Business Implications
This design delivers a fault-tolerant, scalable CMS with managed database durability and shared storage, minimizing downtime and administrative overhead. Segmented networking and strict security groups reduce attack surface, while the ALB enables seamless maintenance and future horizontal scaling as traffic grows.
Steps Performed
Provisioned networking, security, and routing; launched RDS and EFS; configured bastion and web servers; deployed WordPress on EC2; fronted traffic with ALB and validated end-to-end.
1.
Build VPC topology
Created a VPC in us-east-1 with two public and four private subnets across AZs. Enabled DNS hostnames, attached an Internet Gateway, and established public and private route tables mapped to the appropriate subnets.
2.
Egress and security controls
Allocated two Elastic IPs and created dual NAT Gateways in each public subnet. Built security groups for ALB, web tier, database, EFS, and SSH, enforcing least-privilege ingress and open egress for necessary updates.
3.
Database and shared storage
Configured an RDS MySQL instance in private subnets via a DB Subnet Group, no public access. Provisioned EFS with mount targets in app subnets and an EFS security group permitting NFS from the web tier.
4.
EC2 and bastion setup
Launched a temporary bastion in a public subnet for SSH. Deployed two EC2 instances in private subnets using user-data to install Apache, PHP, utilities, mount EFS to /var/www/html, and prepare WordPress runtime.
5.
ALB and WordPress finalize
Provisioned an internet-facing ALB across two AZs with a target group registering both app servers. Completed WordPress configuration, updated site URLs to the ALB DNS, verified health checks, and removed the temporary bastion.
AWS Services Used
Amazon VPC
Elastic Load Balancing (ALB)
Amazon EC2
Amazon RDS
Amazon EFS
AWS IAM
NAT Gateway
IGW Gateway
Route Tables
Security Groups
AWS CLI
PuTTY
Apache HTTPD
PHP
Technical Tools Used
VPC design and subnet segmentation
Secure three-tier application hardening
Load balancing and health-check routing
Managed MySQL and shared NFS storage
Skills Demonstrated
Classic 3-Tier WordPress on AWS
Scalable, secure, highly available blog hosting
Deployed WordPress on a classic three-tier AWS architecture: VPC with public/private subnets, ALB, EC2 in private subnets, RDS MySQL, and EFS for shared storage. Configured NAT for outbound updates, hardened security groups, and routed traffic through the ALB for a resilient production setup.
