Secure WordPress Deployment on AWS with Terraform

Project Overview

This project demonstrates the automated deployment of a secure WordPress website on AWS using Terraform for infrastructure provisioning. The setup includes Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) with Fargate as the launch type, Amazon RDS for database management, and Amazon EFS for persistent storage. Application Load Balancer (ALB) is used to serve the ECS tasks running in private subnets for enhanced security.

The architecture is designed for scalability, high availability, and security, ensuring that the WordPress application can handle varying levels of traffic and maintain data integrity.

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Key Features

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Full infrastructure provisioning using Terraform.
• ECS with Fargate: Containerized WordPress deployment with the flexibility of Fargate, enabling serverless computing.
• Secure Setup: IAM roles, security groups, and access management configured to ensure secure communication and access to resources.
• Application Load Balancer: Configured to distribute traffic evenly across ECS tasks deployed in private subnets, ensuring high availability.
• Scalability: Auto-scaling capabilities for both ECS tasks and RDS instances based on demand.
• Persistent Storage: Integration of Amazon EFS for shared storage between containers.

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Technologies Used

• Terraform: Infrastructure automation tool to provision and manage AWS resources.
• AWS ECS (Fargate): Managed container service to run WordPress in a containerized environment.
• Amazon RDS: Managed relational database service used for WordPress data storage.
• Amazon EFS: Managed file storage to store WordPress files persistently across container instances.
• IAM (Identity and Access Management): Security mechanism for managing permissions and roles.
• AWS Security Groups: Virtual firewalls to control inbound and outbound traffic to instances.
• Application Load Balancer (ALB): Load balancing solution to distribute HTTP/HTTPS traffic across ECS tasks running in private subnets.

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Infrastructure Components

1. ECS Cluster with Fargate

• Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) is used to run the WordPress application. The Fargate launch type allows the containers to run without managing the underlying EC2 instances.
• Terraform provisions the ECS cluster, services, and tasks to define how containers will run, ensuring scalability and security.

2. RDS for Database

• Amazon RDS is used to manage the MySQL database for WordPress. Terraform provisions the database instance with proper security groups and backups.
• The RDS instance is configured for high availability with multi-AZ deployment.

3. EFS for Persistent Storage

• Amazon EFS provides scalable and high-performance file storage. It is used to store WordPress files, ensuring that data persists across ECS container restarts.

4. IAM Configuration

• Custom IAM roles are created to grant the necessary permissions for the ECS tasks and RDS instances. These roles follow the principle of least privilege, ensuring that each service only has the permissions it requires.
• IAM policies and instance profiles are applied to secure the environment and restrict access to other AWS resources.

5. Security Groups

• AWS Security Groups are used to control inbound and outbound traffic between ECS containers, RDS, and the internet. Only necessary ports (like 80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS) are open for the WordPress application.

6. Application Load Balancer (ALB)

• Application Load Balancer (ALB) is used to distribute HTTP and HTTPS traffic to the ECS tasks running WordPress in private subnets. This ensures that the WordPress application is not directly accessible from the public internet, adding a layer of security.
• ALB is configured to route traffic to the ECS containers based on the URL path and handle SSL termination for secure communication.

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Steps to Deploy

1. Clone the repository:

   • Clone the project repository to your local machine to begin the deployment.

   git clone https://github.com/Sherifsani/scalable-wordpress-app-terraform.git
   cd scalable-wordpress-app-terraform

2. Configure Terraform provider:

   • Set up the AWS provider in Terraform by configuring AWS credentials and region.

   aws configure

   provider "aws" {
     region = "us-west-2"
   }

3. Initialize Terraform:

   • Initialize Terraform in the project directory to download necessary plugins and modules.

   terraform init

4. Plan the deployment:

   • Review the changes Terraform will make before applying them.

   terraform plan

5. Apply the changes:

   • Apply the configuration to provision the AWS resources.

   terraform apply

   This will deploy the ECS cluster, RDS instance, EFS, IAM roles, ALB, and security groups as defined in the Terraform configuration.

6. Access WordPress:

   • After the deployment is complete, you will receive the DNS name of the Application Load Balancer (ALB). Access the WordPress site by navigating to this ALB URL in your browser.

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Outcome

• Successfully deployed a highly available and secure WordPress website using AWS Fargate, RDS, EFS, and Application Load Balancer.
• Fully automated infrastructure provisioning using Terraform, making the deployment process repeatable and scalable.
• Configured a secure environment with best practices in IAM roles, security groups, and ALB routing to ensure traffic is securely distributed to ECS tasks.
• Ensured persistent storage for WordPress files and data with Amazon EFS and RDS.

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Challenges & Learnings

• Networking Configuration: Configuring the security groups, VPC, and subnets to ensure that the ECS tasks could access the ALB in private subnets required careful attention.
• Load Balancer Integration: Configuring the ALB to handle SSL termination and properly route traffic to ECS tasks in private subnets was a key challenge.
• Scaling: Ensuring the WordPress application could scale efficiently required configuring both the ECS and RDS instances to handle high traffic and database queries.

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Conclusion

This project demonstrates how to deploy a secure, scalable WordPress website on AWS using modern cloud-native technologies and Terraform for infrastructure automation. By leveraging AWS managed services such as ECS, RDS, EFS, and ALB, this project provides a highly available and cost-effective solution for hosting WordPress with minimal operational overhead.

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This updated README now includes the Application Load Balancer (ALB) in the architecture, which plays a key role in securely serving the ECS tasks in private subnets. Let me know if you need further adjustments!