Project Overview
Building a portfolio website isn’t just about showcasing your work—it’s also an opportunity to demonstrate your technical skills and expertise in creating efficient, scalable, and user-friendly web experiences. For my personal portfolio, I wanted to leverage modern technologies to create a robust backend infrastructure that could handle traffic while keeping costs low. This led me to design my website using a combination of AWS EC2, Docker, nginx, and WordPress—all running in containers. This setup allowed me to demonstrate both my development and system administration capabilities in a practical way.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the architecture I created for my portfolio, the technologies I used, and some of the key challenges I faced along the way.
The Tech Stack: A Modern, Scalable Solution
For my portfolio, I wanted a dynamic, easy-to-manage content management system (CMS) that allowed me to quickly update and add new projects, blog posts, and other content. At the same time, I needed a system that could scale as necessary, offer high availability, and be easily maintainable. Here’s how I put it all together:
Hosting with AWS EC2
To host my portfolio website, I used Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), which is an on-demand cloud computing service. EC2 gives me the flexibility to scale the server resources up or down as needed, ensuring that my website is ready to handle more traffic if necessary without worrying about overprovisioning.
- EC2 Instance: I chose an Amazon EC2 t3.micro instance for the low traffic expected on the site. It’s cost-effective and offers the performance I need for a portfolio website.
- Security and Configuration: I secured the instance using AWS Security Groups and SSH key pairs, ensuring that only authorized users could access the server.
Docker for Containerization
One of the key architectural decisions was using Docker to containerize my website and its components. Docker allows me to package my application and its dependencies into a consistent, reproducible environment, making deployment and management easier.
- WordPress Container: I used the official WordPress Docker image, which comes pre-configured with everything needed to run a WordPress site. This allowed me to easily deploy WordPress with minimal setup, and the Docker containerization ensured that the environment would be consistent across different stages of development, testing, and production.
- MariaDB in a Container: For the database, I chose MariaDB (an open-source relational database compatible with MySQL) and hosted it in a separate Docker container. This made the setup more modular and easier to manage, as each service (WordPress and MariaDB) runs independently but communicates with each other through Docker’s internal network.
nginx as a Reverse Proxy
To manage incoming web traffic efficiently, I deployed nginx as a reverse proxy. nginx acts as an intermediary between the user and my web server, helping to optimize performance, handle load balancing, and ensure greater security.
- Reverse Proxy Setup: The nginx reverse proxy setup enables multiple services (like WordPress and MariaDB) to run in their own containers but still be accessible through a single public-facing domain.
- SSL and HTTPS: I also configured nginx to handle SSL termination, ensuring that all communication with my website is encrypted via HTTPS. I used Let’s Encrypt to get a free SSL certificate, improving security without adding cost.
MariaDB Database Container
As part of my Docker-based infrastructure, I chose MariaDB for managing the content database behind the WordPress site. MariaDB is a popular, reliable, and open-source database that integrates seamlessly with WordPress.
- Containerized Database: By hosting MariaDB in its own Docker container, I could easily scale, back up, and manage the database in isolation from the WordPress container.
- Persistent Data Storage: I made sure that MariaDB’s data volume was stored persistently outside the container to avoid losing data when containers are restarted or updated.
WordPress as the CMS
For the content management system (CMS), I chose WordPress, which is widely used for creating websites, blogs, and portfolios. WordPress is flexible, user-friendly, and supports a large variety of themes and plugins, making it a perfect fit for my needs.
- Content Management: With WordPress, I could easily update my portfolio, add new projects, write blog posts, and manage all my content through a simple, intuitive admin panel.
- Themes and Customization: I selected a customizable, responsive theme that suited my design vision, then made a few tweaks to make the site uniquely mine.
Challenges and Solutions
While the architecture I designed was efficient and scalable, there were a few challenges that required troubleshooting:
- Container Networking: Configuring communication between the WordPress and MariaDB containers required careful networking configuration to ensure that both services could talk to each other securely and efficiently. I used Docker’s internal networking features to manage this.
- nginx Configuration: Setting up nginx as a reverse proxy with SSL and multiple containers took some time to perfect. I had to make sure the reverse proxy was correctly routing traffic to the WordPress container while maintaining secure connections for all users.
The Result: A Fast, Scalable Portfolio Site
By using AWS EC2, Docker, nginx, and MariaDB, I was able to create a portfolio website that is not only fast and scalable but also a great example of my ability to work with modern development and deployment technologies.
- Performance: The site is quick to load, thanks to the use of containers and the efficient reverse proxy setup with nginx.
- Scalability: The serverless nature of Docker, combined with AWS EC2’s flexibility, means that the website can easily scale if necessary.
- Security: SSL encryption via nginx ensures that all communications with the site are secure, and the use of isolated containers improves overall system security.
Conclusion
Building my portfolio website with AWS EC2, Docker, nginx, and WordPress gave me the chance to apply my full-stack development skills in a real-world project. The process taught me valuable lessons about containerization, reverse proxying, and cloud architecture, all while providing a fast, reliable, and secure platform to showcase my work. This project is a testament to my ability to design and implement robust, scalable web applications, and I’m excited to continue building upon this foundation as I take on more challenging projects.
If you’re interested in learning more about the architecture I used or want help creating a similar site for your own portfolio, feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to discuss how you can implement this kind of solution for your own needs!