Opentaps Amazon EC2 Images

opentaps Amazon Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) images allow you to get up and running with opentaps in minutes using pre-stored Amazon Machine Images (AMI's). You can use these AMI's for demo or production purposes, and you can pay for them by the hour.

To learn more about how these AMI's work, see opentaps In The Cloud. These instructions are included in the following video for how to set up opentaps in the Amazon EC2 Cloud:

IMPORTANT: Do not use the AMI's for sensitive data such as financial information or customer records unless you have secured the instance following the steps from the opentaps Professional Configuration Service .

Starting the AMI

To start using an opentaps Amazon EC2 image, you must first enable your Amazon account to use the Amazon EC2 service.

Then, go to opentaps In The Cloud and follow the links to subscribe to either the opentaps Mini or opentaps Full You must subscribe to the opentaps AMI's here first before you can launch them.

Next, login to the Amazon EC2 Management Console. Click on "Launch Instance".

Now search for opentaps under "Community AMI's" to launch it:

You must go back to opentaps In The Cloud and subscribe to either the opentaps Mini or opentaps Full AMI first and try again.

You will go through a serious of screens to specify the configuration of your instance. First, you need to choose the type of instance, including number of processors and memory:

Then, you can specify changes to the instance's options:

After that, you need to specify a security key pair for accessing your instance:

Next, you need to specify a security group. You need a security group which allows access for SSH (port 22), HTTP (port 80), and HTTPS (port 443). You can either pick an existing security group, if you've already created one, or set up a new one:

If you are creating a new security group, then first give your security group a name:

Then, add each port you need to use, like this:

When you've added all the ports you need, click on Continue

Now you are ready to launch your instance:

Once you've clicked Launch, Amazon should tell you that your instance is launching:

IMPORTANT: If you did not subscribe to the opentaps AMI's first, then your AMI's could not be launched successfully. You will receive an error message like Subscription to ProductCode XXXXXXXX required.:

You must go back to opentaps In The Cloud to purchase a subscription to an opentaps AMI first, and then try again.

Using the AMI

Once you have successfully launched your AMI, your Amazon EC2 Management Console will show that is pending:

Wait until it shows a green button next to your instance:

This means that the instance is up and running. The instance should also show a public DNS address which begins with ec2-, like ec2-123-456-78-90.compute-1.amazonaws.com (In this screenshot, it is ec2-184-73-130-105.compute-1.amazonaws.com) You will be using this address to access the instance.

When the instance first starts up, opentaps will be automatically moving itself from /opt/opentaps to /mnt/opentaps. This takes approximately 5 minutes.

When it is done, you can access opentaps from your browser with its public DNS address, like this:

http://ec2-123-456-78-90.compute-1.amazonaws.com/opentaps

The initial username and password are admin/opentaps

opentaps 1.4.2 and opentaps 1.5M1 are both preloaded with Base Template data which you can customize to set up your company.

Managing your opentaps Instance

To manage your opentaps instance, use your Amazon .pem key and login as root:

$ ssh ec2/mysecurekey.pem root@ec2-123-456-78-90.compute-1.amazonaws.com

By convention, opentaps will be installed in the `/mnt/opentaps` directory, so you can go to your version as the root user:

$ cd /mnt/opentaps/opentaps

and modify the configuration files.

To start, stop, or restart opentaps, you can use the /etc/init.d/opentaps script:

$ /etc/init.d/opentaps stop
$ /etc/init.d/opentaps start

Switching from Production to Demo

Starting with opentaps 1.4.2 (but not 1.5M1), the same instance can be used for both demo or production purposes. By default, opentaps 1.4.2 AMI is configured to use the Base Template database, but you can switch to the demo database with

$ /etc/init.d/opentaps switch-demo

To switch back to the Base Template database, which is recommended for configuring your production instance:

$ /etc/init.d/opentaps switch-prod

Setting up opentaps Update Service

These instructions apply to opentaps 1.4.2 and later AMI's

Your opentaps AMI comes with a free subscription to the opentaps Update Service. To register yourself, contact opentaps with your Amazon instance ID (see below):

Once we have verified your instance, you will receive a username and password for the service. Edit the file `/etc/init.d/opentaps` and put it in the fields for

$ SVN_USERNAME=
$ SVN_PASSWORD=

Then, you can update opentaps with

$ /etc/init.d/opentaps update

Completing your Setup

IMPORTANT Before using your AMI for sensitive data, you need to secure it with an SSL certificate. The opentaps Professional Configuration Service can help you secure your production instance and configure email, DNS, and performance monitoring.