cloud infrastructure
• Working with public & private subnets
• Deploying a static website on EC2
• Running MySQL inside Docker
• Writing automation scripts using Bash
• Using security groups to control access