AWS Solutions Architect · Module 4 · Day 12

Linux File Commands & Web Servers on EC2

⏱ 16 min read🎯 Beginner friendly🖼 3 diagrams🧪 4 live demos🐍 Python code

Today you bring it all together. First you learn to create, edit, copy, move and delete files in Linux (try them in the practice terminal). Then you publish a real website from EC2, once on Windows (IIS) and once on Linux (Apache), using ports (Day 5), security groups (Day 8), RDP (Day 9) and SSH (Day 10).

In this session

Directory commands: mkdir, mv, cp -r, rmdir, rm -rf
File commands: touch, cat (view, overwrite, append), rm
Editors: vi/vim and nano
What a web server is, and opening port 80
Lab: IIS on Windows
Lab: Apache on Ubuntu and Amazon Linux
Troubleshooting and the production way

01Folder and file commands

Task	Command
Create a folder	`mkdir project`
Create nested folders	`mkdir -p site/css/img`
Hidden folder	`mkdir .secret` (see it with `ls -a`)
Rename / move	`mv old new` · `mv project /tmp/`
Copy a folder	`cp -r site site-backup`
Delete an empty folder	`rmdir old`
Delete a folder and everything in it	`rm -rf site-backup`
Empty file	`touch notes.txt`
Delete a file	`rm notes.txt` (`rm -i` asks first)

🛑 Danger: Linux has no recycle bin. rm -rf deletes instantly. Run pwd first and never run rm -rf /.

cat mode	Does	Remember
`cat file`	view the file	read
`cat > file`	create / overwrite (type text, then Ctrl+D)	> = wipe and write
`cat >> file`	append to the end	>> = add more

Demo · Practice terminal

Try: mkdir -p site/css, echo hello > site/index.html, cat site/index.html, cp -r site site-bak, ls, rm -r site-bak.

02Editors: vi and nano

Two editors. Learn nano first; learn the 4 vi keys too, because vi is always there.

Demo · Editing a file in vi

03What is a web server?

A web server is software that sends web pages to browsers. Port 80 must be open or the browser just times out.

	Windows	Ubuntu	Amazon Linux
Software	IIS	Apache (`apache2`)	Apache (`httpd`)
Website folder	`C:\inetpub\wwwroot`	`/var/www/html`	`/var/www/html`
Install with	Server Manager or PowerShell	`apt`	`dnf`
Log in with	RDP 3389	SSH 22	SSH 22

Open port 80: instance → Security tab → security group → Edit inbound rules → Add rule → HTTP → Source Anywhere-IPv4 → Save.

04Lab: IIS on Windows

Demo · Do it yourself

PowerShell (as Administrator): the fast way

Install-WindowsFeature -Name Web-Server -IncludeManagementTools
Set-Content -Path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\index.html -Value "<h1>Hello from IIS on EC2</h1>"

Common trap: Windows hides file extensions, so your file may really be index.html.txt. Turn on View → Show → File name extensions.

05Lab: Apache on Ubuntu (and Amazon Linux)

Ubuntu

sudo -i                       # become root
apt update -y                 # refresh the package list
apt install apache2 -y        # install the Apache web server
systemctl start apache2       # start it now
systemctl enable apache2      # start it automatically after every reboot
systemctl status apache2      # should say "active (running)"  (press q)
cd /var/www/html/
rm -f index.html              # remove the default page
nano index.html               # type your page, then Ctrl+X, Y, Enter

index.html

<h1>Hello from my Ubuntu web server on AWS!</h1>
<p>Served by Apache on EC2.</p>

Amazon Linux 2023

sudo -i
dnf install httpd -y
systemctl start httpd
systemctl enable httpd
echo "<h1>Hello from Amazon Linux</h1>" > /var/www/html/index.html

Command	Meaning
`apt` / `dnf`	package managers (app store for the command line) on Ubuntu / Amazon Linux
`systemctl start`	start a service now
`systemctl enable`	start it automatically at boot
`systemctl status`	is it running?

Automate it: paste the Amazon Linux commands (without sudo -i, starting with #!/bin/bash) into User data when launching, and the instance becomes a web server by itself on first boot.

06Troubleshooting and the production way

Demo · What went wrong?

The production pattern you will build later: no single server, HTTPS, automatic scaling, private database.

A static site (HTML/CSS/JS only) can be hosted on Amazon S3 + CloudFront with no server at all.
Keep SSH/RDP closed to the world; open only 80/443. Patch regularly.
Logs: /var/log/apache2/ (Ubuntu), /var/log/httpd/ (Amazon Linux), C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles (IIS).

🎯 Exam corner

Website on EC2 unreachable → security group must allow 80/443.
Install software automatically at launch → user data.
Static website, no servers → S3 static website hosting + CloudFront.
Spread traffic over servers → Elastic Load Balancer.

07Summary

Folders: mkdir -p, mv, cp -r, rmdir, rm -rf (no recycle bin!).
Files: touch, cat (view), > overwrite, >> append; editors nano and vi (i, Esc, :wq, :q!).
Website on EC2: open port 80, install IIS or Apache, put index.html in wwwroot or /var/www/html.
systemctl start now, enable at boot.
Production: load balancer + Auto Scaling + HTTPS; static sites on S3 + CloudFront.

08Quick quiz

1. Command to copy folder site to site-bak?

2. Difference between cat > a.txt and cat >> a.txt?

3. Quit vi without saving?

4. Where does Apache serve files from?

5. Browser times out on your EC2 website. Check first?

09References

Created by Ajeetkumar