Environment Access Validation

A DevOps practice project that simulates and automates the pre-deployment environment validation process using a real Linux environment on AWS CloudShell.

Built and executed entirely in AWS CloudShell (ap-south-1, Mumbai) — a real cloud-hosted Linux terminal on Amazon's infrastructure.

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What Problem Does This Solve?

In real DevOps work, before deploying any application, an engineer must verify:

Question	Type of Check
Can I access the server?	SSH / Shell check
Is the code repository ready?	Repo structure check
Is the pipeline running?	CI/CD pipeline check
Can I monitor the application?	Log access check

Doing this manually every time is slow and error-prone. This project automates all 4 checks and generates a timestamped report.

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Architecture

Developer (Rey)
      │
      │ types commands in browser
      ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│         AWS CloudShell (ap-south-1)         │
│   Real Linux environment on AWS servers     │
│                                             │
│  ┌──────────────┐   ┌──────────────────┐   │
│  │   Check 1    │   │    Check 2       │   │
│  │ SSH / Shell  │   │ Repo structure   │   │
│  │ whoami       │   │ app.py           │   │
│  │ uname -n     │   │ config.yml       │   │
│  │ uptime       │   │                  │   │
│  └──────────────┘   └──────────────────┘   │
│  ┌──────────────┐   ┌──────────────────┐   │
│  │   Check 3    │   │    Check 4       │   │
│  │ Pipeline     │   │ Log directory    │   │
│  │ build_status │   │ logs/app.log     │   │
│  │ .txt         │   │                  │   │
│  └──────────────┘   └──────────────────┘   │
│              │                             │
│              ▼                             │
│   access_checklist_report.txt              │
│   (auto-generated report)                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
      │
      │ git add → git commit → git push
      │ (SSH key auth via ed25519)
      ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              GitHub Repository              │
│         rey26341-sudo/ENVIRONMENT-          │
│           ACCESS-VALIDATION                 │
│                                             │
│  Files pushed:                              │
│  ├── validate_environment.py                │
│  ├── access_checklist_report.txt            │
│  ├── logs/app.log                           │
│  ├── pipeline_simulation/build_status.txt   │
│  ├── repo_simulation/app.py                 │
│  ├── repo_simulation/config.yml             │
│  └── .github/workflows/validate.yml        │
│              │                              │
│              ▼                              │
│       GitHub Actions CI/CD                  │
│   Runs automatically on every push          │
│   Lint → Validate → Archive report          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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Project Structure

ENVIRONMENT-ACCESS-VALIDATION/
│
├── validate_environment.py           ← Main Python validation script
├── access_checklist_report.txt       ← Auto-generated report
│
├── repo_simulation/
│   ├── app.py                        ← Simulated application
│   └── config.yml                    ← App configuration
│
├── pipeline_simulation/
│   └── build_status.txt              ← Simulated pipeline status
│
├── logs/
│   └── app.log                       ← Application log file
│
├── .github/workflows/
│   └── validate.yml                  ← GitHub Actions CI pipeline
│
└── pipeline_flow_documentation_v1.md ← Full pipeline documentation

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The 4 Checks

#	Check	Commands Used	Result
1	SSH / Shell Access	whoami uname -n uptime	✅ SUCCESS
2	Repository Structure	ls -R ls -l	✅ SUCCESS
3	Pipeline Status	cat build_status.txt	✅ SUCCESS
4	Log Directory Access	cat app.log	✅ SUCCESS

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How To Run

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/rey26341-sudo/ENVIRONMENT-ACCESS-VALIDATION.git
cd ENVIRONMENT-ACCESS-VALIDATION

# Run the validation script
python validate_environment.py

Output

==================================================
  ENVIRONMENT ACCESS VALIDATION
  2026-03-03 09:50:39
==================================================

CHECK 1: SSH / Shell Environment
  whoami   → cloudshell-user
  hostname → (not found — used uname -n)
  uname -n → ip-10-131-17-245.ap-south-1.compute.internal
  uptime   → 09:50:39 up 25 min, 0 users, load average: 0.02
  [✔] SSH / Shell Access: SUCCESS

CHECK 2: Repository Structure
  ✔ Found: repo_simulation/app.py
  ✔ Found: repo_simulation/config.yml
  [✔] Repository Structure: SUCCESS

CHECK 3: Pipeline Simulation
  ✔ pipeline: SUCCESS
  ✔ build #101 completed
  [✔] Pipeline Simulation: SUCCESS

CHECK 4: Log Directory Access
  ✔ application started successfully
  ✔ no errors detected
  [✔] Log Directory Access: SUCCESS

  Report written → access_checklist_report.txt
==================================================
  OVERALL: ALL CHECKS PASSED ✔
==================================================

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Real Issues Faced & How I Solved Them

These are actual errors hit while building this in AWS CloudShell:

Issue	Error Message	Resolution
hostname not available	bash: hostname: command not found	Used uname -n as fallback
Git had no identity set	fatal: empty ident name not allowed	Ran git config --global user.email and user.name
SSH key permission too open	WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!	Used correct private key file path
Space in folder name	bash: cd: too many arguments	Used underscore: repo_simulation

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CI/CD Pipeline

GitHub Actions workflow runs automatically on every push to main:

Push to main → Setup Python 3.10 → Lint (flake8)
     → Run validate_environment.py
     → Archive access_checklist_report.txt (30 days)

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What I Actually Did — Step by Step

1. Opened AWS CloudShell in browser (ap-south-1, Mumbai region)

2. Created project folder: mkdir env_acc_val && cd env_acc_val

   

3. Created all files using Linux commands (echo, mkdir, nano)

4. Ran real validation checks: whoami, uname -n, uptime, ls -R

   

6.Wrote the checklist report using nano

8. Initialized Git: git init → git add . → git commit

   

9. Fixed Git identity error with git config --global

10. Generated SSH key pair: ssh-keygen -t ed25519

11. Connected repo to GitHub: git remote set-url origin
12. Pushed all files to GitHub

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What I Learned

• How a real Linux cloud environment (AWS CloudShell) works
• Linux commands: mkdir, echo, cat, ls, nano, cd, pwd, whoami, uname, uptime
• Setting up Git from scratch in a new environment
• Configuring SSH key authentication for GitHub
• What pre-deployment checks actually are and why they matter
• Writing a CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions
• Documenting real issues and their resolutions

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Tools & Technologies

• AWS CloudShell — real Linux terminal on AWS (ap-south-1, Mumbai)
• Python 3 — scripting and automation
• Bash / Linux — all file creation done via terminal commands
• Git — version control initialized from scratch
• GitHub Actions — CI/CD pipeline automation
• SSH (ed25519) — secure key authentication to GitHub
• nano — terminal text editor

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Project Status

This is a learning and practice project built to understand DevOps pre-deployment validation concepts. Executed in a real cloud environment (AWS CloudShell) but does not connect to a live production server.

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Author

Rey — Aspiring DevOps Engineer Self-taught | DevOps Course Certified | Hands-on Practice GitHub Profile