AWS OpsWorks: a Hands-on Guide to DevOps Application Management

(Update March 2019) We’ve added a validation Lab Step to check the work you perform in the AWS OpsWorks hands-on Lab and we’ve improved the lab experience with new images and instructions to reflect the new VPC and OpsWorks flows.


New Cloud Academy hands-on lab: AWS OpsWorks

If you’re involved in web development, the odds are that you already appreciate the level of integration and automation offered by the DevOps approach to application management. And if you’re considering building application infrastructure on the Amazon Web Services cloud, then you’d probably like some way to apply DevOps principles.

You could always build your own DevOps deployment environment using third-party packages like Puppet. While these do get the job done beautifully but the learning curve can be a bit steep. But if you just don’t want to have to spend too much time worrying about infrastructure, you should give AWS OpsWorks some serious consideration.

AWS OpsWorks application management service

OpsWorks is a management tool that allows you to organize and deploy a complete stack of AWS services in support of your application, without needing to worry about backend management details. AWS will handle things like configuration, redundancy, and scaling, leaving you to focus on your users.

Cloud Academy designer Ryan S. Brown, has just created a brand new hands-on lab that will guide you, step-by-step, through building a full AWS OpsWorks stack from scratch.

This lab will give you full access to an actual AWS console account. You’ll work through the process of creating an OpsWorks stack just the way you would if you were working with your own account.

Specifically, using Ryan’s lab, you will:

  • Login to Amazon Web Service Console.
  • Create an AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), VPC Subnet, and VPC Internet Gateway.
  • Connect the Internet Gateway to the VPC Route Table.
  • Create and OpsWorks stack, layer, and app.
  • Deploy a  simple app.
  • Delete the Stack.

Need the kind of confidence and experience that you would normally find only through spending time in an actual production environment?

Take Cloud Academy’s AWS OpsWorks Lab today!

Build your first OpsWorks stack hands-on lab

Cloud Academy