This guide walks you through deploying a simple Flask web app connected to a MariaDB database on a free-tier Amazon EC2 instance running Amazon Linux 2023.

Prerequisites

An AWS account
EC2 instance (Amazon Linux 2023)
Security group with port 5000 open (or port 80 if using a web server)
SSH access to the instance
Basic knowledge of Python & Linux terminal

Step 1 : Connect to your EC2 instance

We will login using Keypair method and Powershell or Terminal on Linux by Using SSH command.

ssh -i your-key.pem ec2-user@<your-ec2-public-ip>

Step 2 : Install the required packages and setting up the environment.

Here is a list of all python packages needed for the deployment. Keep in mind the current working Python version is (3.9.23)

This command is for installing the required packages

sudo dnf install -y python3 python3-pip mariadb105-server mariadb105 git

Note: You need to enable mariadb and start it to make it work correctly with the web app.

sudo systemctl enable mariadb
sudo systemctl start mariadb

Step 3 : Creating the folder structure and writing the required codes for the app.

noteapp/
├── app.py               # Main Flask application
├── config.py            # App configuration (DB URI, secret key)
├── models.py            # SQLAlchemy models (Note table)
├── requirements.txt     # Python dependencies
├── templates/
│   └── index.html       # HTML template for the app UI
└── venv/                # Python virtual environment (auto-created)

Python Files

app.py

  from flask import Flask, request, redirect, render_template
  from config import SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI, SECRET_KEY
  from models import db, Note

  app = Flask(__name__)
  app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI
  app.config['SECRET_KEY'] = SECRET_KEY

  db.init_app(app)

  with app.app_context():
      db.create_all()

  @app.route('/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
  def index():
      if request.method == 'POST':
          content = request.form['content']
          if content:
              new_note = Note(content=content)
              db.session.add(new_note)
              db.session.commit()
          return redirect('/')
      notes = Note.query.all()
      return render_template('index.html', notes=notes)

  if __name__ == '__main__':
      app.run(host='0.0.0.0', port=5000)

config.py
- Remember to update your database username and password

    import os

    DB_USER = 'root'
    DB_PASSWORD = 'maro1234'
    DB_HOST = 'localhost'
    DB_NAME = 'notesdb'

    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = f'mysql+pymysql://{DB_USER}:{DB_PASSWORD}@{DB_HOST}/{DB_NAME}'
    SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS = False
    SECRET_KEY = os.urandom(24)

models.py

  from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy

  db = SQLAlchemy()

  class Note(db.Model):
      id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
      content = db.Column(db.Text, nullable=False)

requirements.txt

  Flask==3.1.1
  Flask-SQLAlchemy==3.1.1
  PyMySQL==1.1.0

templates/index.html

  <!DOCTYPE html>
  <html>
  <head>
      <title>Notes</title>
  </head>
  <body>
      <h1>My Notes</h1>
      <form method="POST">
          <textarea name="content" required></textarea><br>
          <button type="submit">Add Note</button>
      </form>
      <ul>
          {% for note in notes %}
              <li>{{ note.content }}</li>
          {% endfor %}
      </ul>
  </body>
  </html>

Step 4 : Creating the virtual environment and running the application

We need to setup the virtual environment for the app for many useful reason:

Keeps your app’s dependencies isolated from the system.
Prevents version conflicts.
Enables reproducibility on other systems or servers.

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install Flask Flask-SQLAlchemy PyMySQL

Step 5 : Running the application

We will write this command in the virtual environment terminal

python app.py

To access the application , open in the browser :

http://<your-ec2-public-ip>:5000

You need to replace the placeholder with your EC2 Public IP address

Here is a screenshot of the app while its running.

Summary for the project requirements

Amazon Linux + MariaDB + Flask app
Systemd starts the DB
Flask reads from MariaDB using SQLAlchemy and PyMySQL
Public IP + port 5000 = access from anywhere

Backing up the database on a mounted EBS Volume.

Attach & Mount EBS Volume.

Important Note : You need to know the correct name of the attached volume by using lsblk command and replace it in the /dev/…

sudo mkfs -t xfs /dev/nvme1n1   # format the disk (only once!) 
sudo mkdir /mariadb
sudo mount /dev/nvme1n1 /mariadb

Persist Across reboots

echo "/dev/nvme1n1 /mariadb xfs defaults,nofail 0 0" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Stop MariaDB

sudo systemctl stop mariadb

Setting Permissions

sudo chown -R mysql:mysql /mariadb/mysql

Restarting MariaDB

sudo systemctl start mariadb

Backing up the DB

sudo mysqldump -u root -p notesdb > /mariadb/notesdb_backup.sql

To confirm the backup is successful you need to run this command

ls -lh /mariadb

The output should be like this

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12K Jul 16 10:25 notesdb_backup.sql

Deploy a Flask + MariaDB Note App on EC2 (Amazon Linux 2023) — Complete Guide

Prerequisites

Step 1 : Connect to your EC2 instance

Step 2 : Install the required packages and setting up the environment.

Step 3 : Creating the folder structure and writing the required codes for the app.

Python Files

Step 4 : Creating the virtual environment and running the application

Step 5 : Running the application

Summary for the project requirements

Backing up the database on a mounted EBS Volume.

Attach & Mount EBS Volume.

Persist Across reboots

Stop MariaDB

Setting Permissions

Restarting MariaDB

Backing up the DB

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Marwan Ayman

Marwan Ayman