This post is second in the series of posts I had planned on Amazon Web Services. These are basically notes which I had taken during an AWS training session which provide a concise overview of the differenr services which under available under the AWS stack. My first post was an introduction to AWS and its different storage and content delivery services.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud / EC2
Amazon EC2 provides a virtual data center with
1>Resizeable Compute Capacity
2>Complete control of the computing respurces - any OS, any software
3>Reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes
The main advantages of EC2 are:
1> Scale capacity as needed. Thus there is no need to make large upfront investment on infrastructure which would remain unused for quite sometime.
2> Pay only for the capacity actually used
3> Test proof of concepts with little investments. The POC modesl if unsuccessful can easily be descarded and new infra provisioned.
4> AWS has got advantage of scale and availability which can both be leveraged
5> Choose between Linux or Windows which ever OS fits the requirement
Steps for provisioning EC2 instance:
1>Choose the AWS region where the EC2 instance can be launched
2>Amazon Machine Image (AMI) are pre-configured images which can be used to launch a new instance. No need to reconfigure. A configured instance can also be saved as an AMI and used later on.
3> Select the instance type based upon the work load. The instance type is based on CPU, memory,storage and network requirements
4> After instance type is selected the instance needs to be configured with network, IP, Security groups, Storage Volume, tag and key pair (for additional security)
Amazone Market Place hosts the AMIs of partner vendors. Anyone wishing to host the vendor software on AWS can select from the among the AMIs available. AWS uses Intel Zeon processors for EC2 instances.
EC2 Purchasing Options:
Amazon Auto Scaling
Amazon Auto Scaling is a service that helps to scale EC2 capacity automatically. It is for applications which experience variability of usage. There is no additional charge for this service.
Advantages of Auto Scaling include the following:
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
Private, isolated section of AWS Cloud where AWS resources can be launched within a virtual cloud defined. Use would have complete control over this virtual networking environment.
AWS Direct Connect
This service is used to establish dedicated network connection from on-premise to AWS. Its compatible with all AWS services. This service is put to practical use in a scenario where say you have your BI application hosted in AWS cloud but the database servers are located on-premise.
Amazon Route 53
This is a DNS and Domain Name Registration service. Allows to have a DNS server within AWS cloud.
Amazon Elastic Load Balancing
Amazon Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) sits in front of an Amazon EC2 instance and helps to distribute traffic across multiple EC2 instances. It helps to support health checks to check for unhealthy EC2 instances. It also supports routing and load balancing of HTTP, HTTPS and TCP traffic to Amazon EC2 instance.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud / EC2
Amazon EC2 provides a virtual data center with
1>Resizeable Compute Capacity
2>Complete control of the computing respurces - any OS, any software
3>Reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes
The main advantages of EC2 are:
1> Scale capacity as needed. Thus there is no need to make large upfront investment on infrastructure which would remain unused for quite sometime.
2> Pay only for the capacity actually used
3> Test proof of concepts with little investments. The POC modesl if unsuccessful can easily be descarded and new infra provisioned.
4> AWS has got advantage of scale and availability which can both be leveraged
5> Choose between Linux or Windows which ever OS fits the requirement
Steps for provisioning EC2 instance:
1>Choose the AWS region where the EC2 instance can be launched
2>Amazon Machine Image (AMI) are pre-configured images which can be used to launch a new instance. No need to reconfigure. A configured instance can also be saved as an AMI and used later on.
3> Select the instance type based upon the work load. The instance type is based on CPU, memory,storage and network requirements
4> After instance type is selected the instance needs to be configured with network, IP, Security groups, Storage Volume, tag and key pair (for additional security)
Amazone Market Place hosts the AMIs of partner vendors. Anyone wishing to host the vendor software on AWS can select from the among the AMIs available. AWS uses Intel Zeon processors for EC2 instances.
EC2 Purchasing Options:
- On Demand Instances - Pay as you go. Pay for what is used and no upfront commitments.
- Reserved Instances - If the usage is known then a specified number of instances can be purchased upfront and a discount obtained for the bulk purchase.
- Spot Instances - Bid on unused EC2 instance and highest bidder will get the instance. This is useful to carry out bulk testing activities at a low cost.
Amazon Auto Scaling
Amazon Auto Scaling is a service that helps to scale EC2 capacity automatically. It is for applications which experience variability of usage. There is no additional charge for this service.
Advantages of Auto Scaling include the following:
- Amazon Auto Scaling provides with an elastic capacity
- The service can be accessed using the AWS console
- The service provides a cost saving advantage by providing the facility to scale as required
- It has got geographical flexibility. The scaled up infrastructure can be provisioned in any of the AWS regions
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
Private, isolated section of AWS Cloud where AWS resources can be launched within a virtual cloud defined. Use would have complete control over this virtual networking environment.
AWS Direct Connect
This service is used to establish dedicated network connection from on-premise to AWS. Its compatible with all AWS services. This service is put to practical use in a scenario where say you have your BI application hosted in AWS cloud but the database servers are located on-premise.
Amazon Route 53
This is a DNS and Domain Name Registration service. Allows to have a DNS server within AWS cloud.
Amazon Elastic Load Balancing
Amazon Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) sits in front of an Amazon EC2 instance and helps to distribute traffic across multiple EC2 instances. It helps to support health checks to check for unhealthy EC2 instances. It also supports routing and load balancing of HTTP, HTTPS and TCP traffic to Amazon EC2 instance.
