A VPC is a virtual network inside AWS where you can isolate your setup using private IP addresses. A VPC consists of several subnets. Each subnet is bound to an Availability Zone. A public subnet has a direct route to the Internet. As long as your EC2 instances have an public IP they can communicate (in and out) with the Internet. A private subnet does not have a route to the Internet. Instances in private subnets can not be accessed from the public Internet. If you want to access the Internet from a private subnet you need to create a NAT instance.

Use the vpc-2azs.json template to create a VPC with two private and two public subnets.

• VPC: virtual network that you define

1. Download the template vpc-2azs.json
2. Open AWS CloudFormation within the Management Console: https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudformation.
3. Create a new stack by clicking on the Create Stack button.
4. Select Upload a template to Amazon S3 and upload the template vpc-2azs.json.
5. Click Next to proceed with the next step of the wizard.
6. Specify a name and all parameters for the stack.
7. Click Next to proceed with the next step of the wizard.
8. Click Next to skip the Options step of the wizard.
9. Click Create to start the creation of the stack.
10. Wait until the stack reaches the state CREATE_COMPLETE

Use the vpc-3azs.json template to create a VPC with three private and two public subnets.

• VPC: virtual network that you define

1. Download the template vpc-3azs.json
2. Open AWS CloudFormation within the Management Console: https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudformation.
3. Create a new stack by clicking on the Create Stack button.
4. Select Upload a template to Amazon S3 and upload the template vpc-3azs.json.
5. Click Next to proceed with the next step of the wizard.
6. Specify a name and all parameters for the stack.
7. Click Next to proceed with the next step of the wizard.
8. Click Next to skip the Options step of the wizard.
9. Click Create to start the creation of the stack.
10. Wait until the stack reaches the state CREATE_COMPLETE

Use the vpc-nat-gateway.json template to create a NAT Gateway that forwards HTTP, HTTPS and NTP traffic from private subnets to the Internet.

• EC2: NAT Gateway
• Auto Scaling: manages the fleet of virtual machines

1. Download the template vpc-nat-gateway.json
2. Open AWS CloudFormation within the Management Console: https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudformation.
3. Create a new stack by clicking on the Create Stack button.
4. Select Upload a template to Amazon S3 and upload the template vpc-nat-gateway.json.
5. Click Next to proceed with the next step of the wizard.
6. Specify a name and all parameters for the stack.
7. Click Next to proceed with the next step of the wizard.
8. Click Next to skip the Options step of the wizard.
9. Check the I acknowledge that this template might cause AWS CloudFormation to create IAM resources. checkbox.
10. Click Create to start the creation of the stack.
11. Wait until the stack reaches the state CREATE_COMPLETE

Use the vpc-nat-instance.json template to create a highly available NAT instance that forwards HTTP, HTTPS and NTP traffic from private subnets to the Internet.

• EC2: virtual machine used as the NAT instance
• Auto Scaling: manages the fleet of virtual machines

1. Download the template vpc-nat-instance.json
2. Open AWS CloudFormation within the Management Console: https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudformation.
3. Create a new stack by clicking on the Create Stack button.
4. Select Upload a template to Amazon S3 and upload the template vpc-nat-instance.json.
5. Click Next to proceed with the next step of the wizard.
6. Specify a name and all parameters for the stack.
7. Click Next to proceed with the next step of the wizard.
8. Click Next to skip the Options step of the wizard.
9. Check the I acknowledge that this template might cause AWS CloudFormation to create IAM resources. checkbox.
10. Click Create to start the creation of the stack.
11. Wait until the stack reaches the state CREATE_COMPLETE

Do you need help? Mail to team@widdix.de.

AWS diagrams created with Cloudcraft