Build Your First Infrastructure

This walkthrough takes you through the whole Paxper workflow once: connect your AWS account, create a workspace, add a simple resource, plan and apply it, check the result and remove it again. After each step, a What you should see box tells you how to know it worked.

You’ll build a VPC without NAT gateways. It is a useful first resource and costs nothing while it exists.

You need: a Paxper account (see Getting Started) and access to an AWS account where you can create an IAM role.

Step 1: Connect your AWS account

1. Go to Workspaces → Credentials and click Add Credential.
2. Choose IAM role (recommended).
3. Enter a Credential name, for example My AWS, and your 12-digit Account ID.
4. Click Create role to open AWS and create the role. Keep the Paxper form open while you do this.
5. Back in Paxper, save the credential.

More details: Add an AWS credential explains the IAM role and access key options, and Credentials covers managing them later.

Step 2: Create a workspace

1. Go to Workspaces → All Workspaces and click New Workspace.
2. Workspace Setup: enter a name, for example my-first-workspace, and choose Development.
3. Cloud Provider: choose Amazon Web Services.
4. Region: choose the region closest to you, for example eu-central-1.
5. Cloud Connection: under Use Existing, pick the credential from step 1 and click Use credential.
6. Review: click Create workspace.

Each field is explained in How to Create a Workspace, with Workspace Setup and Cloud Connection as the most common places to get stuck. Prefer to start from a ready-made design? See Templates and come back to step 3 later.

Step 3: Add a VPC

1. Add a VPC from the resource panel to the canvas.
2. Click the VPC to open its Properties panel.
3. Under General, set the Name, for example first-vpc.
4. Under Network, turn Enable NAT Gateway off. Leave everything else as it is.
5. Click Save Properties.

Want to know what each setting does? See AWS VPC Setup.

Step 4: Run a plan

A plan shows what Paxper would create in AWS, without changing anything.

1. Hover over the VPC and click the Plan resource icon (magnifying glass).
2. In Ready to Plan, click Plan.
3. Paxper switches to the Execution tab. Click Console on the job to follow it.

If the plan fails, open the console, filter by ERROR, and see When should I retry?

Step 5: Apply it

1. Go back to the Diagram tab, hover over the VPC and click the Apply icon (play button).
2. In Ready to Apply, click Apply.
3. If your workspace requires approval, the job stops at Approval with the status awaiting_approval. Review the plan in the Console and click Approve & Apply.

More details: Approvals and Applying and Destroying.

Step 6: Check the result

Your VPC now exists in AWS. Check it in three places:

• Canvas: the VPC has a green check mark, and its Apply tooltip says Already Applied.
• Overview tab: Workspace Status shows the time of the last run, and the state lock is Unlocked again.
• AWS console: open VPC → Your VPCs in the region you chose. Your VPC is listed under the name you gave it.

Step 7: Clean up

When you’re done, remove the VPC from AWS:

1. Hover over the VPC and click the Destroy icon (flame).
2. Confirm with Destroy.
3. If your workspace requires approval, click Approve and Destroy.

What’s next?

• Start from a ready-made design with Templates.
• Learn the canvas in Designing on the Canvas.
• Make sure every change gets reviewed with Approvals.
• Bookmark Troubleshooting and Recovery for when something doesn’t go as planned.