cisco-exercise

A homework assignment for Neil.

Using this code

Stuff to install

You will need several software pre-requisites:

1. Pulumi. Install from this link: https://www.pulumi.com/docs/get-started/install/. You will also need to create an account at https://app.pulumi.com. I suggest using your Github account. If you don't want to create yet another account, you can use pulumi login file://~ to manage state locally.
2. AWS CLI. Installation instructions: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/install-cliv2.html.
3. Node.js. snap install --classic --channel=14 will get the LTS version if you have snap installed. Otherwise check the directions at https://nodejs.org/en/download/ for whichever platform and method you prefer.

AWS setup

You will need an AWS user with programmatic access to create instances, security groups, VPCs, routes, route tables, and subnets. Instructions for setting up here: https://www.pulumi.com/docs/intro/cloud-providers/aws/setup/

You will particularly need an AWS keypair for ssh connection, which if you don't have one, can be set following these directions: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-services-ec2-keypairs.html#creating-a-key-pair.

Running the install

1. From the repo directory, run npm install to set up npm dependencies.
2. Run commands to set up for your network and cloud preferences:

   pulumi stack init <a name for your stack, can be anything>
   pulumi config set aws:region <Your AWS region, e.g. ca-central-1>
   pulumi config set myAz <AZ to use for your instances, e.g. ca-central-1a>
   pulumi config set myCidr <Your CIDR that you will connect from, e.g. 99.53.28.199/32>
   pulumi config set mySshKey <An ssh key pair name from AWS to use>
   

3. Run pulumi up.
4. Select "yes" in the interactive interface that comes up.
5. Note the Outputs section with the IP addresses and URN (Pulumi's identifier for a resource). I find it easiest to use a separate terminal for any testing, leavin the Outputs information accessible for copying & pasting.
6. Test the webserver by using curl or your browser of choice. It may take a few minutes to come up.
7. Once testing is done, delete the outbound security group rule with pulumi destroy -t <webToWorldUrn value from outputs>
8. Perform any other tests to verify the network is set up as desired.
9. When done, use pulumi destroy to remove the resources.