AdventureWorks on AWS

I deployed a course-provided product-review application on two Ubuntu servers in AWS: Apache and PHP served the website, while Microsoft SQL Server held the AdventureWorks catalog and reviews. The completed demonstration could search products, display a product page and accept a review.

My contribution in SVAD 111: Linux & Virtualization Technologies was provisioning, installation, configuration, troubleshooting and testing. The course supplied the application, dataset, two-tier design and milestone instructions.

Architecture and connection paths

The browser contacted the web instance. PHP then connected to the database instance using its internal address in config.php; the browser did not query SQL Server directly. Keeping the tiers separate made the network rule, database login and PHP driver configuration part of the application's working path.

The recorded security-group rules allowed broader access than these application paths required; the security limits are described below.

Server setup

The final report shows two EC2 instances and describes Ubuntu 22.04 on both. I used PuTTY for shell access and WinSCP to transfer the supplied archives. The database setup used Microsoft's SQL Server repository, the SQL Server service and the sqlcmd client. The web setup added Apache, PHP and the Microsoft ODBC/PHP components.

I checked the dependencies in stages: SQL queries confirmed imported data, test.php confirmed PHP execution, and the application pages exercised the connection between the two servers.

Database and application configuration

Adapting the data import for Linux

The supplied adventureworks-db.tar.gz contained a Windows-oriented SQL import script and data files. Milestone 2B prescribed converting the script from UTF-16 to UTF-8, setting its data directory, removing CODEPAGE lines and matching the row terminator to the files' CRLF endings.

Selected commands from that milestone's workflow:

iconv -f UTF-16 -t UTF-8 instawdb.sql.orig > instawdb.sql
sed -i -e /CODEPAGE/d instawdb.sql
sed -i -e 's/\\n/\\r\\n/' instawdb.sql

The encoding conversion made the script usable by the text-processing commands. The row-terminator change aligned the bulk-import statements with the supplied CSV files. The instructions also set SqlSamplesSourceDataPath to the extracted data directory, including its trailing slash. The submitted screenshot shows the completed import and subsequent queries; the preparation commands above come from the milestone instructions.

I checked two tables through sqlcmd:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Production.Product;
GO
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Person.Person;
GO

The queries returned 504 products and 19,972 people, confirming that both expected tables contained imported data.

Connecting PHP to SQL Server

Milestone 3B specified PHP 8.1 with the sqlsrv and pdo_sqlsrv extensions, enabled through phpenmod. It also configured Apache's prefork module and PHP module. The submitted test.php screenshot shows PHP 8.1.2 running through the Apache handler. That established PHP execution before adding the application's database dependency.

I transferred the supplied application archive, placed the PHP files in /var/www/html, and set the database address and login information in config.php. The milestone removed Apache's default index.html so it would no longer take precedence over the application entry page. Credentials and original host addresses are omitted here.

The catalog and review pages then exercised more of the system than test.php: Apache served the request, PHP ran the supplied code, and the application reached the database.

Troubleshooting

The final report records these problems and responses. Its successful end-state screenshots support overall recovery, but it does not include before-and-after captures or configuration diffs for each fix.

The report also records a SQL login failure and an authentication-setup change. The error code and exact change are missing, leaving the cause and fix unresolved in the record.

Testing the result

The final report's screenshots show the following results, from data import through use of the supplied interface.

Scroll horizontally to read the full table on a narrow screen.

The catalog result below shows four Mountain-300 Black variants, including product 787. This is the application's returned result list; the search text itself is not visible in the preserved image.

Scope and follow-up ideas

The assignment reached a working demonstration. Validation covered the imported row counts and application actions above; database-wide integrity, review retention after restart, load, abuse resistance and recovery were not tested in the submitted records.

The historical deployment also had security limits:

• The browser used HTTP. HTTPS was a recommendation in the final report, not an implemented feature.
• The milestone instructed broad inbound access for SSH and HTTP and additional rules for ports 1433 and 3306. The final screenshot shows those four ports. The application used SQL Server; a MySQL service is not evidenced simply because a 3306 rule existed.
• The database milestones used the administrative SA login and certificate-trust options for lab setup. A least-privilege application account and validated database TLS are not demonstrated.
• test.php exposed PHP configuration during validation. Its later removal is not documented.
• Reviews did not require user accounts. The report proposed accounts and photo uploads as future features.

For a new deployment, I would first restrict administration and database access, use a dedicated application login, remove diagnostic pages, add HTTPS and test recovery. These are retrospective recommendations, not changes made to the coursework deployment. The historical commands above explain that assignment and are not a current deployment guide.

Source material

• Final report, May 8, 2026: implementation screenshots, reported problems, application tests and original recommendations.
• Module 03 infrastructure submission: initial EC2 environment.
• Module 05 database milestones: installation instructions, Linux import preparation and submitted query output.
• Module 07 web milestones: security-group setup, Apache/PHP integration and application validation.

The same course included a system-information Bash script and a number-guessing exercise. They are separate scripting exercises, not components of this deployment.

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