How to manage an AWS VPC

This how-to assumes:

• Basic familiarity with System Initiative
• Are familiar with AWS VPC

It will teach you how to create a best practice AWS VPC and manage it with System Initiative.

We will cover:

• The creation of a highly available VPC that spans multiple availability zones.
• A VPC configured with public and private subnets.
• The networking required to allow outbound traffic for resources on the private subnets.
• The networking required for the communication with the internet.

What it will look like when completed

When you have completed this guide, you should have Components that look like this in your Diagram:

Walkthrough

Create a Change Set

Create a Change Set named VPC How-to.

Create AWS Credentials

Add an AWS Credential to your Change Set and configure your AWS credentials

Select an AWS Region

Add a AWS Region to your Change Set and set the region property to us-east-1.

Create a VPC Component

Add a AWS::EC2::VPC to your us-east-1 region frame.

Set the Component type to be Down Frame and expand it to fill the region frame.

Set the Component name to be How to VPC.

Set the CidrBlock to be 10.0.0.0/16

Enable EnableDnsHostnames.

Enable EnableDnsResolution.

Create the Public Subnet Components

This VPC will span multiple availability zones in our AWS Region. Add 3 AWS::EC2::Subnet Components to your VPC frame and configure them as follows:

Component Name	CidrBlock	AvailabilityZone	MapPublicIpOnLaunch
Public 1	10.0.128.0/20	us-east-1a	true
Public 2	10.0.144.0/20	us-east-1b	true
Public 3	10.0.160.0/20	us-east-1c	true

Set the Component type for each of the public subnet Components to be Configuration Frame (down).

Create the NAT Gateway Components

Add a AWS::EC2::NATGateway Component to each of the Public subnet frames.

Set name names of the Component to be NAT Gateway (1|2|3) - the index should align with the subnet it is inside.

Set the ConnectivityType of each of the NAT Gateway Components to be public.

Create the Elastic IPs for each NAT Gateway

To each of the Public subnet frames, add an AWS::EC2::EIP Component.

Set the names of the Components to be NAT Gateway IP (1|2|3) - the index should align with the subnet it is inside, and match the NAT Gateway Component.

Set the Domain of each of the Elastic IP Components to be vpc.

Connect the Allocation ID Output Socket of the Elastic IP Component to the Allocation ID Input Socket of the NAT Gateway Component. The connections should be in the same subnet.

Create the Public Route Table Component

Add a AWS::EC2::RouteTable Component to the VPC frame.

Set the Component type to be Configuration Frame (down).

Set the Component name to be Public Route Table.

Connect the Subnet ID Output Socket of the Public Subnet Components to the Subnet ID Input Socket of the Public Route Table Component.

Add 3 AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation components to the Public Route Table component.

Set the Component type to be Configuration Frame (down).

Set the Component name to be Public (1|2|3) Association.

Connect the corresponding Subnet ID Output Socket of the Public Subnet Components to the Subnet ID Input Socket of the correct Public Subnet Route Table Association Component. e.g. Public Subnet 1 connects to Public Subnet 1 Association

Create a Route Component

Add a AWS::EC2::Route Component to the Public Route Table frame.

Set the Component name to be Route to Internet.

Set DestinationCidrBlock to be 0.0.0.0/0.

Create the Internet Gateway Component

Add an AWS::EC2::InternetGateway Component to the VPC frame.

Set the name to be IGW.

Add an AWS::EC2::VPCGatewayAttachment Component to the VPC frame.

Set the name to be Gateway VPC Attachment.

Connect the Gateway ID Output Socket of the IGW Component to the Gateway ID Input Socket of the Route to Internet Component in the Public Route Table frame.

Connect the Internet Gateway ID Output Socket of the IGW Component to the Internet Gateway ID Input Socket of the Gateway VPC Attachment Component.

Create the Private Subnet Components

Add 3 AWS::EC2::Subnet Components to your VPC frame and configure them as follows:

Component name	CidrBlock	AvailabilityZone
Private 1	10.0.0.0/19	us-east-1a
Private 2	10.0.32.0/19	us-east-1b
Private 3	10.0.64.0/19	us-east-1c

Set the Component type for each of the public subnet Components to be Configuration Frame (down).

Create the Private Route Table Components

To each of the Private subnet frames, add a AWS::EC2::RouteTable Component.

Set the name to be Private Route Table 1(2|3) - the index should align with the subnet frame it is inside.

Set the Component type for each of the Private Route Table Components to be Configuration Frame (down).

Create the Private Route Components

Add a AWS::EC2::Route Component to each of the Private Route Table frames.

Set the Component name to be Route to Internet (1|2|3) - the index should align with the route table frame it is inside.

Set DestinationCidrBlock to be 0.0.0.0/0.

Connect the Output Socket NAT Gateway ID of NAT Gateway 1 Component to the NAT Gateway ID Input Socket of Route to Internet 1 Component.

Connect the Output Socket NAT Gateway ID of NAT Gateway 2 Component to the NAT Gateway ID Input Socket of Route to Internet 2 Component.

Connect the Output Socket NAT Gateway ID of NAT Gateway 3 Component to the NAT Gateway ID Input Socket of Route to Internet 3 Component.

Create the Subnet Route Table Associations

Add a AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation Component to each of the Private Subnet frames.

Set the name of each of the association components to be Private (1|2|3) Assocation.

Apply your Change Set

Press Escape or click anywhere on the canvas background to select the Workspace.

Click the Apply Change Set button to:

• Create a VPC Component
• Create 6 Subnets
• Create an Internet Gateway and the VPC Association
• Create 3 Elastic IPs and 3 NAT Gateways
• Create 4 Route Tables and the subnet associations and 4 Routes

Explore your resources

Review the completed AWS resources by clicking the Resource sub-panel for each of your new resources.

Clean Up

Create a new Change Set called Clean up VPC How-to

Delete your VPC How-to VPC frame. All of the Components inside will be marked for deletion.

Click Apply Change Set.

All your new resources should be deleted from your AWS account.

Vocabulary

In this guide bits of System Initiative Vocabulary will be shown with a capital letter. All definitions for these can be found here: System Initative - Vocabulary