• Deplay a web application in a two-tier architecture for scalability
• Use virtual machine images to clone a web application onto additional virtual machine instances
• Use a load balancer that is provided as cloud service
• Performance-test a load-balanced web application

In this lab you will perform a number of tasks and document your progress in a lab report. Each task specifies one or more deliverables to be produced. Collect all the deliverables in your lab report. Give the lab report a structure that mimics the structure of this document.

You should have from the previous lab a micro instance running Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS with Drupal7 installed. In the following we will refer to it as the Drupal master instance.

You will improve the Drupal site to make it scalable. Your site will be able to absorb traffic increases by adding virtual machines that process requests in parallel. Following a two-tier architecture the business logic and presentation layer will be separated from the database layer so that the former can be replicated in multiple virtual machines. The database moves into Amazon's Relational Database Service (RDS) which provides automatic backup, data replication and failover.

Note: Not all deliverables get you the same number of points. Deliverables that only verify that you performed some instructions get fewer points, deliverables that ask questions that test your understanding and require thinking get more points.