Managing AWS instances

This section describes the common maintenance tasks for stopping, restarting and permanently removing Conferencing Node AWS instances, and how to add ENA support to an instance.

Temporarily removing (stopping) a Conferencing Node instance

At any time you can temporarily remove a Conferencing Node instance from your Pexip Infinity platform if, for example, you do not need all of your current conferencing capacity.

To temporarily remove a Conferencing Node instance:

  1. Put the Conferencing Node into maintenance mode via the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface on the Management Node:

    1. Go to Platform > Conferencing Nodes.
    2. Select the Conferencing Node(s).
    3. From the Action menu at the top left of the screen, select Enable maintenance mode and then select Go.

      While maintenance mode is enabled, this Conferencing Node will not accept any new conference instances.

    4. Wait until any existing conferences on that Conferencing Node have finished. To check, go to Status > Live View.
  2. Stop the Conferencing Node instance on AWS:

    1. From the AWS management console, select Instances to see the status of all of your instances.
    2. Select the instance you want to shut down.
    3. From the Actions drop-down, select Instance State > Stop to shut down the instance.

Reinstating (restarting) a stopped Conferencing Node instance

You can reinstate a Conferencing Node instance that has already been installed but has been temporarily shut down.

To restart a Conferencing Node instance:

  1. Restart the Conferencing Node instance on AWS:

    1. From the AWS management console, select Instances to see the status of all of your instances.
    2. Select the instance you want to restart.
    3. From the Actions drop-down, select Instance State > Start to start the instance.
  2. Take the Conferencing Node out of maintenance mode via the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface on the Management Node:

    1. Go to Platform > Conferencing Nodes.
    2. Select the Conferencing Node.
    3. Clear the Enable maintenance mode check box and select Save.
  3. Update the Conferencing Node's static NAT address, if appropriate.

    If your Conferencing Node instance was configured with an auto-assigned public IP address, it will be assigned a new public IP address when the instance is restarted.

    1. Go to Platform > Conferencing Nodes and select the Conferencing Node.
    2. Configure the Static NAT address as the instance's new public IP address.

After reinstating a Conferencing Node, it takes approximately 5 minutes for the node to reboot and be available for conference hosting, and for its last contacted status to be updated on the Management Node.

Permanently removing a Conferencing Node instance

If you no longer need a Conferencing Node instance, you can permanently delete it from your Pexip Infinity platform.

To remove a Conferencing Node instance:

  1. If you have not already done so, put the Conferencing Node into maintenance mode via the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface on the Management Node:
    1. Go to Platform > Conferencing Nodes.
    2. Select the Conferencing Node(s).
    3. From the Action menu at the top left of the screen, select Enable maintenance mode and then select Go.

      While maintenance mode is enabled, this Conferencing Node will not accept any new conference instances.

    4. Wait until any existing conferences on that Conferencing Node have finished. To check, go to Status > Live View.
  2. Delete the Conferencing Node from the Management Node:

    1. Go to Platform > Conferencing Nodes and select the Conferencing Node.
    2. Select the check box next to the node you want to delete, and then from the Action drop-down menu, select Delete selected Conferencing Nodes and then select Go.
  3. Terminate the Conferencing Node instance on AWS:

    1. From the Amazon VPC console, select Instances to see the status of all of your instances.
    2. Select the instance you want to permanently remove.
    3. From the Actions drop-down, select Instance State > Terminate to remove the instance.

Adding ENA support to an instance

As of version 21, Pexip Infinity supports AWS instance types that use the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA). This includes C5 instance types.

If you are switching to a C5 instance and your node was originally deployed with version 20 or earlier, then you need to add ENA support to the instance, otherwise your instance will not start:

  1. Ensure that your Pexip Infinity platform is running version 21 or later.
  2. Shut down the instance.
  3. Run the AWS CLI command:

    aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute --instance-id <instance_id> --ena-support

    See this article for the PowerShell variant.

  4. Run the following command to confirm ENA support has been added:

    aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids <instance_id> --query "Reservations[].Instances[].EnaSupport"

    It should output:

    [ true ]

  5. Power on the instance type (or change the instance type and power on).