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I'm still trying to wrap my mind around AWS's services, IAMs, and service roles. I have a general idea of how I should set up my services and users for authentication, but it's a hazy idea. I don't have any code because I haven't tried anything yet (I've poked around the documentation, and the services we'll use were created by someone else), which makes me think SO is a bad place to ask my question.

My question essentially has an input of an architecture diagram of what I want to happen, and a desired output of which AWS services, IAM users, and service roles are required to implement my design.

Which site should I use, or is Stack Exchange a bad place to ask in the first place?

This is not a duplicate of Where can I ask questions on cloud computing? because I am asking about a specific service with a specific question in mind, while the linked question is asking about which sites to ask about any cloud-computing question. Further, my question isn't about cloud computing, the technology; it's about the AWS service, how to use the software.

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    I think the first step in any question asking is finding the right question. General questions don't really help because it's hard to know what you are aiming for when you don't know. Unhaze what it is that you are looking to specifically accomplish and then ask pointed questions about resolving specific issues you encounter along the way of accomplishing that goal. Be they about the processes themselves or the code you use, just be sure they are specific. You may find answers already exist after you establish a concrete objective. Being hazy is contagious.
    – JFoxx64
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 19:27
  • Questions about AWS can fit into various sites depending on the question. If you have objective questions about IAM and user auth configuration / management then ServerFault may be a good fit. For example, questions about integrating your business user store with AWS user management. What sorts of questions do you have?
    – Pace
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 19:30
  • @Pace I've got an architecture diagram of lambdas and S3 buckets and users. I need to figure out what kind of service roles and IAM/ARN(?) stuff I need to do to make this architecture work.
    – dx_over_dt
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 19:31
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    Possible duplicate of Where can I ask questions on cloud computing?
    – Criticize SE actions means ban
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 19:33
  • (or maybe not, since you want to ask about software architecture)
    – Criticize SE actions means ban
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 19:33
  • @RageFoxx I updated my question. Maybe that will help you with an answer?
    – dx_over_dt
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 19:46
  • @dx_over_dt If your questions are too vague for SO then you might try finding a gitter/discord/freenode focused on AWS.
    – Pace
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 19:47
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    You may want double down on your research of those specific services, get an understanding of what each of them do first. If something stumps you specifically, look for answers on that. Otherwise, the question is likely outside the realms of what should be asked here. And the answer that just popped up while typing this is on the mark.
    – JFoxx64
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 20:06
  • Maybe the only one site about a "service" is salesforce.stackexchange.com
    – Rubén
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 22:30

2 Answers 2

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My question essentially has an input of an architecture diagram of what I want to happen, and a desired output of which AWS services, IAM users, and Service roles are required to implement my design.

This is going to be too broad for any Stack Exchange site.

On the other hand, if you read all the AWS documentation and you think you know what is required to implement your design...well, then you can just implement it. But if there is some detail you're not sure of, you could ask specifically about that one detail.

As for where to ask, you would have to decide based on the particular details of what you're asking about, but depending on what it is such a question could potentially be on topic on Server Fault, Stack Overflow, or Software Engineering.

But first you have to know what your question is, specifically.

The way you wrote that paragraph, the best answer is, "Hire a consultant."

There are limits to what kind of work is appropriate to farm out to volunteer internet strangers. Getting an actual implementable design for your web application based on an architecture diagram is, in my opinion, far beyond those limits. Getting expert commentary on specific, narrow parts of your own implementation plan may be within those limits.

(Forgive me if that comes across as harsh. I may be misreading your particular question, but I have seen cases where people sought to avoid paying for a professional to handle a major project by instead attempting to farm out the task to internet volunteers.)

The key distinction from my viewpoint is: Are you a professional who wants to do the best possible job, and you are seeking to educate yourself in the skills and knowledge necessary to accomplish that? Or are you trying to get other people to apply those skills so that you don't have to learn them?

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    Ironically, I am the consultant.
    – dx_over_dt
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 20:02
  • Oh, I definitely want to learn the answer for myself. It's just a lot to wrap my head around as a first AWS project, and AWS, itself, is such a complicated, large, entangled set of services, that I'm having trouble.
    – dx_over_dt
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 20:03
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    @dx_over_dt, I've worked as a consultant myself. :) In that case, my best advice to you is, dig through the documentation a LOT and then possibly check in the AWS support forums with a question like, "Is there a better way to do this than XYZ plan which I have come up with based on the documentation?" Also, if it's going to involve the company you're working for paying AWS, Amazon probably has a support engineer you could use as a sounding board for your ideas.
    – Wildcard
    Commented Oct 18, 2019 at 20:04
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For software design and architecture questions, there is Software Engineering.

If you want to ask about how to do something with the AWS API, Stack Overflow is appropriate - same as for any other programming question.

If you want to ask a specific question about doing something on a cloud virtual machine, it may be on topic on Server Fault, Unix & Linux, or Stack Overflow - it doesn't matter that it's not a physical server.

As a reminder, most Stack Exchange sites do want to see specific questions with some thought put into them. I assume that you do have something specific to ask about, which you haven't posted here since it's not relevant.

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