AWS Deployment Guide for Student Management Portal - jameelappsintegra/student-management-portal GitHub Wiki
This comprehensive guide will walk you through deploying the Student Management Portal on AWS for an educational institution, with MongoDB integration and region-specific configuration.
- Prerequisites
- AWS Account Setup
- MongoDB Atlas Setup
- AWS Region Selection
- Deployment Options
- Environment Variables Configuration
- Domain and SSL Setup
- Monitoring and Logging
- Backup and Disaster Recovery
- Cost Optimization
- Educational Institution Best Practices
- Troubleshooting
Before starting the deployment process, ensure you have:
- The Student Management Portal codebase from your GitHub repository
- Node.js and npm installed on your local machine
- AWS CLI installed and configured
- Git installed
- Basic knowledge of AWS services
- MongoDB Atlas account (or plan to create one)
-
Create an AWS Account (if you don't have one):
- Go to AWS Console
- Click "Create an AWS Account"
- Follow the registration process
-
Set up IAM Users and Permissions:
# Install AWS CLI if not already installed pip install awscli # Configure AWS CLI aws configure
-
Create an IAM User for Deployment:
- Go to IAM in AWS Console
- Create a new user with programmatic access
- Attach policies: AmazonEC2FullAccess, AmazonS3FullAccess, AmazonRDSFullAccess, etc.
- Save the access key and secret key
-
Create a MongoDB Atlas Account:
- Go to MongoDB Atlas
- Sign up for a free account or log in
-
Create a New Cluster:
- Click "Build a Cluster"
- Choose "AWS" as the cloud provider
- Select the same region as your AWS deployment (for low latency)
- Choose the appropriate tier (M0 is free for development)
- Name your cluster (e.g., "student-portal-db")
-
Configure Database Access:
- Create a database user with a strong password
- Add your IP address to the IP whitelist (or 0.0.0.0/0 for all IPs)
-
Get Connection String:
- Click "Connect" on your cluster
- Choose "Connect your application"
- Copy the connection string (you'll need this later)
- Replace
<password>
with your database user's password
Selecting the right AWS region is crucial for performance and compliance:
-
Educational Institution Considerations:
- Choose a region closest to your educational institution for lowest latency
- Consider data residency requirements for educational data
- Check if your region offers educational pricing
-
Popular AWS Regions for Educational Institutions:
- North America: us-east-1 (Virginia), us-west-2 (Oregon)
- Europe: eu-west-1 (Ireland), eu-central-1 (Frankfurt)
- Asia Pacific: ap-southeast-1 (Singapore), ap-northeast-1 (Tokyo)
-
Region Selection Command:
# Set your preferred region aws configure set region YOUR_PREFERRED_REGION
Elastic Beanstalk is the simplest way to deploy Node.js applications on AWS.
-
Install EB CLI:
pip install awsebcli
-
Initialize EB Application:
cd student-management-portal eb init # Follow the prompts: # - Select your region # - Create a new application # - Select Node.js platform # - Set up SSH for instance access (optional)
-
Configure Environment Variables: Create a file named
.ebextensions/env.config
:option_settings: aws:elasticbeanstalk:application:environment: NODE_ENV: production MONGODB_DATABASE_URL: mongodb+srv://username:[email protected]/student_management POSTGRES_DATABASE_URL: postgresql://username:password@hostname:port/database NEXTAUTH_SECRET: your-secret-key NEXTAUTH_URL: https://your-eb-url.elasticbeanstalk.com TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID: your-account-sid TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN: your-auth-token TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER: your-twilio-phone-number
-
Create and Deploy Application:
eb create student-portal-production --region YOUR_PREFERRED_REGION
-
Open the Application:
eb open
For more control over the server environment:
-
Launch an EC2 Instance:
- Go to EC2 in AWS Console
- Click "Launch Instance"
- Choose Amazon Linux 2 AMI
- Select t2.micro (free tier) or larger as needed
- Configure instance details (VPC, subnet, etc.)
- Add storage (default is fine for starting)
- Add tags (e.g., Name: student-portal-production)
- Configure security group to allow HTTP (80), HTTPS (443), and SSH (22)
- Launch instance and select/create a key pair
-
Connect to Your Instance:
ssh -i your-key.pem ec2-user@your-instance-public-dns
-
Install Dependencies:
# Update system sudo yum update -y # Install Node.js curl -sL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_16.x | sudo bash - sudo yum install -y nodejs # Install Git sudo yum install -y git # Install PM2 for process management sudo npm install -g pm2 # Install Nginx sudo amazon-linux-extras install nginx1 -y
-
Clone and Set Up Your Application:
# Clone repository git clone https://github.com/jameelappsintegra/student-management-portal.git cd student-management-portal # Install dependencies npm install # Create .env file cat > .env << EOL MONGODB_DATABASE_URL=mongodb+srv://username:[email protected]/student_management POSTGRES_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://username:password@hostname:port/database NEXTAUTH_SECRET=your-secret-key NEXTAUTH_URL=https://your-domain.com TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=your-account-sid TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=your-auth-token TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER=your-twilio-phone-number EOL # Build the application npm run build
-
Configure PM2:
# Start the application with PM2 pm2 start npm --name "student-portal" -- start # Make PM2 start on boot pm2 startup sudo env PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin pm2 startup amazon -u ec2-user pm2 save
-
Configure Nginx:
sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/student-portal.conf
Add the following configuration:
server { listen 80; server_name your-domain.com www.your-domain.com; location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:3000; proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade'; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade; } }
# Test Nginx configuration sudo nginx -t # Restart Nginx sudo systemctl restart nginx
AWS Amplify is great for Next.js applications with continuous deployment:
-
Install Amplify CLI:
npm install -g @aws-amplify/cli
-
Configure Amplify:
amplify configure
-
Initialize Amplify in Your Project:
cd student-management-portal amplify init
-
Add Hosting:
amplify add hosting
-
Deploy Your Application:
amplify publish
-
Connect to GitHub for CI/CD:
- Go to AWS Amplify Console
- Click "Connect app"
- Choose GitHub as the repository source
- Select your repository
- Configure build settings:
version: 1 frontend: phases: preBuild: commands: - npm ci build: commands: - npm run build artifacts: baseDirectory: .next files: - '**/*' cache: paths: - node_modules/**/*
- Add environment variables in the Amplify Console
Regardless of deployment method, you'll need to configure these environment variables:
MONGODB_DATABASE_URL=mongodb+srv://username:[email protected]/student_management
POSTGRES_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://username:password@hostname:port/database
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=your-secret-key
NEXTAUTH_URL=https://your-domain.com
TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=your-account-sid
TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=your-auth-token
TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER=your-twilio-phone-number
For AWS services, you can set these:
- In Elastic Beanstalk: Through the EB Console or .ebextensions
- In EC2: In the .env file
- In Amplify: Through the Amplify Console
-
Register a Domain (if you don't have one):
- Use Amazon Route 53 or another domain registrar
- Choose a domain relevant to your educational institution
-
Configure DNS:
# Create a hosted zone in Route 53 aws route53 create-hosted-zone --name your-domain.com --caller-reference $(date +%s) # Add DNS records based on your deployment method
-
Set Up SSL Certificate:
# Request a certificate through AWS Certificate Manager aws acm request-certificate --domain-name your-domain.com --validation-method DNS --region YOUR_PREFERRED_REGION
-
Configure HTTPS:
- For Elastic Beanstalk: Enable HTTPS in the EB Console
- For EC2: Update Nginx configuration to use SSL
- For Amplify: HTTPS is enabled by default with custom domains
-
Set Up CloudWatch:
# Create a CloudWatch dashboard aws cloudwatch put-dashboard --dashboard-name StudentPortalDashboard --dashboard-body file://dashboard.json
-
Configure Alarms:
# Create an alarm for high CPU usage aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm --alarm-name HighCPUAlarm --alarm-description "Alarm when CPU exceeds 70%" --metric-name CPUUtilization --namespace AWS/EC2 --statistic Average --period 300 --threshold 70 --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=YOUR_INSTANCE_ID --evaluation-periods 2 --alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:YOUR_REGION:YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID:YOUR_SNS_TOPIC
-
Application Logging:
- For Elastic Beanstalk: Logs are automatically sent to CloudWatch
- For EC2: Configure CloudWatch agent
- For Amplify: Logs are available in the Amplify Console
-
MongoDB Atlas Backups:
- Enable automated backups in MongoDB Atlas
- Configure backup schedule and retention policy
-
Application Backups:
# Create an S3 bucket for backups aws s3 mb s3://student-portal-backups --region YOUR_PREFERRED_REGION # Set up a backup script cat > backup.sh << EOL #!/bin/bash TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S) tar -czf /tmp/app-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz -C /path/to/student-management-portal . aws s3 cp /tmp/app-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz s3://student-portal-backups/ rm /tmp/app-backup-$TIMESTAMP.tar.gz EOL chmod +x backup.sh # Add to crontab (crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo "0 2 * * * /path/to/backup.sh") | crontab -
-
Disaster Recovery Plan:
- Document recovery procedures
- Test recovery regularly
- Consider multi-region deployment for critical systems
-
AWS Educate or AWS Academy:
- Check if your educational institution qualifies for AWS Educate or AWS Academy
- These programs offer credits and discounted pricing
-
Resource Sizing:
- Start with smaller instances and scale as needed
- Use auto-scaling for variable workloads
-
Reserved Instances:
- Consider Reserved Instances for long-term deployments
- Can save up to 75% compared to On-Demand pricing
-
Cost Explorer:
# Enable Cost Explorer aws ce enable-cost-explorer
-
Data Privacy Compliance:
- Ensure FERPA compliance (for US institutions)
- Implement appropriate data access controls
- Document data handling procedures
-
User Management:
- Set up IAM roles for different staff positions
- Implement least privilege access
- Regular access reviews
-
Scalability Planning:
- Plan for enrollment periods with higher traffic
- Consider academic calendar in scaling decisions
- Set up auto-scaling for predictable patterns
-
Training and Documentation:
- Create admin guides for IT staff
- Document deployment and maintenance procedures
- Provide training for system administrators
-
Common Issues and Solutions:
- Connection issues: Check security groups and network ACLs
- Database connection: Verify MongoDB Atlas IP whitelist
- Application errors: Check CloudWatch logs
-
Support Resources:
- AWS Support: Consider Business or Enterprise support for educational institutions
- MongoDB Atlas Support: Available with paid clusters
- Community forums and documentation
-
Monitoring and Alerts:
- Set up alerts for critical metrics
- Configure notification channels (email, SMS)
- Create runbooks for common issues
This deployment guide provides a comprehensive approach to deploying the Student Management Portal on AWS for educational institutions. By following these steps, you'll have a robust, scalable, and secure application that meets the needs of your institution.
For additional assistance or custom configurations, consider consulting with an AWS partner or solution architect specializing in educational technology deployments.