# Deploy on AWS

{% hint style="success" %}
This is the official documentation of the `@forestadmin/agent` Node.js agent.
{% endhint %}

This tutorial is designed to assist you with a step-by-step guide to deploy the admin backend to Amazon Web Services, using EC2, ELB, ACM and Route53.

First, please ensure you have an AWS account. You can sign up [here](https://aws.amazon.com/).

#### 1. Launch an EC2 Instance:

* Navigate to the EC2 dashboard and click on `Launch Instance`.
* Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) such as `Amazon Linux 2023 AMI`.
* Select `t2.micro` (part of the AWS Free Tier).
* Select `Proceed without a key pair`

![](https://3861847666-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9UN5oBJhgzLadOqi7jx6%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-cc4ec0b7e5e285e2bbdaf0b4d8e0acc7e3433254%2Fdeploy-on-aws-key-pair.png?alt=media)

* On the `Configure Security Group` step, create a new security group:
  * allow `ssh traffic`.
  * allow `HTTPS traffic`.
  * allow `HTTP traffic`.

![](https://3861847666-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9UN5oBJhgzLadOqi7jx6%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-211ac7bdc75ba0a65bfd85ede15f7735e7dbac29%2Fdeploy-on-aws-security-group.png?alt=media)

* Review and launch the instance.

#### 2. Connect to the EC2 instance:

* Navigate to your EC2 instance and click on `Connect`.
* Leave the default parameters and click on `Connect` again.
* Your are now connected to your instance.

#### 3. Set up your instance:

{% hint style="info" %}
The command lines in this step demonstrate how to install a Node.js agent. If you are running Forest Admin on another agent, please adapt the following to your specific stack.
{% endhint %}

* Update the instance:

```bash
sudo yum update -y
```

* Install Git:

```bash
sudo yum install git -y
```

* Clone your repo:

```bash
git clone your-repo-link
```

* Install Node.js and npm:

```bash
sudo yum install npm -y
```

* Navigate to your project directory and install the necessary packages:

```bash
cd your-repo-directory
npm install
```

* Set up all the necessary environment variables provided by the Forest Admin environment creation wizard.
* Add the `APPLICATION_PORT` environment variable to be able to contact the server from outside. In this example, we will choose `APPLICATION_PORT=3310`. If you choose another port, please adapt the next steps accordingly.
* Start the agent

```bash
npm run start:watch
```

#### 4. Adjust security group rules:

* Navigate to your EC2 instance's security group.
* Click on `Edit inbound rules`.
* Add a Custom TCP inbound rule to allow on port `3310`.

![](https://3861847666-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9UN5oBJhgzLadOqi7jx6%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-ce0e5ee5798070828a4acd7bd951ac114e2d9e13%2Fdeploy-on-aws-inbound-rules.png?alt=media)

#### 5. Create a target group:

* In the AWS Management Console, navigate to the EC2 service.
* Under "Target Groups", click `Create Target Groups`.
* Ensure target type is instance.
* Choose HTTP to `3310`.
* Ensure VPC is set to the same VPC as your EC2 instance.
* Setup the health checks as set to `/forest`.
* On the next step, select instance and click on `Include as pending below`.
* Finally create the target group.

#### 6. Request a certificate using AWS Certificate Manager (ACM):

* Navigate to ACM and click on `Request a certificate`.
* Enter your domain name and validate the domain ownership using DNS validation.
* After viewing the new created certificate, click on `Create records in Route 53`.
* Wait for the certificate to be validated (this can take some time < 1mn).

#### 7. Set up an Application Load Balancer (ALB):

* In the AWS Management Console, navigate to the EC2 service.
* Under "Load Balancers", click `Create Load Balancer`.
* Choose `Application Load Balancer` and follow the setup.
* Ensure the ALB is set to the same VPC as your EC2 instance.
* Select all regions.

![](https://3861847666-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9UN5oBJhgzLadOqi7jx6%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-6f80907f29721cb76c6cf21c85f0116053edafa6%2Fdeploy-on-aws-alb-regions.png?alt=media)

* Remove default security group and select the group associated to the newly created instance.

![](https://3861847666-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9UN5oBJhgzLadOqi7jx6%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-467d488ffd82fee3d093b3ae8f543a1cd62b5235%2Fdeploy-on-aws-alb-security.png?alt=media)

* Add an HTTPS listener and choose previously created target group and certificate.

![](https://3861847666-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F9UN5oBJhgzLadOqi7jx6%2Fuploads%2Fgit-blob-ad6c784823df20e44f001c709966bbcdfdb73579%2Fdeploy-on-aws-alb-https-listener.png?alt=media)

* After creating the ALB copy the `DNS name`.

#### 8. Add CNAME to Route53:

* Navigate to Route53 and choose your hosted zone (domain).
* Create a `CNAME` record with the domain name filled in the certificate and the `DNS name` of the ALB.

#### 9. Finalize:

Check your domain. You should be able to access your Forest Admin panel environment hosted on AWS. 🎉

{% hint style="info" %}
This is a basic setup, and there are many optimizations and security enhancements (like using RDS, tightening security groups, etc.) that can be done for a production-ready deployment. Please refer to the [AWS documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/index.html) to go deeper.
{% endhint %}