Lightsail - My Journey from GoDaddy to AWS

About 9 months ago, I decided to migrate my 3 domains and 2 websites from GoDaddy to AWS.  I had been a loyal customer of GoDaddy for 20+ years, but as more and more of my projects and customers migrated to the cloud, it seemed logical for me to do the same.

I first attended an AWS Summit event about 6
years ago.  I appreciated the seriousness with which each speaker took his/her presentation and the uniform recognition of the scope of Amazon's mission to simplify and improve software delivery.  Having previously been responsible for maintenance of departmental hardware in my role at Sun Microsystems, I immediately recognized the value proposition that cloud computing offered.

Since then, the vast majority of the software projects that I have managed were either predominantly or completely hosted in the cloud, mostly AWS but also Azure and GCP.

For my simple needs, and to control budget, I determined that I would use the following AWS services:

• Lightsail ("Virtual private server for a low, predictable price")
• Route 53 ("A reliable and cost-effective way to route end users to Internet applications")

The Migration

Here is a guide to the migration, with a few comments along the way!

Provision the Lightsail Instance

Login to your AWS account and provision the Lightsail "instance" here:

• https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/webapp/home/instances

This was relatively simple, especially given my somewhat outdated and incomplete understanding of infrastructure provisioning.  Note that I also had to account for multiple domains.  This video was helpful:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upZOhKhefAs

After navigating the Lightsail Create Instance wizard, which takes a matter of a couple of minutes at most, you simply input the Public IP (provided for each instance) into the web browser address field and it renders your "base website".  

I particularly appreciated the following:

• The AWS Lightsail web UI provided an SSH console "out-of-the box"
• I did not have to pfutz with encryption keys

Migrate Content

I used the Aptana SFTP client to migrate, en-masse, my htdocs content, as follows:

• Configure SFTP connection from Aptana client to the Public IP for the instance provided through the Lightsail web UI
• You will need the default username and password generated by Lightsail Create Instance wizard (see the previously noted video for details)

I also used this as an opportunity to clean up my legacy web content.  There was (and still is) "tech debt" that needs to be repaid to minimize future maintenance overhead.  Here are some integrations, specific to my content:

• Github's public API: Worked without issue
• Google Maps integration: Worked without issue
• Google Blogger blog feed: Worked without issue

I performed a side-by-side comparison of the functionality of the existing site (GoDaddy) and the migrated site (AWS Lightsail).  This helped identify 2 minor regression issues, that I have noted and still have to troubleshoot in more detail.

Domain Registration

Refer to this guide that is specific to GoDaddy -> Route 53 domain registration migration:

https://blog.shikisoft.com/transferring-domain-registrations-from-godaddy-to-amazon-route-53/

Key Takeaways

Benefits

In my most recent roles, I am less "hands-on-keyboards" than I used to be.  

However, I still find great value and satisfaction in having a basic understanding of the technologies and services at play.  Performing this migration helped me to better understand the AWS ecosystem and, more generally, the operational mental model and nuances of cloud infrastructure when compared to on-premise.  

It will also provide me with a platform should I need to perform first-hand exploration of other emerging technologies and services.

Complications

I achieved "secure http" -- or https -- as part of the migration to AWS Lightsail.  However, this required a little more work than I was expecting.  These additional instructions helped me navigate this:

• https://docs.bitnami.com/aws/how-to/generate-install-lets-encrypt-ssl/

My legacy content was dependent on a MySQL database.  Therefore, I selected the AWS Lightsail Bitnami LAMP stack image.  I encountered some confusion in the database setup, although this helped:

• https://docs.bitnami.com/aws/infrastructure/lamp/get-started/understand-config/
  

I was also migrating a WordPress-based site to AWS Lightsail.  The following instructions helped with this part of the migration (and eliminated the need for me to respond to a series of GoDaddy alerts to perform WordPress updates!):

• https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/ls/docs/en_us/articles/amazon-lightsail-using-lets-encrypt-certificates-with-wordpress

Cost Management

Lightsail promises a "low, predictable price".  Amazon also provides this pricing estimator.  For my situation, I also ensured cancellation of my GoDaddy license and disabled auto-renewal.

Of course, I have heard stories about runaway costs and budget challenges given the AWS price structure and, more generally, cloud metered pricing.  As a result, over the months since my migration, I have paid close attention to my charges from either AWS or GoDaddy.  

I am very happy to report, there has been no double-billing or unexpected charges and, moreover, my net monthly hosting expense has been reduced!

Technical Knockout: How COVID-19 Put Society and Big Tech on the Canvas

It is probably safe to say that few of us anticipated the impact of COVID-19.

The virus has affected every facet of our lives.  Aside from the terrible and tragic human toll, societal norms have been turned upside down.  Social distancing and shelter-in-place have become mandated across the globe.  Board games and jigsaw puzzles, seeming relics of a past era, have enjoyed a renaissance and in some cases are selling in greater numbers than during Christmas.  Sports events, ranging from the Summer Olympics to the NBA to Wimbledon, have been postponed or cancelled entirely.  Schools and universities have been shuttered resulting in teachers, parents and students alike undergoing a trial-by-fire as they struggle with distance learning and homeschooling.  More distressingly, the economy has been harpooned as 10 years of US job gains have been wiped out in the space of just 4 weeks.

Yet, five months on from its initial identification, we still have so many basic questions about this invisible foe:

1. What was the virus's origin?  A "wet market" in Wuhan, China or something more sinister?
2. Exactly how contagious and deadly is this virus?
3. Can we develop immunity to the virus?
4. How different is this year's global and regional mortality rate from the average* and from other key milestone years?

And how has Big Tech, perhaps unreasonably heralded as society's knight in shining armor, fared during this once-in-a-generation crisis?

+ Positives

On the plus side, the sprawling, highly distributed network that we call the internet, has enabled significant work to be performed from homes around the world.  Through Facebook, FaceTime, Zoom, RingCentral, Skype and other videoconferencing and collaboration tools, the internet has also enabled us to connect remotely with loved ones.  Despite the huge additional data loads, we have not -- to my knowledge -- suffered an internet meltdown of any meaningful magnitude.  The free transfer of information provided by the internet, has helped expose and highlight the lunacy of entities such as Harvard receiving a bailout.  Also, data collection and dissemination technology have enabled innumerable dashboards and data visualizations to convey, in excruciating near-real-time, the horror of the disease.  (My particular go-to dashboard has been this one.  Apparently, it was developed and is maintained by a high-school student named Avi Schiffman.)

The fact that we also have a robust physical delivery infrastructure -- with Amazon, UPS and FedEx at the forefront -- has helped to offset the imposed limitations around personal movement and the fear of contagion associated with in-person shopping.  There have been other positive contributions, including monetary donations, job creation, masks from 3D printers and more.

In addition, Apple and Google have partnered to develop a contact tracing API on their respective mobile operating systems.

- Negatives

However, on the other side of the ledger, Silicon Valley's technical might has not, to this point, contributed to the much-needed medical solution of a vaccine.

Furthermore, the fragility of those whose livelihood depends on the oft-trumpeted gig economy has been brutally exposed as Uber and Lyft fleets have largely ground to a halt and AirBnB -- only months removed from being considered the hottest IPO on the planet -- is suffering its own apocalypse.

The pandemic has also exposed, once more, the huge digital divide.

Even the previously mentioned positives are often two-edged swords.

The vast amounts of COVID-19 data available on the internet can leave our heads spinning and are sometimes seemingly contradictory.  Even when the data source is unquestioned -- including my go-to dashboard mentioned above that cites the CDC and WHO among its sources -- other troubling questions emerge such as "what are the precise definitions of the terms ACTIVE, RECOVERED and CRITICAL?"  This can lead to increased FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt).

There have been significant supply chain and delivery issues that have required arcane "hacks" to get grocery delivery scheduled.

In addition, the contact tracing technology noted in the above article has its critics, mostly based on privacy concerns, and a significant number of devices will not be compatible.

Needless to say, society and big tech are facing a defining moment.  I believe and hope that we can all rise to the occasion by making sustained empathy a cornerstone of our recovery.  This trial has surely illustrated the value of each and every person, irrespective of wealth or status.

* NOTE: It took some sleuthing to address the frequent and troubling objection that the 2020 mortality rate is fairly typical and the COVID-19 numbers are simply manifesting as a "different cause of death".  However, by comparing the CDC's Average Daily Number of Deaths of 7,708 from 2017 (latest data I could find) to a recent 3-day rolling average of US COVID-19 deaths of 2,034 , we can reasonably conclude that 2020 is definitely anomalous.  Furthermore, in the same sample year of 2017 -- influenza and pneumonia which would be the counterparts to COVID-19 in a typical year -- account for only 2% of annual mortality.