I am using Amazon EC2 and S3 now more often, and our architecture, development and deployment partially relies on Amazon. For example, we save artifacts from our Build-Server on S3 and deploy the application for trial and testing in the EC2 cloud. The level of control you have over your instances and buckets is just great, and new features (like VPC, SNS) are added frequently. The API allows me to remote control our infrastructure without using the browser.
No one can say, you wouldnt find a fitting Linux distribution on EC2. It seems there are myriads of AMI’s and almost all popular Linux distros are available for you to get started. But being a control-freak I prefer a slightly different approach. We create a virtual appliance in-house (our products runs out-of-the-box) and use the appliance for local development and tests. I maintain reference appliances knowing exactly which kernel and which packages are running. For large number deployment is essential that all instances are identical. Unfortunately there is no straightforward solution to “upload” your vmdk to EC2 (or any of the few other cloud/IAAS providers) that allow upload and expect it running (due to a couple of technical facts in the background that usually are transparent to a cloud user, eg. XEN specific kernels, etc).
Collecting some inputs and tutorials from various sources I tried to create my local UBUNTU 10.04 LTS server on VMWare Workstation (Player) and get it running as EC2 instance.
I summarize the process here.
Warning: I still face a major issue with the instance (created from the uploaded AMI) which can be started, but it is not possible to connect via SSH. I will updated this blog as soon I (hopefully with your help) find the solution.
Pre-Requirements:
- VMWare Workstation/Player or VirtualBox
It does not matter which tool you use because during the process with create a bundle “inside” the running server. We are not converting a vmdk file or similar (which is also possible)
For this tutorial I assume you have it downloaded and installed (There is a 30 day trial version of VMWare Workstation available with some more features than the player).
- Ubuntu 10.04 Server LTS (or any other version, recommend 8.04 or later)
You installed the basic server as Virtual Machine and can login as root. The installation process is simple enough and not covered here.
- AMAZON AWS account
You have an active AWS account with access to S3 and EC2.
Tutorial Part A (getting keys and certificates from Amazon AWS)
- Login into your AWS account and navigate to Account |Security Credentials
- Take note of your Access Key and Secret Access Key
Take note of your Account Number (at the top right under your name)
(one keypair should be created by default when you create an AWS account)
AWS Access Keys
- Create and Download X.509 Certificates
Please read the warning: The private key can only be created and downloaded 1 time ! Download both to your desktop.
1 Certificate File: cert-{some_random_key}.pem
1 Private Key File: pk-{some_random_key}.pem
X.509 Certificates
- Create a bucket in S3
Please note the bucket name must be unique worldwide. You can use something like “mycompanyname.images” or similar.
By default the bucket is private.
Create S3 bucket
Tutorial Part B (Preparation of the Ubuntu Server)
I assume you already installed a Virtual Machine with Ubuntu Server 10.04 (without any extra packages). All steps performed as root user (via sudo or you “change” to root with sudo -i)
- Add a drive to the instance
Virtual Machine
Edit virtual machine settings | Add.. | Hard Disk | Create new virtual disk | SCSI | 10GB | Store as single file
Virtual Machine Settings
- Power on the virtual machine
Virtual Machine
- Mount the additional harddisk
mkdir /disk2
mkfs -t ext2 /dev/sdb
mount /dev/sdb /disk2
root@ubuntu:~# mkdir /disk2
root@ubuntu:~# mkfs -t ext2 /dev/sdb
mke2fs 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
/dev/sdb is entire device, not just one partition!
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
655360 inodes, 2621440 blocks
131072 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=2684354560
80 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8192 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 25 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first. Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
root@ubuntu:~# mount /dev/sdb /disk2
root@ubuntu:~# cd /disk2
root@ubuntu:/disk2# ls
lost+found
root@ubuntu:/disk2#
- Install SSH server
Otherwise we cant access the instance later. It is also easier to work with ssh session connect to our local instance.
apt-get install openssh-server
- Install FTP Server
We need to transfer files to our instance.
apt-get install vsftpd
Remember to configure /etc/vsftpd.conf
write_enable=YES
local_enable=YES
and restart vsftpd
service vsftpd restart
- Disable the firewall
ufw disable
We configure the firewall with Amazon console
- Install the EC2 AMI Tools
apt-get install ec2-ami-tools
- Transfer the 2 key files to /tmp
with ftp from your local machine/desktop. In /tmp it will not be bundled with your AMI later.
- Delete network info
rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
- Install ec2 kernel
Make sure the universe entry in /etc/apt/sources.list is enabled.
apt-get update
apt-get install linux-image-ec2
Do not restart !
root@ubuntu:~# apt-get install linux-image-ec2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
linux-image-2.6.32-309-ec2
Suggested packages:
fdutils linux-ec2-doc-2.6.32 linux-ec2-source-2.6.32
The following NEW packages will be installed:
linux-image-2.6.32-309-ec2 linux-image-ec2
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 30 not upgraded.
Need to get 19.2MB of archives.
After this operation, 57.6MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://sg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates/main linux-image-2.6.32-309-ec2 2.6.32-309.18 [19.2MB]
Get:2 http://sg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-updates/main linux-image-ec2 2.6.32.309.10 [3,276B]
Fetched 19.2MB in 51s (375kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package linux-image-2.6.32-309-ec2.
(Reading database ... 28138 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking linux-image-2.6.32-309-ec2 (from .../linux-image-2.6.32-309-ec2_2.6.32-309.18_i386.deb) ...
Done.
Selecting previously deselected package linux-image-ec2.
Unpacking linux-image-ec2 (from .../linux-image-ec2_2.6.32.309.10_i386.deb) ...
Setting up linux-image-2.6.32-309-ec2 (2.6.32-309.18) ...
Running depmod.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-309-ec2
Running postinst hook script /usr/sbin/update-grub.
Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-309-ec2
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-309-ec2
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done
Setting up linux-image-ec2 (2.6.32.309.10) ...
Resulting boot directory
/boot
Do not reboot. The new default kernel is the ec2 kernel, the virtual machine will NOT boot anymore !
- Adjust default kernel in grub
Edit your /boot/grub/grub.cfg (This is not good practice because any update-grub trashes your manual changes!)
...
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="2"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
...
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-309-ec2' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ab6ee13e-e9c8-4654-aad1-a94c69906e11
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-309-ec2 root=UUID=ab6ee13e-e9c8-4654-aad1-a94c69906e11 ro find_preseed=/preseed.cfg noprompt quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-309-ec2
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-309-ec2 (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ab6ee13e-e9c8-4654-aad1-a94c69906e11
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-309-ec2 ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-309-ec2 root=UUID=ab6ee13e-e9c8-4654-aad1-a94c69906e11 ro single find_preseed=/preseed.cfg noprompt
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-309-ec2
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ab6ee13e-e9c8-4654-aad1-a94c69906e11
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=ab6ee13e-e9c8-4654-aad1-a94c69906e11 ro find_preseed=/preseed.cfg noprompt quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic
}
...
Change the line set default=”0″ to a different kernel, in this case to “2” (count like 0,1,2 the menu entries)
Now you could reboot your virtual machine because it will boot the previous kernel (that one you configured in grub.cfg)
If you reboot please reset your network again (rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules)
BEFORE you create the bundle you must set the default to “0” ! Otherwise the ec2 instance will not start up and immediately terminate.
(afterwards you should set it back to “2” to continue your local virtual machine)
Check the kernel:
user@ubuntu:~$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.32-24-generic #43-Ubuntu SMP Thu Sep 16 14:17:33 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux
- Find a kernel
You can choose a kernel to run on ec2, but the kernel is a location dependent AKI-ID.
The cloud market is very useful to find the right kernel
- Create a Bundle to upload
ec2-bundle-vol -c /tmp/cert-xxxxxxxxx.pem -k /tmp/pk-xxxxxxxxx.pem –user {account_number} -d /disk2 -r i386 –kernel aki-{kernel_id} –no-inherit
Use your Account number that you retrieved earlier from the AWS console and the 2 key files that you transfered to virtual machine.
Use the kernel ID that you looked up at the cloud market.
Depending on your hardware this process can easily take 20min and longer (my reference Intel Core 2 Duo 8600) !
...
root@ubuntu:/disk2# ec2-bundle-vol -c /tmp/cert-xxxxxx.pem -k /tmp/pk-xxxxxx.pem --user xxxxxx -d /disk2 -r i386 --kernel aki-70067822 --no-inherit
Copying / into the image file /disk2/image...
Excluding:
/sys/kernel/debug
/sys/kernel/security
/sys
/
/proc
/sys/fs/fuse/connections
/dev/pts
/dev
/dev
/media
/mnt
/proc
/sys
/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
/etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-net.rules
/disk2/image
/mnt/img-mnt
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
1048576 bytes (1.0 MB) copied, 0.0069198 s, 152 MB/s
mke2fs 1.41.11 (14-Mar-2010)
warning: Unable to get device geometry for /disk2/image
Bundling image file...
Splitting /disk2/image.tar.gz.enc...
Created image.part.00
Created image.part.01
Created image.part.02
Created image.part.03
...
Created image.part.52
Created image.part.53
Created image.part.54
Created image.part.55
Created image.part.56
Created image.part.57
Generating digests for each part...
Digests generated.
Creating bundle manifest...
ec2-bundle-vol complete.
- Upload the bundle
ec2-upload-bundle -b my.ubuntu.image -m /disk2/image.manifest.xml -a {your access key} -s {your secret access key} –part8
the –part parameter is optional in case your upload fails half way.
This depends very much on your uplink speed !
[codesyntax lang=”xml” title=”Bundle Upload”]
…
Uploaded image.part.55
Uploaded image.part.56
Uploaded image.part.57
Uploading manifest …
Uploaded manifest.
Bundle uploaded ompleted.
[/codesyntax]
- Register AMI
Go to your AWS console and open the S3 folder to see the uploaded files
S3 bucket with uploaded image
Goto the EC2 tab and select AMI
Register new AMI
Enter the path as {your bucket name}/image.manifest.xml
Register new AMI
- Create an instance and start it up
New instance
You should use a security group with the ports 22 open (and icmp if you want to ping)
Security Group
Problem Solving
As I stated in the beginning, none of my instances really started up successfully due to various problems.
- After starting up the instance, I can ping it but any attempt to ssh fails with connection refused.
user@wanaka-ubuntu:~/Desktop/amazon$ ping ec2-175-41-xxx-xxx.ap-southeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com
PING ec2-175-41-xxx-xxx.ap-southeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com (175.41.xxx.xxx) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from ec2-175-41-xxx-xxx.ap-southeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com (175.41.xxx.xxx): icmp_req=2 ttl=51 time=103 ms
64 bytes from ec2-175-41-xxx-xxx.ap-southeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com (175.41.xxx.xxx): icmp_req=3 ttl=51 time=39.7 ms
^C
--- ec2-175-41-xxx-xxx.ap-southeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com ping statistics ---
7 packets transmitted, 6 received, 14% packet loss, time 6015ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 15.663/53.436/103.023/32.123 ms
user@wanaka-ubuntu:~/Desktop/amazon$ ssh -i xxxx.pem root@ec2-175-41-xxx-xxx.ap-southeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com
ssh: connect to host ec2-175-41-xxx-xxx.ap-southeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com port 22: Connection refused
Instance logfile see here.
- The instance is created with root device as instance store not EBS. I would prefer EBS !
Remarks and Outlook
- I believe cloud computing, despite not being a completely new concept (you remember dumb amber screens in the 70’s and 80’s) is still in its infancy today. Already very powerful, but we can expect more finetuning in the near future that will allows us to scale hardware on the fly for a running instance.
- We also should expect more standards that allow seamless excahnge of virtual instances between your local deployment and the cloud, or between cloud providers.
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