📓 Note-Taking Web App Deployment with Ansible

📖 Overview

This project demonstrates the deployment of a Python Flask Note-Taking Web Application on an AWS EC2 instance using Ansible automation. The application stores notes in an SQLite database, serves them via NGINX, and includes a backup strategy using an attached EBS volume.

The project is designed to be reusable and fully automated, enabling anyone to quickly provision and configure the application in a cloud environment.

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🚀 Features

• Automated Deployment using Ansible roles and playbooks.
• Flask Web App for creating and viewing notes with timestamps.
• SQLite Database for lightweight local storage.
• NGINX as a reverse proxy for better performance.
• EBS Volume Backup mounted to /backup for storing database backups.
• Idempotent Setup – safe to re-run without breaking configurations.

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🛠️ Technologies Used

• Programming Language: Python 3 (Flask Framework)
• Configuration Management: Ansible
• Database: SQLite
• Web Server: NGINX
• Cloud Provider: AWS EC2 (Amazon Linux 2, t2.micro)
• Storage: AWS EBS volume for backups

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📂 Project Structure

note-taking-app/
├── app.py               # Flask application source code
├── templates/           # HTML templates for the web app
├── static/               # Static files (CSS, JS)
├── roles/
│   └── note_taking_app/
│       ├── tasks/        # Main automation tasks
│       ├── templates/    # Jinja2 templates for configs
│       ├── files/        # Static files for deployment
│       └── meta/         # Role metadata
├── inventory.ini         # Ansible inventory
├── playbook.yml          # Main deployment playbook
└── README.md             # Documentation

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⚙️ Prerequisites

Before running the playbook, ensure you have:

1. An AWS EC2 instance (Amazon Linux 2, t2.micro recommended).
2. An attached EBS volume for backups.
3. Ansible installed on your controller machine.
4. Python 3 installed on the EC2 instance (Ansible will handle this if not present).
5. Your SSH key added for EC2 access.

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📥 Installation & Deployment

1️⃣ Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/davidahdy/note-taking-app.git
cd note-taking-app

2️⃣ Update Inventory

Edit inventory.ini and add your EC2 server’s IP address:

[webserver]
your.ec2.ip.address ansible_user=ec2-user ansible_ssh_private_key_file=~/.ssh/your-key.pem

3️⃣ Run the Playbook

ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini playbook.yml

4️⃣ Access the Web App

Open your browser and go to:

http://your.ec2.ip.address

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💾 Backup Strategy

• A dedicated AWS EBS volume is mounted to /backup.
• Database backups are stored automatically at scheduled intervals.
• Backups are timestamped for easy recovery.