CJ Taylor

AWS Service Catalog - Concept Introduction

2020-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

So, what’s this Service Catalog thing? Well, let’s visit that before we get into the technical details.

Example: Restaurants and made to order meals

Ever used a menu at a restaurant? Then, you’ve used a Service Catalog, conceptually, before!

Restaurants have a generalized workflow.

Customers are seated
Wait-staff takes customers’ order
Wait-staff passes customer order to the Kitchen-staff
Kitchen-staff prioritizes and cooks orders
Kitchen-staff hands-off customer cooked meal to wait-staff
Wait-staff delivers the order to the customer

In this generalized workflow, we have both an internal and external use-case for a “Service Catalog” for the business.

The pain: manually listing all meals for the customer.

As part of the wait-staff, good luck not eventually becoming an auctioneer rattling things off quickly if you had to verbally share what meals were available to each table of customers.

As the customer, imagine being hungry waiting for a long list! Uh, yeah, I’ll go ahead and order desert with my appetizer…

The reliever: using a menu with predefined options.

Finding the bards-tale-method a bit on the inefficient side, the restaurant uses a menu with sections/numbers/names for the customer to order from.

The wait-staff is now able to seat more customers and not incur so much upfront-investment with a table, and the customer can peruse a menu in search of exactly what they’re looking for!

All possible by using a Service Catalog, err, menu!

Step 4: Kitchen-staff cooks the meal using ingredients

The pain: Cook has to make everything from scratch.

As a cook, you’re in for a long day of making bespoke but decadent meals!

As a customer, you’re in for quite the wait and potentially limited options!

In either case, time is at a premium which would likely lead to the cost being increased on the meal!

The reliever: Cook uses some pre-made items to jump-start their dishes.

You don’t have to cook a chicken first if all you need is chicken broth. As a cook, you can have containers of broth for use. If you knew your list of meals up-front, you’d be able to deconstruct those meals into their underlying parts that can be jump-started by using other products or not starting from scratch to save you time.

In this case, your pantry is your Service Catalog where you go to get the pieces to make your meal. Let’s hope you’re not in the restaurant kitchen peddling microwave dinners though …

AWS and AWS Service Catalog

AWS has 168 services that you can use, and Forrest Brazeal can lead us in song praising them…

As a cook using AWS as your kitchen, you’re probably not going to want to prepare to use each service from scratch every time. That’s where recipes come in, or AWS CloudFormation Stacks.

AWS CloudFormation Stacks are the ingredients-list and recipe steps all in one for combining AWS services into a tasty treat for customers.

So, where’s AWS Service Catalog come in if AWS CloudFormation Stacks handle all that? Well, it’s when you have a lot of similar services or many of them.

Imagine you needed to have 254 Static-hosted websites or 126 projects in need of build and deploy pipelines. Oh, and eventually, you needed to change how both of those are made which dominoes into sharing those changes with how many engineers for them to interpret and follow? Well, it’s going to be a bumpy ride keeping that all in the same direction, but that’s where AWS Service Catalog comes in.

AWS Service Catalog

It’s the menu for AWS Services, that you can define and centralize your operations on.

Features

Portfolios, or the menu, are just that, a collection of things that can be made. They can be defined as AWS CloudFormation templates.

Products, or the dishes that can be ordered, are on the menu (Portfolio), and are made to order.

Versioning, is how products change over time. They may read the same on the menu, but some ingredients may change over time.

Cost to use

AWS Service Catalog used to be flat-rate cost service where Portfolios cost $5/month, and that was it. Now, the pricing model changed to be per-API call, or per action taken with the Portfolio/Products, which can make estimating cost possible with some napkin math, but ultimately cheaper for most use-cases.

From the AWS Service Catalog Pricing page, most of the calculated monthly examples end up being less than $0.50 per month.

But, if you’re looking to try things out, there is 1000 API calls included in the AWS “always free” tier monthly.

Ways to setup

Via the AWS Console in your AWS Account, you can create everything by clicking around, like seen in the Video: AWS Service Catalog - Getting Started
- Create an AWS Service Catalog Portfolio
- Create an AWS Service Catalog Product
Via AWS CLI
- Create an AWS Service Catalog Portfolio
- Create an AWS Service Catalog Product
Via AWS CloudFormation
- Create an AWS Service Catalog Portfolio
- Create an AWS Service Catalog Product

In a follow-up post, I’ll include a walkthrough setting up AWS Service Catalog from scratch. From Portfolio to Products with multiple versions and ultimately using AWS CodePipeline to deploy AWS CloudFormation templates as Products to the Portfolio for others to use!

Mulling over ideas for posts from past projects and your input

2020-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

“If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it…then my illegal logging business is a success” - Someone on Reddit

Jokes aside, there’s a wide mixture of fun and dull problems solved one iteration at a time. I’ve liked the idea of writing more, so I’m prepping up ideas so that my efforts/interests aren’t like a tree in the woods; unheard or unnoticed.

After brainstorming yesterday, here are some ideas I’m considering. If any catch your attention or you have suggestions, let me know!

Walkthroughs / Projects

AWS

AWS CDK
- Developing a level-2 construct for
  - AWS Elastic Beanstalk
  - AWS Service Catalog
- Using CDK Pipelines to incrementally develop your applications across multiple environments
Cost optimizations
- Reserved Instances and calculating Normalized Units to lower base units for a purchase
- Using AWS:AutoScaling::ScheduledAction to scale down in off-hours
- Using AWS Instance Scheduler for AWS RDS, AWS EC2, and AWS AutoScalingGroup cost savings
AWS Service Catalog
- Setting up Portfolios, Products and utilizing a single AWS CodePipeline to push Product updates for multiple products
AWS CodePipeline
- Configuring multi-environment application pipelines with testing embedded and approvals
- Building pipelines to deploy/promote Database Migrations
AWS CloudFormation
- Building CI/CD pipelines for CloudFormation resources with Pull Request Feedback
AWS AppConfig
- Integrating AWS AppConfig into your application and using it for run-time configuration like Feature-Toggles

GitHub

Github Actions
- Using Github Actions to build/deploy iOS/Android applications
- Creating private Custom GitHub Actions
Using Terraform to manage your GitHub Organizations, Repos, Teams, and settings
GitHub CodeSpaces
- Using CodeSpaces to develop on open source projects
- Configuring CodeSpaces to be “just right” for all your projects

Raspberry Pi

Building a k3s cluster
Using AWS to deploy to a Raspberry Pi k3s cluster

Book reviews / take-aways

AWS CDK Elastic Beanstalk Examples

2020-07-17T00:00:00+00:00

Overview

Overview

AWS CDK enables you to codify infrastructure within a variety of programming languages to build reusable constructs that generate large amounts of AWS CloudFormation. The ratio of effort input vs value output is astounding.

In this repository is a public learning effort gradually ramping up toward full SDLC of an application backed by AWS ElasticBeanstalk.

Notably, AWS CDK has L1 constructs for AWS ElasticBeanstalk. My hope is to take what exists today in AWS CDK as far as it can go, and organically find what L2/L3 constructs for AWS ElasticBeanstalk that could benefit the community.

Setting up

# Get the code
git clone git@github.com:bluegrass-dev/aws-cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples.git
cd aws-cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples

# Install nvm - https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm#install--update-script

# install NodeJS LTS
nvm install --lts

`01-creating-an-application`

AWS Elastic Beanstalk has a concept of an Application that houses multiple environments. Here, we create that Application, that doesn’t do much for us, but is a great start!

▶ cd 01-creating-an-application
▶ npm i

# Let's validate our synthesized CloudFormation
▶ npm run test

> 01-creating-an-application@0.1.0 test /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/01-creating-an-application
> jest

 PASS  test/01-creating-an-application.test.ts
  ✓ ElasticBeanstalk Application Created (187ms)

Test Suites: 1 passed, 1 total
Tests:       1 passed, 1 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        1.664s, estimated 3s
Ran all test suites.

# 🚢 it!
▶ npm run cdk deploy

> 01-creating-an-application@0.1.0 cdk /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/01-creating-an-application
> cdk "deploy"

CreatingAnApplicationStack: deploying...
CreatingAnApplicationStack: creating CloudFormation changeset...
[██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████] (3/3)


 ✅  CreatingAnApplicationStack

Stack ARN:
arn:aws:cloudformation:us-west-2:140483673113:stack/CreatingAnApplicationStack/d0ed1ea0-c86e-11ea-b97b-06724f918394

# throw it in the 🗑️ when you're done!
▶ npm run cdk destroy

> 01-creating-an-application@0.1.0 cdk /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/01-creating-an-application
> cdk "destroy"

Are you sure you want to delete: CreatingAnApplicationStack (y/n)? y
CreatingAnApplicationStack: destroying...

 ✅  CreatingAnApplicationStack: destroyed

AWS ElasticBeanstalk Application

AWS CloudFormation Console

`02-creating-an-environment`

Next, let’s create an AWS ElasticBeanstalk Application again, then create a single Environment running Java 8.

▶ cd 02-creating-an-environment
▶ npm i

# Let's validate our synthesized CloudFormation
▶ npm run test

> 02-creating-an-environment@0.1.0 test /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/02-creating-an-environment
> jest

 PASS  test/02-creating-an-environment.test.ts
  ✓ ElasticBeanstalk Application Created (203ms)
  ✓ ElasticBeanstalk Environment Created (119ms)

Test Suites: 1 passed, 1 total
Tests:       2 passed, 2 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        2.58s, estimated 3s
Ran all test suites.

# 🚢 it!
▶ npm run cdk deploy '*'

> 02-creating-an-environment@0.1.0 cdk /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/02-creating-an-environment
> cdk "deploy" "*"

CreatingAnEnvironmentStack: deploying...
CreatingAnEnvironmentStack: creating CloudFormation changeset...


 ✅  CreatingAnEnvironmentStack

Outputs:
CreatingAnEnvironmentStack.EnvironmentUrl = http://awseb-e-9-AWSEBLoa-PMCKHN9GSWUA-1954471332.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com

Stack ARN:
arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:858981056259:stack/CreatingAnEnvironmentStack/79f67d20-c874-11ea-ac16-0e58854680da

# throw it in the 🗑️ when you're done!
▶ npm run cdk destroy

> 02-creating-an-environment@0.1.0 cdk /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/02-creating-an-environment
> cdk "destroy"

Are you sure you want to delete: CreatingAnEnvironmentStack (y/n)? y
CreatingAnEnvironmentStack: destroying...
5:47:08 PM | DELETE_IN_PROGRESS   | AWS::CloudFormation::Stack         | CreatingAnEnvironmentStack
5:50:14 PM | DELETE_IN_PROGRESS   | AWS::ElasticBeanstalk::Application | Application

 ✅  CreatingAnEnvironmentStack: destroyed

AWS ElasticBeanstalk Application

AWS CloudFormation Console

The running application

`03-environment-using-spot-instances`

Let’s be cost-conscious and create our Environments utilizing AWS EC2 Spot Instances through the native support via AWS ElasticBeanstalk!

▶ cd 03-environment-using-spot-instances
▶ npm i

# Let's validate our synthesized CloudFormation
▶ npm run test

> 03-environment-using-spot-instances@0.1.0 test /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/03-environment-using-spot-instances
> jest

 PASS  test/03-environment-using-spot-instances.test.ts
  ✓ ElasticBeanstalk Application Created (210ms)
  ✓ ElasticBeanstalk Environment Created (116ms)
  ✓ ElasticBeanstalk Environment is using 100% Spot Instances (118ms)

Test Suites: 1 passed, 1 total
Tests:       3 passed, 3 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        3.806s
Ran all test suites.

# 🚢 it!
▶ npm run cdk deploy '*'

> 03-environment-using-spot-instances@0.1.0 cdk /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/03-environment-using-spot-instances
> cdk "deploy" "*"

EnvironmentUsingSpotInstancesStack: deploying...
EnvironmentUsingSpotInstancesStack: creating CloudFormation changeset...
[██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████] (4/4)

 ✅  EnvironmentUsingSpotInstancesStack

Stack ARN:
arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:858981056259:stack/EnvironmentUsingSpotInstancesStack/29b3ee70-c878-11ea-89cf-0e05d1a3c102


# throw it in the 🗑️ when you're done!
▶ npm run cdk destroy

> 03-environment-using-spot-instances@0.1.0 cdk /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/03-environment-using-spot-instances
> cdk "destroy"

Are you sure you want to delete: EnvironmentUsingSpotInstancesStack (y/n)? y
EnvironmentUsingSpotInstancesStack: destroying...

 ✅  EnvironmentUsingSpotInstancesStack: destroyed

AWS ElasticBeanstalk Environment Capacity Options

`04-multiple-environments`

Alright, we have our Application and Environment in place, but what’s it look like to create multiple Environments? Do we have to copy/paste code, or can we make it reusable?

🚨🚨 Spoiler alert: we can make a parameterized stack and instantiate multiple! 🚨🚨

▶ cd 04-multiple-environments
▶ npm i

# Let's validate our synthesized CloudFormation
▶ npm run test

> 04-multiple-environments@0.1.0 test /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/04-multiple-environments
> jest

 PASS  test/04-multiple-environments.test.ts
  ✓ ElasticBeanstalk Application Created (208ms)
  ✓ ElasticBeanstalk Environments Created (129ms)

Test Suites: 1 passed, 1 total
Tests:       2 passed, 2 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        3.569s
Ran all test suites.

# 🚢 it!
▶ npm run cdk deploy '*'

> 04-multiple-environments@0.1.0 cdk /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/04-multiple-environments
> cdk "deploy" "*"

ApplicationStack
ApplicationStack: deploying...
ApplicationStack: creating CloudFormation changeset...

 ✅  ApplicationStack

Stack ARN:
arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:858981056259:stack/ApplicationStack/cfe8c270-c878-11ea-98ca-0ab389d40b93
Environment1Stack
Environment1Stack: deploying...
Environment1Stack: creating CloudFormation changeset...

 ✅  Environment1Stack

Stack ARN:
arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:858981056259:stack/Environment1Stack/da126210-c878-11ea-b389-1272d872aba7
Environment2Stack
Environment2Stack: deploying...
Environment2Stack: creating CloudFormation changeset...

 ✅  Environment2Stack

Stack ARN:
arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:858981056259:stack/Environment2Stack/53b4b050-c879-11ea-9f91-122ae4ce5d77

# throw it in the 🗑️ when you're done!

▶ npm run cdk destroy '*'

> 04-multiple-environments@0.1.0 cdk /Users/Bluegrass-Dev/github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/04-multiple-environments
> cdk "destroy" "*"

Are you sure you want to delete: Environment2Stack, Environment1Stack, ApplicationStack (y/n)? y
Environment2Stack: destroying...
 ✅  Environment2Stack: destroyed

Environment1Stack: destroying...
 ✅  Environment1Stack: destroyed

ApplicationStack: destroying...
 ✅  ApplicationStack: destroyed

AWS ElasticBeanstalk Environments

`05-pipeline-to-single-environment`

Up to here, we have an Application with multiple Environments, but we want to be able to ship new changes to these environments. So, let’s take a step back to a single Environment, add in AWS CodeBuild and AWS CodePipeline, and deploy a built application to the Environment!

▶ cd 05-pipeline-to-single-environment
▶ npm i

# Let's validate our synthesized CloudFormation
▶ npm run test

# Set our AWS Secrets Manager value for AWS CodePipeline to use for access to the GitHub Repository
▶ GITHUB_TOKEN=$GITHUB_TOKEN AWS_REGION=$AWS_REGION https://github.com/bluegrass-dev/cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/blob/master/scripts/set-secrets.sh

# 🚢 it!
▶ npm run cdk deploy '*'

# throw it in the 🗑️ when you're done!
▶ npm run cdk destroy

AWS CodePipeline

TODO

From AWS Elastic Beanstalk to AWS EKS

2020-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

From AWS Elastic Beanstalk to AWS EKS

Overview

What could it look like to experiment with an existing application running on AWS ElasticBeansatlk over to AWS EKS using modern tools?

In this talk and the code, we’re re-using the AWS Sample eb-java-scorekeep application. From there, we deploy to AWS ElasticBeanstalk Java Platform.

Wanting to begin our explorations, we shift the application to AWS ElasticBeanstalk Docker Platform.

Next, we start looking at AWS CDK for using imperative code to help us do more with less code to deploy an AWS ECS Cluster with AWS Fargate Services.

Lastly, we land at AWS EKS with a cluster created via AWS CDK, our application packaged and deployed to our cluster via AWS CDK.

As an extra bit, AWS CDK8S is stubbed out as a potential for future exploration of codifying our Kubernetes Resources.

Meetup details

Experimentation and cutovers don’t have to be immediate. What could it look like to trial a Java workload from AWS Elastic Beanstalk through phases to running on AWS ECS and AWS EKS? We step through some findings with newer tools enabling us to do far more for far less!

Local - VSCode, Make, Docker, AWS CLI, AWS CDK, AWS CDK8S AWS - AWS CodePipeline, AWS CodeBuild, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS Elastic Container Registry, AWS Elastic Container Service, AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service

Scenario
Our goal
Overview of the tools involved
Our baseline infrastructure: AWS ElasticBeanstalk Java via AWS CloudFormation
Experiment 1: AWS ElasticBeanstalk Docker via AWS CloudFormation
Experiment 2: AWS ECS Fargate via AWS CDK
Experiment 3: AWS EKS via AWS CDK
Experiment 3+1: AWS EKS resources via AWS CDK8s
Questions?

Outputs

Presenation Material

Speaker bio: CJ Taylor - blog.blugrass.dev

Cooking my brand like homemade spaghetti

2020-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

Table of contents
Howdy
Throwing spaghetti at the wall
Boiling your noodle
Al dente - bluegrass.dev
Plating my dish
Can we eat now

Howdy

Howdy, folks -

Personal branding isn’t something I’ve thought much about in the past. I’m one that believes consistent actions speak for themselves. But with an upcoming commitment to speak at, it dawned on me that I have no consolidated place for folks to go!

Hope you like the talk and if you want to find out more, check out:

All the code for this presentation found in https://www.github.com/cj-taylor/$INSERT_NAME_OF_REPO_MADE_WHEN_YOU_ACTUALLY_WORK_ON_IT
Let’s roll our faces on keyboards to make code together via github.com/cj-taylor
Let’s be professionals together via https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-taylor/
Let’s make bird noises together via https://twitter.com/BluegrassDevCJ

Excellent user experience, right? Not in my mind. I got motivated to create a single place where folks can deep-link to specific events, all the needful call-to-actions, and opportunities to share more on how the presentation came to be and evolved. I was left with an itch in my brain, saying, “figure it out, you’ll thank yourself later!” So, onto ideas, we go!

Throwing spaghetti at the wall

Some call this generating a “word cloud” or “mind mapping” to organically generate a consolidated idea from throwing words out there and connecting them to see what can stick. So, I went about “throwing spaghetti at the wall” to see what would stick.

Goal
- Document what I do and share with others for ease of access and cross-referencing
- Package it all up in an authentic way
About me
- Jovial
- Self-driven
- Coffee for days
- Lives in Kentucky
- Writes most, if not all emails with “Howdy,” “Howdy, folks -,” “Cheers,” salutations
- Gets attributed for being from a big city despite being from “this sticks” of Kentucky
About what I do
- Software Engineering
- Develops in whatever languages or tools that best fit the problem
- Critical thinking
- Self-teaching when I don’t know something

Boiling your noodle

After my ~30 minute exercise to get to the above listing, I wanted to “aim small, miss small.” So, I boiled down what my noodle came up with some word association.

About me
- Kentucky
  - The Bluegrass State
  - Motto: “Unbridled Spirit”
  - Derby => horses => they gallop => in fields
About what I do
- Software Engineering => a field of study
- Software => Can be open/closed source
- Develops => To dev or to write code => dev => .dev => a Generic Top Level Domain that exists
- Language/tool agnostic => multiple “fields” of study (frontend/backend/database/infrastructure/etc.)

My Generated motto: “An unbridled spirit that gallops around the open fields of software.”

Okay, now we’re cooking, a much smaller target! Off to Namecheap.com, I went searching for various keywords.

Searches:

Domain searches:
- Kentucky software
- Bourbon and dev
- bluegrass Fields of software
- Bluegrass
TLDs (Top Level Domains)
- .xyz
- .dev
- .com

Al dente - bluegrass.dev

Where I landed:

bluegrass.dev

So brief, but it seems like it articulates where and what enough to click to find out more.

Bewilder, it was available; I bought the domain on Namecheap.com. Next step hosting. I wanted a quick and easy way to spin up a static site without a concern for cost or configuration. For this, I turned to an old friend, Github Pages.

Plating my dish

Ingredients cooked up, my last step was to plate the dish before serving for consumption.

Goal: Github Pages, update via commit a minimal content focused website.

Seeing as my target was to provide more text-centric content, it felt like a good “documentation” experience would be nice.

Github Pages “Just the docs” Jekyll theme demo: https://pmarsceill.github.io/just-the-docs/

Excitingly enough, Github’s supports the ability to reference a “remote theme”

Following through the steps for establishing a Custom Domain for a Github Pages site, I had this wired up in the basic form in about 20 minutes!

Can we eat now

Here’s where you can see everything in action!

Github Repo: https://github.com/bluegrass-dev/blog
Website: https://blog.bluegrass.dev

Planting seeds for a culture of learning - starting DevBookClub

2016-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

Original post on Medium brought here for posterity. I’ve since moved to another company, and the DevBookClub started grew into a Louisville meetup - Dev Book Club by a fellow organizer.

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest your reap but by the seeds that you plant.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

The following is not a new story, but one that many people before have played out time after time. I’ve done my best to make it as a general as possible as this can apply to so many situations. Toward the end, I get into more of the specifics of this given context which is software development. Hope you enjoy. :) What’s left of this post before it’s no longer a draft?

What’s left of this post before it’s no longer a draft?

The details of the actual context? https://github.com/cj-taylor/Demo-DesignPatterns
How has the journey been after 10 weeks of functioning?
What lessons have been learned?
Address initial draft feedback and requests of those that are kind enough to provide it. If you’re reading this, then I greatly appreciate you and your feedback :)

The idea that created a hunger to explore

I have always been plagued with a curious mind, but it wasn’t until some time ago that I developed an interest in trying to share in that curiosity with others. I attribute that to the perspective gained by mentoring for an organization teaching others involving my given craft (CodeLouisville, a post to come about that soon).

What started with a giddy Facebook post (I’ve since deleted Facebook, but I made a similar tweet on Twitter) by a nerd about some books led into sidebar discussions among peers revealing an opportunity. An opportunity to create a community around learning with others. Quite the contrast from what many of us were accustomed to; learning in silos as individuals.

Taking inventory for the voyage

The initial chatter with my peers showed a variable amount of interest in certain areas, but we all seemed to agree on one thing; start simple. Having established our starting point, I wanted to ensure that whatever was done to grow the knowledge of our kindred minds wouldn’t have to be repeated from scratch; keep a history. Projecting the idea of the group further out in thought, we realized that it needed to be at least somewhat scheduled so others could rely on known dates and expectations; set a cadence and point of centralized updates. Lastly on our inventory was the final destination. Starting off slowly on the journey is safe, but the end destination is the larger goal; direct the group towards the end destination.

Start Simple
Keep a history
Set a cadence and a point of centralized updates
Direct the group toward the end destination

Mind you; these conversations spanned only a day online, it was the next day that I put our infrastructure into place and we were dipping our toes into the water to check the temperature. I was scared of losing fleeting interest in the adventure, so acting quick was a must.

Pausing story time here for now

After churning on this post for an hour, I need to get back to the grind on some code for other projects. However, I fully intend to continue with the above mentioned “What’s left of this post before it’s no longer a draft?” and what feedback I get from the start of this post I’ve already published. Sheesh, starting this I was all “This is going to be dreadful” however this has been quite an enjoyable outlet thus far. More to come!

CJ Taylor

AWS Service Catalog - Concept Introduction

Example: Restaurants and made to order meals

Step 2: Customer uses a menu to choose their meal

Step 4: Kitchen-staff cooks the meal using ingredients

AWS and AWS Service Catalog

AWS Service Catalog

Features

Cost to use

Ways to setup

Next post

Mulling over ideas for posts from past projects and your input

Walkthroughs / Projects

AWS

GitHub

Raspberry Pi

Book reviews / take-aways

AWS CDK Elastic Beanstalk Examples

Overview

Setting up

01-creating-an-application

AWS ElasticBeanstalk Application

AWS CloudFormation Console

02-creating-an-environment

AWS ElasticBeanstalk Application

AWS CloudFormation Console

The running application

03-environment-using-spot-instances

AWS ElasticBeanstalk Environment Capacity Options

04-multiple-environments

AWS ElasticBeanstalk Environments

05-pipeline-to-single-environment

AWS CodePipeline

From AWS Elastic Beanstalk to AWS EKS

From AWS Elastic Beanstalk to AWS EKS

Links

Overview

Meetup details

Cooking my brand like homemade spaghetti

Table of contents

Howdy

Throwing spaghetti at the wall

Boiling your noodle

Al dente - bluegrass.dev

Plating my dish

Can we eat now

Planting seeds for a culture of learning - starting DevBookClub

What’s left of this post before it’s no longer a draft?

The idea that created a hunger to explore

Taking inventory for the voyage

Pausing story time here for now

`01-creating-an-application`

`02-creating-an-environment`

`03-environment-using-spot-instances`

`04-multiple-environments`

`05-pipeline-to-single-environment`