Key Points
- AWS services can come at 3 layers: iaas, paas, saas
- Most references to AWS refer to paas - EC2 instances and the services that run on them
- EC2 instances can be Windows or Linux
- A low-cost iaas option is LightSail - a VPS server that is fixed price, low-cost with internet connectivity etc - easier to plan than EC2 costs
- Effective cost management of AWS resources and services is a HUGE issue for most companies
- EBS - elastic block storage - can be mounted and file system created for use. can be attached to any single instance
References
Key Concepts
AWS resources
AWS EC Cloud Documentation
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ec2/index.html
AWS EC2 Linux Docs
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/index.html
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AmazonEBS.html
Compute Nodes
https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/?p=ps
Amazon EC2 is free to try. There are four ways to pay for Amazon EC2 instances: On-Demand, Reserved Instances, and Spot Instances. You can also pay for Dedicated Hosts which provide you with EC2 instance capacity on physical servers dedicated for your use.
Free Tier for 1 year
AWS Free Tier includes 750 hours of Linux and Windows t2.micro instances each month for one year. To stay within the Free Tier, use only EC2 Micro instances.
AMI - Amazon Machine Instance configurations
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AMIs.html
An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) provides the information required to launch an instance. You must specify an AMI when you launch an instance. You can launch multiple instances from a single AMI when you need multiple instances with the same configuration. You can use different AMIs to launch instances when you need instances with different configurations.
An AMI includes the following:
One or more EBS snapshots, or, for instance-store-backed AMIs, a template for the root volume of the instance (for example, an operating system, an application server, and applications).
Launch permissions that control which AWS accounts can use the AMI to launch instances.
A block device mapping that specifies the volumes to attach to the instance when it's launched.
Linux AMI Virtualization Types
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/virtualization_types.html
Linux Amazon Machine Images use one of two types of virtualization: paravirtual (PV) or hardware virtual machine (HVM). The main differences between PV and HVM AMIs are the way in which they boot and whether they can take advantage of special hardware extensions (CPU, network, and storage) for better performance.
For the best performance, we recommend that you use current generation instance types and HVM AMIs when you launch your instances. For more information about current generation instance types, see Amazon EC2 Instance Types. If you are using previous generation instance types and would like to upgrade, see Upgrade Paths.
HVM AMIs
HVM AMIs are presented with a fully virtualized set of hardware and boot by executing the master boot record of the root block device of your image. This virtualization type provides the ability to run an operating system directly on top of a virtual machine without any modification, as if it were run on the bare-metal hardware. The Amazon EC2 host system emulates some or all of the underlying hardware that is presented to the guest.
Unlike PV guests, HVM guests can take advantage of hardware extensions that provide fast access to the underlying hardware on the host system. For more information on CPU virtualization extensions available in Amazon EC2, see Intel Virtualization Technology on the Intel website. HVM AMIs are required to take advantage of enhanced networking and GPU processing. In order to pass through instructions to specialized network and GPU devices, the OS needs to be able to have access to the native hardware platform; HVM virtualization provides this access. For more information, see Enhanced Networking on Linux and Linux Accelerated Computing Instances.
All instance types support HVM AMIs.
To find an HVM AMI, verify that the virtualization type of the AMI is set to hvm
, using the console or the describe-images command.
EBS - Elastic Block Storage devices
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AmazonEBS.html
Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) provides block level storage volumes for use with EC2 instances. EBS volumes behave like raw, unformatted block devices. You can mount these volumes as devices on your instances. You can mount multiple volumes on the same instance, but each volume can be attached to only one instance at a time. You can create a file system on top of these volumes, or use them in any way you would use a block device (like a hard drive). You can dynamically change the configuration of a volume attached to an instance.
EBS volumes are highly available and reliable storage volumes that can be attached to any running instance that is in the same Availability Zone. EBS volumes that are attached to an EC2 instance are exposed as storage volumes that persist independently from the life of the instance. With Amazon EBS, you pay only for what you use. For more information about Amazon EBS pricing, see the Projecting Costs section of the Amazon Elastic Block Store page.
AWS Cost Management Strategies
https://go.cloudhealthtech.com/rs/933-ZUR-080/images/10-best-practices-reducing-aws-spend.pdf
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sHsXhkf83v3vK-3uHhEvl-g8ywuvrf8t
AWS Reserved Instances - RI
The most mature AWS customers are running more than 80% of their EC2 infrastructure covered by RI purchases. A best practice is to not let this number dip below 60% for maximum efficiency.
AWS services
Potential Value Opportunities
Potential Challenges
Candidate Solutions
AWS free tier services
AWS cost planning - Planning Dashboard for systems, services
https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/cost-optimization/
AWS cost calculator
https://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html
Learn About AWS
- What Is AWS?
- What Is Cloud Computing?
- What Is DevOps?
- What Is a Container?
- What Is a Data Lake?
- AWS Cloud Security
- What's New
- Blogs
Resources for AWS
- Getting Started
- Training and Certification
- AWS Solutions Portfolio
- Architecture Center
- Product and Technical FAQs
- Analyst Reports
- AWS Partner Network
AWS Lightsail Cloud Server specs
https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/pricing/?opdp1=pricing
- Static IP address
- Intuitive management console
- DNS management
- 1-click SSH terminal access (Linux/Unix)
- 1-click RDP access (Windows)
- Powerful API
- Highly available SSD storage
- Server monitoring
Step-by-step guide for Example
AWS Management Console
https://console.aws.amazon.com/?nc2=h_m_mc
sample code block