Start here

By the end of this guide you will have ShortLink running in your own AWS account: a React website on S3, a Node.js API on a private EC2 instance behind a load balancer, and a private PostgreSQL database on RDS. You will create every resource by hand in the console so you understand what each one is for.

What you will build#

Time and cost#

• Time: about 2 to 3 hours the first time. The slow parts are waiting: RDS takes 5 to 10 minutes, the NAT gateway and load balancer 2 to 3 minutes each.
• Cost: while everything runs, expect roughly US$3 per day (estimate; prices vary by Region and change). The NAT gateway, the load balancer and the database make up most of it. Nothing here is free-tier-only.
• Stop the meter: when you finish, follow the Clean up chapter. Deleting the NAT gateway and the load balancer alone cuts the bill by more than half.

Before you begin#

Tick these off. The boxes remember your answers in this browser.

• An AWS account where you can create VPCs, EC2, RDS, S3, IAM roles and load balancers (an admin user or role is simplest). Do not use the root user for daily work.
• A GitHub account (you will fork the repository in the next chapter).
• Git installed on your computer (git --version).
• Node.js 20 or newer and npm on your computer (node --version). Node 22 LTS is a good choice.
• The AWS CLI v2 on your computer, signed in to your account (aws sts get-caller-identity prints your account ID).
• A password manager or a safe note for the database password you will create.
• A single Region chosen for everything. These guides were verified in ap-south-1 (Mumbai). Pick one and stay in it, because the console quietly switches Regions less often than you would hope.

aws sts get-caller-identity

How these guides work#

• Commands are tagged with where to run them: Your computer a terminal on your laptop, On the EC2 instance a Session Manager shell, or Paste in the AWS console a JSON policy for the console editor.
• Highlighted text such as <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID> is a placeholder. Click My values in the header, fill in what you know, and every command on the site updates. The Copy button copies your real values.
• Console paths look like VPCYour VPCsCreate VPC. Search the console for the first word if you cannot find it.
• After each important step there is a You should see box. If you do not see it, stop and fix it before moving on. Problems compound.

Names used everywhere#

Use these names exactly. Later chapters (and the CI/CD guides) refer to them in IAM policies, deployment groups and pipelines.

Next: fork the repository.