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Secure Admin Access in Cloud Computing

Learn about Secure Admin Access in this comprehensive Cloud Computing tutorial. Jump boxes and NAT.

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1Bastion vs SSM

While Bastion hosts are traditional, AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Session Manager is now the recommended approach as it requires no open inbound ports and no SSH keys.

2Step-by-Step Breakdown

NAT Gateway. A managed service allowing private instances to access the internet securely.

Elastic IPs. NAT Gateways require a static Elastic IP (EIP) to function.

Placement. NAT Gateways MUST be deployed in a PUBLIC subnet, not a private one.

Routing. Private subnets route 0.0.0.0/0 to the NAT Gateway.

Knowledge Check. Where must a NAT Gateway be deployed?

→Private Subnet
→Public Subnet

High Availability. NAT Gateways are AZ-resilient. Deploy one per AZ for true HA.

Bastion Hosts. A Bastion Host (Jump Box) is a securely hardened EC2 instance in a public subnet used to SSH into private instances.

SSH Agent Forwarding. Never store private keys on the Bastion. Use SSH agent forwarding.

Security Groups. The private instance SG should ONLY accept SSH traffic from the Bastion SG, not 0.0.0.0/0.

Summary. NAT Gateways handle outbound traffic, Bastions handle inbound admin access.

Pascual Vila

Frontend Instructor // Code Syllabus

Common Pitfalls & Errors

The Error //

Confusing a NAT Gateway with an Internet Gateway

// Private subnet's route table points outbound traffic to the NAT Gateway, not an IGW:
aws ec2 create-route --route-table-id rtb-private --destination-cidr-block 0.0.0.0/0 --nat-gateway-id nat-12345678

The Solution //

An Internet Gateway allows two-way traffic for resources with public IPs; a NAT Gateway allows one-way outbound-only internet access for private-subnet resources (so they can reach the internet without being reachable from it). Using the wrong one either exposes a private resource or blocks outbound access entirely.

The Error //

Running a single NAT Gateway across multiple Availability Zones

// One NAT Gateway per AZ for HA:
// NAT Gateway A -> AZ-1 private subnets
// NAT Gateway B -> AZ-2 private subnets

The Solution //

A NAT Gateway lives in one AZ — if that AZ has an outage, every private subnet routing through it loses outbound internet access, even if their own AZ is healthy. For real high availability, deploy one NAT Gateway per AZ.