Optimizing Electro E-Commerce with AWS Load Balancer Solutions

This project demonstrates how to deploy a highly available e-commerce website using Amazon Web Services (AWS). It uses two EC2 instances, an Application Load Balancer (ALB), and a custom VPC with public subnets — configured exactly as shown in the architecture diagram.

Project Goal

• Deploy Electro E-commerce website on two EC2 instances.

• Distribute incoming web traffic across both instances using an Application Load Balancer.

• Build a secure and scalable network architecture using VPC, subnets, and an Internet Gateway.

---

🏗️ Architecture Overview

• VPC: 12.0.0.0/16

• Public Subnets:

  • 12.0.1.0/24 → Hosts EC2 Instance 1

  • 12.0.3.0/24 → Hosts EC2 Instance 2

• EC2 Instances: 2 web servers (running Apache)

• Load Balancer: Application Load Balancer (HTTP on port 80)

• Target Group: Routes traffic to both healthy EC2 instances

• Internet Gateway: Enables public internet access

---

🚀 Step-by-Step Implementation

1. Create a Custom VPC

• Go to VPC Dashboard → Your VPCs → Create VPC

  • Name: ecommerce-vpc

  • IPv4 CIDR: 12.0.0.0/16

• Click Create

---

2. Create Two Public Subnets

• Subnet 1:

  • Name: public-subnet-1a

  • VPC: ecommerce-vpc

  • Availability Zone: e.g., us-east-2a

  • CIDR: 12.0.1.0/24 ← Matches diagram

• Subnet 2:

  • Name: public-subnet-2b

  • AZ: us-east-2b

  • CIDR: 12.0.3.0/24

---

3. Create and Attach an Internet Gateway

• Go to Internet Gateways → Create

  • Name: ecommerce-igw

• After creation, attach it to ecommerce-vpc

---

4. Configure Route Table for Public Access

• Go to Route Tables, select the main route table for your VPC

• Edit Routes → Add:

  • Destination: 0.0.0.0/0

  • Target: ecommerce-igw

• Associate this route table with both public subnets (12.0.1.0/24 and 12.0.3.0/24)

---

5. Launch Two Ubuntu EC2 Instances

Launch two EC2 instances using the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS AMI:

• AMI: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (x86_64) — search in AMI catalog

• Instance Type: t2.micro (Free Tier eligible)

• Network: ecommerce-vpc

• Subnet:

  • Instance 1 → public-subnet-1a (12.0.1.0/24)

  • Instance 2 → public-subnet-2b (12.0.3.0/24)

• Auto-assign public IP: ✅ Enable

• Security Group: Create new web-sg with:

  • Inbound Rules:

    • HTTP (Port 80) → Source: 0.0.0.0/0

    • SSH (Port 22) → Your IP (or 0.0.0.0/0 for testing)

• Paste the script below in the data field of the EC2 instance under "Additional settings" to install Apache2 and update the server:

  #!/bin/bash
# Update system packages
apt-get update -y

# Install Apache2
apt-get install -y apache2

# Ensure Apache starts on boot
systemctl enable apache2
systemctl start apache2

# Ensure /var/www/html exists and has correct ownership
mkdir -p /var/www/html
chmod -R 755 /var/www/html

# Optional: Create a simple test page
echo "<h1>Apache2 is running on Server1</h1><p>Instance provisioned automatically on Server1.</p>" > /var/www/html/index.html

---

Repeat step 5 to create the second EC2 instance

• In the echo section of the script, change the h1 tag to Apache2 is running on Server2 to distinguish the servers.

---

6. Create an Application Load Balancer (ALB)

• Go to EC2 → Load Balancers → Create Load Balancer

• Choose Application Load Balancer

• Name: ecommerce-alb

• Scheme: Internet-facing

• IP address type: IPv4

• Listeners: HTTP (Port 80)

• Availability Zones: Select your VPC and both public subnets (12.0.1.0/24 and 12.0.3.0/24)

• Security Group: Create or select alb-sg allowing HTTP from 0.0.0.0/0

• Target Group:

• Create new: ecommerce-tg

• Protocol: HTTP, Port: 80, Health check path: /

• Register both Ubuntu EC2 instances by selecting them and click Include as pending below.

• Review and Create

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

---

7. Test the Load Balancer

• Wait 2–5 minutes for the ALB to become active

• Copy the DNS name of your ALB from the AWS console

• Open in browser: http://<your-alb-dns-name>

• Refresh multiple times — you should see alternating messages:

• “Server 1 (Subnet: 12.0.1.0/24)”

• “Server 2 (Subnet: 12.0.3.0/24)”

• Confirm both instances show Healthy in Target Groups

  

---

8. Deploy Your Website Files on Ubuntu

Upload your website files (e-commerce web files) To upload you website files:

🔹 Step 1: Open Git Bash in Your Website Folder ✅ Open your terminal and navigate to your project folder.

C:\Users\laolu\Documents\Realprojects\AWS projects\ALB-ecommerce\Electro

🔹 Step 2: Set Secure Permissions on Your Key

chmod 400 test-ALB-demo.pem

🔹 Step 3: Copy Files to Server 1 (3.139.70.220) ✅ Run this command (all on one line):

scp -i test-ALB-demo.pem -r Electro/* ubuntu@3.139.70.220:/tmp/

🔹 Step 4: Move Files into Web Folder on Server 1 ✅ Now log in to Server 1:

ssh -i test-ALB-demo.pem ubuntu@3.139.70.220

✅ Once logged in, run these 3 commands (copy/paste one at a time):

# 1. Delete default Apache files
sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/*

# 2. Move your files from /tmp to the web folder
sudo mv /tmp/* /var/www/html/

🔹 Step 5: Copy Files to Server 2 (18.217.149.70) ✅ Run this command (all on one line):

scp -i test-ALB-demo.pem -r Electro/* ubuntu@18.217.149.70:/tmp/

✅ Wait for the files to finish copying.

🔹 Step 6: Move Files into Web Folder on Server 2

✅ Log in to Server 2:

ssh -i test-ALB-demo.pem ubuntu@18.217.149.70

✅ Run the same 3 commands:

sudo rm -rf /var/www/html/*
sudo mv /tmp/* /var/www/html/
exit

✅ Done! 🎉 Your entire E-commerce website is now live on both servers.

🔍 Test It Out

• Open your browser and go to:

• ➤ http://3.139.70.220 → should show your real website

• ➤ http://18.217.149.70 → same website

• From your Load Balancer, visit its DNS name and refresh — you should see the same site served from both servers.

• Load Balancer DNS: http://ecommerce-alb-178280318.us-east-2.elb.amazonaws.com/