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Your First Steps: Building a Simple Web Server

Welcome to CloudNOOE! This guide will walk you through creating, configuring, and deploying your first piece of cloud infrastructure—a simple, cost-effective web server. By the end of this tutorial, you will have a live EC2 instance running in your AWS account.

Estimated time to complete: 10 minutes

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  1. A verified CloudNOOE account. If not, please Create Your Account first.
  2. An AWS account with programmatic access (Access Key ID and Secret Access Key).

Step 1: Create a New Workspace​

(Progress: 20%)

A workspace is a dedicated area for a specific project.

  1. From your CloudNOOE dashboard, click the "New Workspace" button.
  2. Give your workspace a name, such as "My First Web Server," and a brief description.
  3. Click "Create Workspace."

You will be taken to a blank canvas—this is your visual editor.

A new, empty workspace in CloudNOOE A new, empty workspace in CloudNOOE

Step 2: Design the Infrastructure with the AI Assistant​

(Progress: 40%)

Let's use the AI Assistant to do the heavy lifting.

  1. Locate the AI chat panel on the right side of your screen.
  2. In the prompt input box, type the following command:

    "Create a single t2.micro EC2 instance with a public IP address and a security group that allows HTTP traffic."

  3. Press Enter.

The AI will process your request and automatically add the configured EC2 instance and a corresponding security group to your visual editor. You'll see the components appear on the canvas.

Using the AI Assistant to create an EC2 instance

Pro Tip: You can click on the EC2 instance in the visual editor to open its configuration panel. Here, you can manually adjust settings like the instance type, storage (EBS volume), or the Amazon Machine Image (AMI).

Step 3: Review Cost and Configuration​

(Progress: 60%)

Before deploying, let's check the estimated cost.

  1. Look at the Real-Time Cost Estimation panel. It will show you the projected monthly cost for the t2.micro instance you just added.
  2. This is a great opportunity to see how changing an instance type affects your budget. Click the EC2 instance, change the type to t3.small, and watch the cost update instantly.
  3. For this tutorial, change it back to t2.micro to stay within the AWS Free Tier if applicable.
Reviewing the cost of the EC2 instance Reviewing the cost of the EC2 instance

Step 4: Connect Your AWS Account​

(Progress: 80%)

Before deploying, you must connect your AWS account to CloudNOOE. Choose how you want to connect your AWS account securely.

Using the AI Assistant to create an EC2 instance Using the AI Assistant to create an EC2 instance

This method provides more granular control and is recommended for production environments.

  1. Create an IAM Role in AWS Console:

    • In your AWS account, navigate to the IAM service and create a new IAM role.
    • Select AWS account as the trusted entity and Another AWS account.
    • Enter CloudNOOE's Account ID: 123456789012
    • Configure Trust Relationship: Use the External ID provided by CloudNOOE to ensure secure cross-account access.
      • Your Unique External ID: 4b3764e0-8a61-4707-8aab-5e6f8e73d935 (This is unique to your CloudNOOE workspace).

  2. Attach Permissions Policy:

    • Create a new IAM policy with the following JSON and attach it to the role you just created:
    {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
        {
          "Effect": "Allow",
          "Action": [
            "cloudformation:CreateStack",
            "cloudformation:UpdateStack",
            "cloudformation:DeleteStack",
            "cloudformation:DescribeStacks",
            "cloudformation:DescribeStackEvents",
            "cloudformation:DescribeStackResources",
            "cloudformation:GetTemplate",
            "cloudformation:GetTemplateSummary",
            "cloudformation:ValidateTemplate",
            "s3:ListAllMyBuckets",
            "s3:GetBucketLocation",
            "s3:PutObject",
            "s3:GetObject",
            "lambda:ListFunctions",
            "iam:PassRole",
            "s3:CreateBucket",
            "s3:PutBucketAcl",
            "s3:PutBucketPolicy",
            "s3:DeleteBucket"
          ],
          "Resource": "*"
        }
      ]
    }

  3. Verify Connection in CloudNOOE:

    • In your CloudNOOE workspace, select "Connect via Role".
    • Enter the Role ARN you created in AWS (e.g., arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/CloudNOOERole) into the provided field.
    • Give the credential set a memorable name.
    • Click "Save Credentials."

Connect via IAM User​

This method uses traditional Access Key and Secret Key for authentication.

  1. Create an IAM User in AWS Console:
    • In your AWS account, navigate to the IAM service and create a new IAM user.
    • Generate an Access Key and Secret Access Key for this user.
    • Attach a policy to this IAM user with permissions similar to the Role-Based method (e.g., the policy JSON shown above).
  2. Provide IAM User Credentials in CloudNOOE:
    • In your CloudNOOE workspace, select "Connect via IAM User".
    • Enter the Access Key and Secret Key of your IAM user into the provided fields.
    • Give the credential set a memorable name.
    • Click "Save Credentials."

Security Note: Your AWS credentials (Access Keys and Secret Keys) or Role ARNs are encrypted and stored securely. CloudNOOE uses them only to deploy and manage the resources you define in your workspace. We strongly recommend using the Role-Based Access method for its enhanced security and adherence to the principle of least privilege, as it avoids sharing long-lived static credentials.

Step 5: Deploy to AWS​

(Progress: 100%)

This is the final step!

  1. With your AWS account selected, click the "Deploy Infrastructure" button.
  2. CloudNOOE will generate a CloudFormation template in the background and initiate the deployment process.
  3. You can monitor the progress in the Deployment Status panel, which will show the status of each resource being created.

Once the status shows "CREATE_COMPLETE," your web server is live! You can find its public IP address in the outputs section of the deployment panel or by logging into your AWS Console.

Monitoring the deployment progress

Congratulations!​

You have successfully designed and deployed your first cloud resource using CloudNOOE. You've experienced the power of AI-driven design, visual editing, real-time cost feedback, and one-click deployment.

Next Steps​