Master AWS Architecture Diagramming: Lucidchart, Cloudcraft, and Application Composer Compared

Name: Master AWS Architecture Diagramming: Lucidchart, Cloudcraft, and Application Composer Compared
Uploaded: Nov 22, 2024

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are you looking for? Easy to use tools that can help you make architecture dirt. Then this video is for you. Hello. My name is Ronni Gawker. I'm a developer advocate at AWS and in this video we are going to explore three architecture diagram tools that can help us make create amazing architecture diagrams. Architectures are a great way to explain what is in your head onto paper so that others can be on the same page as us. Before being a developer advocate at AWS, I have spent almost five years at AWS as a solutions architect, and over the years I have built and helped my customers build a lot of different architecture diagrams. The process has definitely evolved over the years from taking a marker and white boarding these architecture diagrams or writing it on a piece of paper to adding them into PowerPoint presentations. And finally, using online tools, tools do much more today than just simply providing us a place to drag and drop these icons onto a canvas. Before we proceed, I would request you to like comment, share this video and subscribe to the channel for more awesome hands on content. First things. First, you can find the icons the tools on one single page on the AWS website. Here, you can download the AWS icons or the tool kits, the assets, and you can also find all the existing libraries on the third party tools. There are so many tools to choose from, but today I am going to explore architecture diagrams for not only creating beautiful architectures but also providing some more additional features. So for this video, we will be looking at three tools. Lucha cloud craft and the new A of the Service application composer. We will use the free version of these tools and create a simple service pattern using the AWS Resources, API Gateway, Lambda and dynamo DP. Let's begin with the widely known tool called a lucid chart. I find this to simple to the point and easy to use. Once you log in, you can choose from the different templates it provides, or if you have been using one of these tools, you can also import your existing diagrams into L a chart. But for the sake of this video, let's go ahead and create a black document. Now in this, I have to tell lucid chart that I'm looking a particular set of AWS architecture icons. So I'm going to select the latest one. That is the 2021 architecture set. So I'm gonna say, Hey, use these sets And now you can see it has imported or inserted all of these icons into the shapes section so I can go through and scroll through this section. But let's go ahead and search for these different tools. So let's go ahead and search for Amazon API Gateway and let's see what comes up. Yes, I found Amazon API Gateway. When I click it, it's already available on the canvas. We can just drag and drop it somewhere I need next I need Lambda. So I'm just gonna search for AWS Lambda and get the AWS Lambda I can. And finally I want the dyno DB. So I'm just going to search for Dy DB and I found it. Now that I have all the three icons that I need, I simply need to go back to the shapes and say, You know what? I need a line that starts from a P gateway to DynamoDB. Let's just copy paste that and Connect these now If I want to make those arrows a little bit thicker, I can also do that. I can simply go and do that if I need to maybe change the way the names are written. I want to add different colours. I can also do that on this canvas. Isn't that so easy? It's so simple to do now. I can also share this with my teammates. I can share it. I can add collaborators by May or I can give a short join ID and my teammates can actually access this architecture diagram and work with me and collaborate with me on creating this architecture diagram so you can keep evolving the diagram as our application keeps evolving. We can also use the presentation mode where you can present directly from lucid chart. You don't need to download as a PNG or make any changes or a PowerPoint template. You can simply present from lucid chart as well. And there's also a video option, which is again available in the premium version, and I can export them into different formats. So if your requirement is just to create architecture diagrams, I think lucid chat just does its work like It's simple, easy to use. It's lightweight. It's a new browser. I don't need to install anything anywhere, and I can collaborate with my teammates. That's something fun. So let's move on and look at the second tool, which is another popular tool called S Cloud graph. Now with cloud graft. Once you log in, you can create your own blueprint. You can also copy from a blueprint reference architecture library, and it's fun because I also see light and dark modes available in the reference library as well. You can also see if you want a 3D or a two D canvas, and I love 3D I. I think it's something interesting. It's something different. Once you create architectural diagrams in the 3D mode, people are a bit more fascinated, like Hey, how did you do that? So that is a quite cool thing to do again, you can have a light and a dark mode, which is great. You also have something called it as layers. So, for example, let me show you a blueprint that I already am as created, using the reference architecture. Now here, this is a simple reference architecture diagram that I got from the library. But I also added some more information on the V PCs and the security group for this diagram. So if I click on the layers, I can go ahead and maybe see the VPC and the security group. You can see that I can actually have different layers and I can see or in different layers, depending on my requirement. So that is something I found very cool. I can also maybe hide all the images or the text. OK, I. I can hide all the text and it will actually hide all the text and just show the diagram. So that was something cool I found about using these layers. Let tell me in the comment section if you found this interesting as well. Now let's go back to our blueprint now for the of this video. I already added few components to my Solace architecture reference, and this is an APA gateway. There's a Lambda function and a DynamoDB table. If you want to add more resources, you can just simply click on the name or you can search for them and they will appear on your canvas. Now, let's say for API Gateway, I want to Connect it to my Lambda function. I have two options of how I want them to be connected. Let's go with the simple arrow one, and the moment I click it, it will ask me, Where do I want to send it to? Similarly for Lambda Function? Let's Connect it to Dynamo TB table. Now you can see the moment I click on these resources. There are some configurations that I can do for each of these resources. So, for example, for I API Gateway I can select which, uh, AWS region It should be, uh, should be in any of the AWS regions. That is that I have, um do I want to add any links, or do I want to add any more information as to what is the type of the select API request? Similarly, for the Lambda function, you can select which region it should be. Uh, you can add more information like we discussed, like the BBC, the security groups, the subnet, you can say, What's the architecture? What's the memory? By default, it's going to select the minimum default value that is 128 MB and how many requests per month and more information if you see it is actually giving me a cost estimate, depending on the values that I select. So if I click on this cost estimate, it will actually take you to the another tab, which is the budget tab. And it will tell you that for the particular architecture reference diagram, you are going to be paid this much money. Um, for that per month, Right? So for Lambda, if I let's say I change it to 256 it will quickly reassess, and it will quickly show you how much you're going to be paying for this particular reference. Architecture. Now note that that at the databases, if you see it saying $0.0 like am I not paying at all for dynamo DP? What's happening here? If you click there, you can find that you are paying $5.35 per month. But because this fits into the always free trial for DynamoDB now you might know most of the AWS resources um, uh, fall under the AWS free tier. But there is also an always free tier that some of the AWS resources will always be freer. Even after the 12 month initial sign up phase of yours. So if your dynamo TB is fitting into that, it's actually your it's free for you. So that's actually nice that, you know, this tool is actually understanding that, Hey, this falls under this category and it's free for you. So when I'm creating the diagram itself, I can actually have an estimation of the cause And again share this with my team. And, you know, it will be very interesting to see the choices that we make based on this information. Plus, there is another. Another one that I love about this is that you can Connect this with your AWS account. So you can, um, in the paid version, you can actually Connect, uh, cloud graph to your AWS account to your region, and it will automatically figure out the services that you're using the relationship between those resources that you're using and it will automatically create the architecture diagram and the layouts for you. Trust me, I would have loved to have this feature, uh, for a lot of my customers, we would we would automatically generate this and then go deep and do Well Architected sessions for these customers. But Nevertheless, it's an amazing feature. Uh, let me know in the comments section. If you have used this feature and how do you find it? Is there something you would want to add to these features, or is there any other tool that actually does this as well? Now for the final tool, let's look at the recently launched a service called as application Composer. Using application Composer, You can create virtual representation of your service applications and generate the CloudFormation or the SAM templates. Along with that virtual representation, you can access the service using your AWS Management Console. So go ahead, log into your aw S Management Console Search for application composer, and this is what the dashboard will look like now in the dashboard. Go ahead and click on Create Project. Here. You can create a new blank project, or if you have an existing service application that has a CloudFormation Template or a S template, you can also load that existing project. For the sake of this video, let's go ahead and create a new black project. Now there are two options. Remember AWS application Composer works in your browser. It does not store anything that you have created everything that you want to store should be stored locally on your machine. So there are two modes. One is second is unconnected in the connected mode. AWS can ask you, Do you want to give a permission to one of the local folders that you have so that it can automatically save the changes that you need to your local folder? If you don't want that, then you can go ahead with the unconnected folder where unconnected means that AWS will not automatically save anything. You have to manually import these changes. Every time you make any changes, you have to manually import them into your local folder. So for the sake of this project, let's go with the connected boat. I'm gonna give it access to a local folder. Now, this is a blank folder that is called as my first service app. And I'm going to say, you know what? You can select this folder. It will ask me, Do you want to give application composer or this browser to actually view these files? I'm gonna say yes and it's like yes or go. Let's go ahead and create. We'll again ask you, Do you want us to automatically save all those changes to the files in this folder, I'm gonna say yes. Please, go ahead and make those changes. So now you can see that in this folder there is a template dot yaml If I show you the local folder, This is how it looks like in visual studio. So it has created a blank template dot yaml in that local folder I provided access to. And there are two things here to note. There is a can so similar to all architecture diagram tools, I can simply drag and drag the icons or the resources onto the canvas. And what happens when I do that? If you go to the template, you can see it has automatically added the code, the CloudFormation or the S, a code that I need to create this API Gateway so you can see that it has automatically added the yaml code The moment I dragged and dropped the API Gateway. Let's go ahead and add another one. maybe let's add the Lambda function. If I go back to Template, you can see that it has now again created code for the Lambda function. Let's go ahead. Add all the three resources that we need for our sample on the simple surve patter. The last is definitely a DynamoDB table. So anytime you make changes in the canvas that will be replicated here and let's say I make changes and I call it my table, Uh, instead of DynamoDB table and you go back to canvas, it will automatically rename it, um, based on what you said in the template. So it works both ways. And if you want to confirm that it has done this or saved this locally, can go back to visual studio and you can see that Yes, all those things that, uh, changes are being made. Those are also made on the local file or on my local machine. There are things that you could do in an application composer, for example. I can click on details for that particular resource. I can change its logical ID Logical ID that ClA formation or SAM looks at. I can also say, Hey, you know what? I'm going to add one more method instead of just get method, also want maybe a put method and this should be its path, and I should go ahead and save this the moment I save this, it has updated this resource for two different methods. Now I can say that you know what this get Method talks to this Lambda function, and I need one new Lambda function for the post method. Now. Once I do this, you can see that in the Lambda function it has automatically added the event section and said this Lambda function is receiving from K and the other Lambda function is receiving from the post method. It also adds in certain best practises. For example, if I'm adding a Lambda function, it has also added code for the Function log group so that any logs that are being generated from that function goes into the CloudWatch logs. So it also considers certain best practises and automatically adds those onto your template as well. And finally, I want to say that these Lambda functions going to talk to the DynamoDB table, click on arrange and see what happens. Great. Now that looks beautiful. I not only have certain resources that are connected and not only have a beautiful diagram in front of me, I also have a template that I can actually use and create my application SW. Now if you go to the Lambda Function and let's look at some details now in the details, I can not only just say that, Hey, this is the Lambda function. I can also say what should be the run time. Let's say by default, it's saying no chairs run time. This is where its code will be and this is what the handler is going to be like. And I can add more information about this Lambda function and because I connected it to DynamoDB table. It will also configure the DynamoDB table environment variables. So if I go back to my local machine, you can see there is a source folder that automatically gets created. It will add, because there are two functions. There are two folders fun for each function, and you can see there is already an index dot gs that is created for me. So if I want to add more code to it, I can definitely add more code for the get method and the other for the post method. And with that, I can simply create and sous application and took a couple of minutes to actually drag and drop the resources and create a Sur application with ease. This is my third tool, and I think we have looked at three different tools that have three different ways of creating architecture diagrams and providing additional information. So that's it. Hope you find this video helpful to create your next architecture diagram. Let us know in the comments section which of these tools is your favourite architecture diagram tool and why be sure to like this video. Subscribe to our channel for more hands on content. See you next time.

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Master AWS Architecture Diagramming: Lucidchart, Cloudcraft, and Application Composer Compared

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