154 lines
5.6 KiB
HTML
154 lines
5.6 KiB
HTML
<!doctype html>
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<html lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta charset="UTF-8" />
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<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
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<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="/styles/common.css" />
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="/styles/post.css" />
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<link rel="icon" type="image/webp" href="/public/logo.webp" />
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<title>Barrett Ruth</title>
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</head>
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<body class="graph-background">
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<header>
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<a
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href="/"
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style="text-decoration: none; color: inherit"
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onclick="goHome(event)"
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>
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<div class="terminal-container">
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<span class="terminal-prompt">barrett@ruth:~$ /software</span>
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<span class="terminal-cursor"></span>
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</div>
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</a>
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</header>
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<main class="main">
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<div class="post-container">
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<header class="post-header">
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<h1 class="post-title">From GitHub Pages to AWS</h1>
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<p class="post-meta">
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<time datetime="2024-06-15">15/06/2024</time>
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</p>
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</header>
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<article class="post-article">
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<h2>pages begone</h2>
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<p>
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Though GitHub Pages may work for hosting your small, internal,
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static site, I don't think Pages is the right choice for
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<i>anyone</i>:
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</p>
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<ol>
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<li>Bandwidth caps: scale your software by default</li>
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<li>
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Limited SEO control: not a downside if you don't want want
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traffic...
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</li>
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<li>Static & client-side only: keep your options open</li>
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</ol>
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<h2>why aws?</h2>
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<p>
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I used pages before because I had little knowledge of cloud
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computing.
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</p>
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<p>
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This is not a justification—if you are a software developer,
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learn it.
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</p>
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<p>
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Prior to hosting this site, I developed and hosted an internal
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application with Google Cloud while working at
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<a href="https://nthventure.com">nth Venture</a>. Getting a single
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Compute Engine up and running made me step away from cloud for the
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entire next year.
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</p>
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<p>AWS is:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>
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Industry standard: not an actual reason but it convinced me
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nonetheless
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</li>
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<li>
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Secure: soon to be used by VISA, which holds security to a nearly
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stupid extent (seriously, I can't even clone a repository)
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</li>
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<li>
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Well-documented: everything in the documentation worked
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<i>first try</i>. This is extremely rare in software, so
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compliments to Chef Bezos.
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</li>
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</ol>
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<h2>the setup</h2>
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<p>
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This website is pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. While I will
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certainly need sever-side capabilities eventually, I am seeing how
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far the purist route can take me.
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</p>
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<p>AWS-wise, I use:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>S3, to host the content (static for now)</li>
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<li>CloudFront, to serve and cache said content</li>
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<li>Route53, to manage routing</li>
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<li>
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GoDaddy, to reserve
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<a target="_blank" href="https://barrettruth.com"
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>barrettruth.com</a
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>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>A user request can be modelled as follows:</p>
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<ol>
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<li>
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A user accesses the website by typing barrettruth.com in their
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browser.
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</li>
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<li>
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GoDaddy's DNS servers are queried, which translating the
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domain name to my Route53's IP address.
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</li>
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<li>
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Route53 then routes to the request to my CloudFront distribution
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associated with my S3 bucket.
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</li>
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<li>
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CloudFront checks its edge caches for the requested content. If
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the content is stale or not cached, CloudFront fetches the content
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from S3. Otherwise, it uses the cached content from an edge
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server.
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</li>
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<li>CloudFront returns the content to the user's browser.</li>
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</ol>
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<div style="display: flex; justify-content: center">
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<img
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width="50%"
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src="/public/posts/website-design.webp"
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alt="system design of my portfolio website"
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/>
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</div>
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<h2>difficulties</h2>
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<p>
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The hardest part of hosting this website was interfacing with
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GoDaddy.
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</p>
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<p>
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For example, configuring SSL certificates with GoDaddy is needlessly
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challenging. Follow
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<a
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target="blank"
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href="https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amplify/latest/userguide/to-add-a-custom-domain-managed-by-godaddy.html"
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>AWS's guide</a
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>
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if you really want to. Otherwise,
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<a
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target="blank"
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href="https://www.godaddy.com/help/edit-my-domain-nameservers-664"
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>configure your GoDaddy nameservers</a
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>
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and point them to your own DNS service (like Route53) instead.
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</p>
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</article>
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</div>
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</main>
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<script src="/scripts/common.js"></script>
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<script src="/scripts/post.js"></script>
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</body>
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</html>
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