Developer Setup on Amazon Linux 2023 on AWS EC2

Written for Amazon Linux release 2023.6.20250203 (Amazon Linux)

Once the fresh Amazon Linux 2023 EC2 instance has been created and started, connect to it as ec2-user and follow the instructions in this file.

For more complete instructions, Simson Garfinkel has generously provided us with lab notes from one of his Harvard Extension courses.

See CSCI E-11 Spring 2025 Lab #1 <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bSqXSuKfL3TWN_RDS-hhkt9NVz8eRDuSaLUcGVvCeGg/edit?tab=t.0> to create an AWS account, and to startup and configure an EC2 instance, and to install git.

See CSCI E-11 Spring 2025 Lab #3 <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R_HqlwB-O1QHPdMWNxx9ZjYSsL4CDSmpvTK4fE8Xmyk/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.rv7641iuwu2> to further configure the EC2 VM, install Apache Server, create and install an SSL certificate, and create an empty webapp.

These two labs have information that form the foundation of how Plant-Tracer/webapp is currently deployed on EC2, and thus we can follow the lab instructions to set up an EC2 instance to use for either development or deployment. Of course, skip the few steps that are specific to the goals and infrastructure of that course, such as – in Lab 1, Steps 15 and 16 that concern doing an aws s3 cp command, and the end part about finding an access hack.

Lab 1 Summary and Modifications

To summarize the instance setup described in Lab #1, once the EC2 instance is running and we have ssh’d into the instance, do:

sudo yum -y install git
sudo yum -y install emacs # optional
# edit /etc/systemd/journald.conf so that MaxRetentionSec=6month
sudo systemctl restart systemd-journald

Lab 3 Summary and Modifications

  • Modify your instance’s Security Group to allow inbound HTTP and HTTPS IPv4 traffic from anywhere (0.0.0.0).

  • Set the hostname to something, perhaps to dev-youruserid.planttracer.com:

    sudo hostnamectl hostname dev-youruserid.planttracer.com

  • If you wish for this hostname to actually be routed on the public Internet, contact a Plant-Tracer AWS administrator at plantadmin@planttracer.com and ask to configure your sub-domain for routing. This, however, would require a stable IP address, likely through the AWS Elastic IP service if you are going to be starting and stopping your instance. Elastic IP addresses cost money, at this writing (Feb 2025), about US $3.50/month.

  • Lab 3 beyond this point is optional for PlantTracer/webapp developers who are only working on app functionality, as developers may run their developer webapp servers without a secure proxy. But if HTTPS: access to the developer server is needed, proceed further. If not, continue with the Setup Steps section, as github setup will be needed for all developers.

  • Optional: Install Apache HTTP Server

sudo dnf -y install httpd mod_ssl sqlite #we aren't using sqlite, maybe don't install that?
sudo systemctl enable httpd.service
sudo systemctl start httpd.service
sudo systemctl status httpd.service

  • Test Apache HTTP Server by browsing to http://your-instances-public-IPv4-address. Should see “It Works!” page.

  • Install a Let’s Encrypt certificate:

    sudo mkdir /home/ec2-user/www
sudo chown ec2-user /home/ec2-user/www

  • Our AWS account admin has to enter your subdomain dev-youruserid.planttracer.com into Route 53.

  • Create /etc/httpd/conf.d/your-userid.conf with contents:

<VirtualHost *:80>

ServerName dev-youruserid.planttracer.com DocumentRoot /home/ec2-user/www

</VirtualHost>

  • Next:

    sudo systemctl restart httpd.service

  • Follow the EFF Certbot tutorial for Apache on pip <https://certbot.eff.org/instructions?ws=apache&os=pip&tab=standard>:

    sudo dnf install python3 augeas-libs
sudo python3 -m venv /opt/certbot/
sudo /opt/certbot/bin/pip install --upgrade pip
sudo /opt/certbot/bin/pip install certbot certbot-apache
sudo ln -s /opt/certbot/bin/certbot /usr/bin/certbot
sudo certbot --apache

  • Got this message:

    Certbot failed to authenticate some domains (authenticator: apache). The Certificate Authority reported these problems:

    Domain: dev-seb.planttracer.com Type: dns Detail: DNS problem: NXDOMAIN looking up A for dev-seb.planttracer.com - check that a DNS record exists for this domain; DNS problem: NXDOMAIN looking up AAAA for dev-seb.planttracer.com - check that a DNS record exists for this domain

    Hint: The Certificate Authority failed to verify the temporary Apache configuration changes made by Certbot. Ensure that the listed domains point to this Apache server and that it is accessible from the internet.

    Some challenges have failed.

  • Ignoring, oh wait, the machine is not responding.

Setup Steps Specifics

Install gh for dnf version 4:

# DNF4 installation commands
sudo dnf install 'dnf-command(config-manager)'
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://cli.github.com/packages/rpm/gh-cli.repo
sudo dnf install gh --repo gh-cli -y

Login to git how-to-install-mysql-on-ubuntu-24-04

gh auth login