This project demonstrates a full CI/CD pipeline on AWS for deploying a Java web application.
The application is packaged as a WAR using Maven and deployed to Apache Tomcat running on an AWS EC2 instance (Amazon Linux with Corretto 8).
The repo is designed as a DevOps portfolio project to showcase:
- Automated build & deployment with AWS CodeBuild and AWS CodeDeploy
- Secure IAM roles & policies for pipeline components
- Artifact storage and distribution with Amazon S3
- End-to-end workflow from code commit → running web app on EC2
- Java WAR application packaged with Maven
- CI/CD automation with AWS buildspec & appspec files
- Deployment lifecycle hooks (stop server, copy WAR, start server)
- Role-based access control with AWS IAM
- Runs on Tomcat inside Amazon Linux EC2
- Open-source, portfolio-ready reference project
This project follows a standard AWS DevOps pipeline:
- Language: Java 8 (Corretto)
- Build Tool: Maven
- Application Server: Apache Tomcat
- Cloud Provider: AWS
- EC2 (compute)
- S3 (artifact storage)
- CodeBuild (build automation)
- CodeDeploy (deployment automation)
- IAM (roles & policies for secure access)
. ├── appspec.yml # Deployment specification for CodeDeploy ├── buildspec.yml # Build instructions for CodeBuild ├── pom.xml # Maven project configuration ├── settings.xml # Optional Maven settings (e.g. CodeArtifact auth) ├── scripts/ # Deployment lifecycle scripts (start, stop, copy) ├── src/ # Java source + web application resources │ └── main/ │ └── webapp/ └── target/ # Build output (WAR and compiled classes)
Commit → Build → Store → Deploy → Run
- GitHub: Code changes are pushed to the repository.
- CodeBuild: Builds the WAR via Maven (
buildspec.yml). - S3: Stores build artifacts for distribution.
- CodeDeploy: Deploys the WAR to EC2 using lifecycle hooks from
appspec.ymlandscripts/. - EC2 (Tomcat): Hosts and runs the web application.
- IAM: Provides secure permissions across all services.
- Push code changes to GitHub.
- AWS CodeBuild compiles and packages the WAR.
- Artifact is uploaded to Amazon S3.
- AWS CodeDeploy fetches the artifact and runs deployment hooks:
- Stop Tomcat
- Copy WAR into
webapps/directory - Restart Tomcat
- Application is live on EC2 and accessible via public endpoint.
This project gave me hands-on experience with end-to-end DevOps pipelines and AWS cloud services. Key skills gained:
- CI/CD pipelines: Automating build, test, artifact storage, and deployment workflows
- AWS CodeBuild & CodeDeploy: Implementing cloud-native build/deployment automation
- AWS IAM: Creating and applying secure roles and policies using the principle of least privilege
- Amazon S3: Managing artifacts as part of a deployment pipeline
- Linux server administration: Configuring and managing Amazon Linux instances
- Apache Tomcat: Deploying and running Java WAR applications in production-like environments
- Shell scripting: Writing lifecycle hooks to stop/start services and manage deployments
- Cloud DevOps workflow: Connecting GitHub source control to live AWS infrastructure
This project represents my first DevOps pipeline, building foundational skills in cloud automation, CI/CD, and modern infrastructure management.
Planned improvements for expanding the DevOps pipeline:
- Containerization with Docker and orchestration on ECS/EKS
- Infrastructure as Code with Terraform or CloudFormation
- Automated testing & quality gates in CodeBuild
- Monitoring & logging with CloudWatch + ELK stack
- Blue/Green or Canary deployments with CodeDeploy
This project is licensed under the MIT License — free to use, modify, and share.
- AWS DevOps learning resources and documentation
- Maven + Tomcat community for Java web deployments
- Nextwork learning challenges for providing project inspiration