Cloud Deployment Patterns

Hands-on guide: one Node.js api deployed via AWS Console, SAM, and Terraform

Tech Stack

Tech	Description
Node.js	JavaScript runtime
Express	Web framework for building REST APIs
Nginx	Reverse proxy (load balancing, caching, SSL available)
Docker	Containerization platform
AWS ECR	Elastic Container Registry - stores Docker images
AWS ECS	Elastic Container Service - runs containers
AWS Fargate	Serverless compute engine for ECS
AWS Secrets Manager	Stores and manages secrets like API keys
AWS IAM	Manages access roles and permissions
AWS VPC	Virtual Private Cloud - isolated network for resources
AWS CLI	Command-line tool for managing AWS services
GitHub Actions	CI/CD — automates deploy/cleanup for each deployment pattern

Deployment Methods

Method	Description	Tool Type
AWS Console	Manual deployment via the AWS Management Console — click-through UI setup	Manual
AWS SAM	Infrastructure-as-code using AWS SAM and CloudFormation	IaC (AWS-native)
Terraform	Infrastructure-as-code using Terraform — multi-cloud, state-managed	IaC (Cloud-agnostic)

Architecture

[ Docker Build ] ──▶ [ ECR Repo ] ──▶ [ Task Definition ]
                                                │
            ┌───────────────────────────────────┘
            ▼
┌── VPC (10.0.0.0/16) ────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                         │
│ ┌── ECS Fargate Cluster ──────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │                                                     │ │
│ │  [ Task: Nginx :80 → Node.js :5000 ]                │ │
│ │                                                     │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│                                                         │
│  Public Subnets ──▶ Security Group ──▶ ENI             │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Project Structure

deploy-patterns/
├── README.md                              # This file (overview)
├── .github/workflows/                     # GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines (one per pattern)
│   ├── dev-aws-sam.yml                     # Deploy/cleanup for the SAM app
│   └── dev-aws-sam-rollback.yml            # Manual rollback for the SAM app
├── 01-deploy-using-aws-console/           # Manual deployment via AWS Console
│   ├── README.md                          # Step-by-step console guide
│   ├── src/                               # App source code
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── ...
├── 02-deploy-using-aws-sam/               # AWS SAM (IaC) deployment
│   ├── README.md                          # SAM deployment guide
│   ├── src/                               # App source code
│   ├── template.yaml                      # SAM/CloudFormation template
│   ├── samconfig.toml                     # SAM CLI config
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── ...
└── 03-deploy-using-terraform/             # Terraform (IaC) deployment
    ├── README.md                          # Coming soon
    ├── src/                               # App source code
    ├── Dockerfile
    └── ...

Deployment Guides

Method	Description	Best For
AWS Console	Manual deployment via AWS Management Console UI	Learning, one-off deployments
AWS SAM	IaC using AWS SAM and CloudFormation	Automated, repeatable deployments
Terraform	IaC using Terraform — multi-cloud, state-managed (In Progress)	Advanced IaC, multi-cloud

CI/CD with GitHub Actions

This repo uses GitHub Actions to automate deployment and cleanup for each deployment pattern. Workflows live in .github/workflows/ — one file per pattern:

Workflow file	Pattern	Status
dev-aws-sam.yml	AWS SAM (folder 02-deploy-using-aws-sam/)	✅ Implemented
dev-aws-sam-rollback.yml	AWS SAM — manual rollback to a pinned image tag	✅ Implemented
(planned)	AWS Console (folder 01-deploy-using-aws-console/)	Planned
(planned)	Terraform (folder 03-deploy-using-terraform/)	Planned

Every workflow follows the same conventions:

• Triggers — pushes to a pattern-specific branch (e.g. release/dev-aws-sam) with a path filter, plus a manual Run workflow button.
• Mode — a mode input (deploy | cleanup). Cleanup can also be triggered by pushing a commit whose message contains --cleanup.
• Rollback — deploys pin the image tag (git SHA); if the new deployment fails, the deploy script automatically reverts to the previous tag. A separate manual rollback workflow redeploys any pinned tag on demand.
• Notifications — every run emails started + SUCCESS/FAILED results with a link to the run.
• Secrets — scoped to a per-pattern GitHub Environment (e.g. release-dev-aws-sam) holding AWS credentials and notification SMTP settings.

The AWS SAM workflow is the reference implementation — the other patterns will mirror its structure.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+
• Docker
• AWS CLI configured
• Additional tools depending on deployment method (see each folder's README)

Local Development

# Navigate to any deployment folder (they all contain the same app)
cd 01-deploy-using-aws-console

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run in development mode
npm run dev

API Usage

GET /weather?q=manila

OpenWeatherMap API Setup

1. Go to https://openweathermap.org/api
2. Click Sign Up and create a free account
3. Verify your email address
4. Go to API Keys tab in your account dashboard
5. Copy your default API key (or click Generate to create a new one)
6. The free tier includes:
   • Current weather data
   • 1,000 API calls/day
   • No credit card required

Note: API keys take ~10 minutes to activate after creation.

Docker

# Navigate to any deployment folder
cd 01-deploy-using-aws-console

# Create nginx.conf from template
cp nginx.conf.example nginx.conf

# Build and run
docker build -t node-app .
docker run -p 80:80 -e API_ENDPOINT=https://api.openweathermap.org -e API_KEY=<API_KEY> node-app

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Author

Michael B. Antoni

• Email: michaelantoni.tech@gmail.com
• Website: https://michaelantoni.vercel.app
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/m-antoni