Everything you need to get running with IaaS for Amazon Web Services Modern businesses rely on Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)—a setup in which someone else foots the bill to create application environments—and developers are expected to know how to write both platform-specific and IaaS-supported applications. If you're a developer who writes desktop and web applications but have little-to-no experience with cloud development, this book is an essential tool in getting started in the IaaS environment with Amazon Web Services. In Amazon Web Services For Developers For Dummies, you'll quickly and easily get up to speed on which language or platform will work best to meet a specific need, how to work with management consoles, ways you'll interact with services at the command line, how to create applications with the AWS API, and so much more. Assess development options to produce the kind of result that's actually needed Use the simplest approach to accomplish any given task Automate tasks using something as simple as the batch processing features offered by most platforms Create example applications using JavaScript, Python, and R Discover how to use the XML files that appear in the management console to fine tune your configuration Making sense of Amazon Web Services doesn't have to be as difficult as it seems—and this book shows you how.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 5 Part 1: Discovering the AWS Development Environment 7 Chapter 1: Starting Your AWS Adventure 9 Defining the AWS Cloud 10 Understanding service-driven application architectures 10 Understanding process- and function-driven work flows 12 Discovering IaaS 14 Defining IaaS 15 Comparing IaaS to SaaS 16 Comparing IaaS to PaaS 17 Determining Why You Should Use AWS 18 Comparing AWS to other cloud services 18 Defining target areas where AWS works best 19 Considering the app types that AWS supports best 20 Considering the AWS-Supported Platforms 22 Obtaining an overview of the supported platforms 23 Choosing an appropriate platform for your needs 25 Chapter 2: Obtaining Development Access to Amazon Web Services 27 Discovering the Limits of Free Services 28 Expiring services versus non-expiring services 29 Considering the usage limits 31 Considering the Hardware Requirements 32 Hosting the services locally 32 Hosting the services in the cloud 34 Defining a good development environment 35 Getting Signed Up 36 Obtaining an account 37 Getting access keys 42 Testing Your Setup 47 Chapter 3: Choosing the Right Services 51 Getting a Quick Overview of Free-Tier Services 52 Understanding the free services 53 Working with the online labs 58 Choosing a free services path 59 Considering the eventual need for paid services 60 Matching AWS Services to Your Application 65 Working with services during the free period 65 Interacting with services after the free period 66 Considering AWS Security Issues 67 Getting the Amazon view of security 67 Getting the expert view of security 68 Discovering the reality of Amazon security 69 Employing AWS security best practices 69 Using the IAM Policy Simulator to check access 69 Part 2: Starting the Development Process 73 Chapter 4: Considering AWS Communication Strategies 75 Defining the Major Communication Standards 76 Transporting the data 76 Obtaining an API method listing 78 Making a request 78 Understanding How REST Works 80 Defining REST resources 80 Working with requests and responses 81 Overcoming those really annoying signature issues 83 Chapter 5: Creating a Development Environment 87 Choosing a Platform 88 Considering the AWS-supported options 88 Using JavaScript for browser examples 90 Using Python for local examples 91 Obtaining and Installing Python 91 Obtaining Continuum Analytics Anaconda version 4.3.1 92 Installing Python on Linux 93 Installing Python on MacOS 94 Installing Python on Windows 95 Using Jupyter Notebook 98 Defining the code repository 100 Working with the Identity and Access Management Console 106 Configuring root access 107 Signing into a user account 111 Installing the Command Line Interface Software 112 Getting started with CLI 112 Obtaining additional information and help 113 Configuring S3 Using CLI 114 Creating the aws utility configuration file 115 Obtaining S3 information 116 Configuring S3 Using Node.js 117 Installing Node.js 117 Configuring Node.js 118 Dealing with credentials 119 Dealing with Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) 119 Making a call 122 Configuring S3 Using a Desktop Application 123 Installing boto 124 Listing S3 buckets 124 Chapter 6: Creating a Virtual Server Using EC2 125 Getting to Know the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) 126 Understanding basic EC2 configuration 126 Defining the security setup 128 Using the standard storage options 130 Working with Elastic Block Store (EBS) Volumes 130 Knowing the EBS volume types 130 Creating an EBS volume 131 Discovering Images and Instances 137 Generating security keys 138 Creating an instance 138 Connecting to the instance 143 Part 3: Performing Basic Development Tasks 145 Chapter 7: Understanding AWS Input/Output 147 Considering the Input/Output Options 148 Working with JSON 149 Working with XML 150 Working with Amazon API Gateway 151 Defining the uses for the API Gateway 151 Defining the security requirements 151 Understanding models 153 Mapping templates 153 Creating an API Gateway using the console 154 Accessing an API Gateway using the CLI 161 Chapter 8: Developing Web Apps Using Elastic Beanstalk 165 Considering Elastic Beanstalk (EB) Features 166 Deploying an EB Application 168 Creating the application entry 168 Testing the application deployment 178 Setting application security 178 Configuring the application 181 Working with application environments 182 Updating an EB Application 183 Getting the sample code and making a change 184 Uploading the modified application 184 Switching application versions 186 Removing Unneeded Applications 188 Monitoring Your Application Using Amazon CloudWatch 188 Chapter 9: Developing Batch Processes and Scripts 191 Considering the Batch-Processing and Script Options 192 Defining the difference between batch processing and scripting 192 Understanding the batch-processing options 193 Understanding the scripting options 196 Performing Batch Processing Locally 198 Developing Scripts 199 Using Scripts Locally 201 Interacting with aws-shell 202 Considering aws-shell features 202 Getting aws-shell 203 Performing simple tasks 204 Obtaining help 206 Editing your commands 206 Chapter 10: Responding to Events with Lambda 209 Considering the Lambda Features 210 Working with a server 210 Working in a serverless environment 211 Starting the Lambda Console 212 Creating a Basic Lambda Application 214 Selecting a Lambda blueprint 214 Configuring a function 216 Using ensembles for functions 222 Creating the test setup 223 Testing the function 223 Fixing test function errors 226 Checking the function metrics 226 Modifying the function code 227 Deleting the function 229 Interacting with Simple Queue Services (SQS) 229 Creating a queue using the console 230 Working with the CLI to configure SQS 232 Writing a program in Python 233 Using Lambda to create entries 234 Part 4: Interacting with Databases 239 Chapter 11: Getting Basic DBMS Using RDS 241 Considering the Relational Database Service (RDS) Features 242 Choosing a database engine 242 Understanding the need to scale efficiently 245 Defining data replication 246 Cloning your database 247 Managing RDS 248 Accessing the RDS Management Console 249 Using the CLI alternative 254 Performing management tasks programmatically 256 Creating a Database Server 257 Installing a database access product 258 Accessing the instance 258 Adding tables 260 Working with other features 260 Adding Support to Applications 265 Considering the access requirements 265 Configuring the MySQL setup 267 Interacting with the database 267 Configuring Load Balancing and Scaling 269 Defining the purpose of load balancing 269 Working with Elastic Load Balancing 270 Defining the purpose of scaling 274 Working with Auto Scaling 275 Chapter 12: Programming Techniques for AWS and MySQL 279 Interacting with RDS 280 Interacting with option groups using the console 281 Using the CLI to work with events 288 Employing programming techniques to read and write parameter groups 293 Working with MySQL Code 300 Enabling stored procedures, functions, and triggers 300 Using stored procedures 301 Working with the MySQL/RDS Tables 302 Performing Data Uploads 305 Performing Data Downloads 307 Chapter 13: Gaining NoSQL Access Using DynamoDB 309 Considering the DynamoDB Features 310 Getting a quick overview of NoSQL 310 NoSQL Limitations 311 Differentiating between NoSQL and relational databases 312 Defining typical uses for DynamoDB 314 Downloading a Local Copy of DynamoDB 314 Performing the installation 314 Starting DynamoDB locally 315 Overcoming the Windows OSError issue 316 Testing your DynamoDB installation 316 Creating a Basic DynamoDB Setup 318 Developing a Basic Database 321 Configuring tables 322 Adding items 327 Modifying items 332 Copying items 332 Deleting items 333 Deleting a table 333 Performing Queries 333 Using the console 333 Querying the database programmatically 336 Part 5: The Part of Tens 339 Chapter 14: Ten Ways to Create AWS Applications Quickly 341 Working at the Console 341 Using Example Source Code 342 Combining Trial-and-Error Techniques 343 Watching the Videos 343 Attending the Webinars 344 Discovering Others Efforts 345 Depending on Peer Support 345 Working with Blogs 346 Using Alternative Sources 347 Going Back to Tutorials 347 Chapter 15: Ten AWS Tools Every Developer Needs 349 Obtaining Additional Amazon Offerings 350 Enhancing ASW services directly 350 Employing Tools for Amazon Web Services 350 Wandering through Amazon Marketplace 351 Getting Amazon-supported peer help 352 Partnering with a Third Party 352 Developing New Knowledge 353 Getting an education 353 Locating online blogs and note sources 354 Rely on an information repository 354 Using Bitnami Developer Tools- 355 Relying on Device Emulators 355 Index 357