Day 4: From Manual VM Creation to Automation Mastery – A DevOps Engineer’s Evolution

What happens when you need 100 virtual machines? Do you click “Launch Instance” 100 times in the AWS console?
That’s the exact problem every DevOps engineer eventually faces.

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The Pain of Manual VM Creation

Imagine it’s Monday morning. Your team lead says:

“We need 100 VMs for the new deployment today.”

If you go the manual way:

• Log into AWS/Azure console

• Pick OS, instance type, storage

• Configure security groups & keys

• Click “Launch” and wait

⏳ 8–10 minutes per VM → 13+ hours of repetitive clicking
⚠️ High chance of errors (fatigue, misclicks)
📉 Low repeatability (no two setups are identical)

That’s not DevOps. That’s IT operations stuck in the past.

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The Automation Breakthrough

Behind every cloud console is something more powerful: APIs.

Instead of clicking, you send instructions directly:

# Create 100 EC2 instances in seconds
for i in {1..100}; do
  aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-12345 --instance-type t2.micro
done

🚀 Result: Same outcome, hours saved, fewer mistakes, 100% repeatable.
This mindset shift — from clicking to coding — is where real DevOps begins.

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The DevOps Toolkit for VM Automation

AWS-Native

• AWS CLI → Great for quick scripts

• CloudFormation → Infrastructure as Code (IaC) in JSON/YAML

• AWS CDK → Write infra in real programming languages

Multi-Cloud

• Terraform → Cloud-agnostic, works across AWS, Azure, GCP

👉 If you’re AWS-only, CDK/CloudFormation works best. For multi-cloud, Terraform is the industry standard.

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EC2 Access for Windows Users (with MobaXterm)

Many beginners (especially Windows users) struggle to log into EC2 instances. Some rely on AWS CloudShell or get stuck configuring Putty. To solve this, here’s a clean, beginner-friendly method using MobaXterm.

This process was demonstrated by Abhishek (AWS 020 series) who borrowed a Windows laptop (after 6 years!) just to show this step-by-step.

Steps to Connect EC2 with MobaXterm

1. Launch an EC2 Instance

   • Name it (e.g., test-windows)

   • OS: Ubuntu, Type: t2.micro

   • Create a new key pair (choose .pem format) → download it (e.g., windows-demo.pem)

   • Enable public IP + allow SSH (port 22)

2. Download & Install MobaXterm

   • Search “MobaXterm Community Edition”

   • Download the Installer Edition

   • Extract → run installer → finish setup

3. Open MobaXterm & Connect

   • Go to Sessions → SSH

   • Paste your EC2 Public IP in “Host” field

   • Username: ubuntu

   • Advanced settings → “Use private key” → select windows-demo.pem

   • Click OK → Accept popup

4. Verify Access

   • Run a command like:

       sudo apt update
     

   • If it executes, 🎉 you’re inside your EC2 from Windows!

✅ This method saves new learners hours of Putty configuration pain and makes AWS EC2 access beginner-friendly.

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The Economics of Automation

Manual (100 VMs):

• Time: 13+ hours

• Errors: High

• Repeatability: Poor

Automated (100 VMs):

• Script time: 2–3 hours upfront

• Execution: Minutes

• Errors: Low

• Repeatability: Perfect

Automation isn’t just a timesaver — it’s the gateway to Infrastructure as Code (IaC):
✅ Version control your infra
✅ Identical environments every time
✅ Code doubles as documentation

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Why This Matters for Your Career

Mastering VM automation sets you apart:

• Interviews → Talk about IaC, APIs, and real automation wins

• Daily Work → Spot repetitive tasks and script them away

• Career Growth → Automation skills transfer across tools & clouds

The truth? DevOps isn’t about knowing where the “Launch” button is.
It’s about knowing how never to click it again.

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From Clicking to Coding

The next time someone asks for 100 VMs, don’t see 100 tasks.
See one automation challenge — and solve it with elegance.

That’s the evolution from IT operator → DevOps engineer.
And that mindset shift is the foundation for everything else (containers, CI/CD, cloud-native apps).

Key Takeaway

Automation isn’t optional anymore. It’s the DevOps way of life.

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