Deploying a Management Node in AWS

As with all Pexip Infinity deployments, you must first deploy the Management Node before deploying any Conferencing Nodes. In a hybrid cloud deployment the Management Node may be deployed in the corporate network or in the AWS VPC. This section describes how to deploy the Management Node in AWS.

Task summary

Deploying a Management Node in AWS consists of the following steps:

1. In the AWS management console, pick the desired AWS region and use the launch wizard to create an instance of the Management Node.
2. Search the Community AMIs section for the relevant Pexip Infinity Management Node AMI.
3. Ensure that the instance is associated with a suitable security group, and that an SSH key pair has been associated with the instance.
4. After the instance has booted, SSH into it and set the administrator password. This will then terminate the SSH session.
5. SSH in to the Management Node again and complete the Pexip Infinity installation wizard as for an on-premises deployment.

These steps are described below in more detail.

Task breakdown

1. In the AWS management console, ensure that you have selected the AWS region in which you intend to deploy the Management Node and all of its associated Conferencing Nodes.
2. From the EC2 dashboard, select Images > AMIs.

3. Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI):

   1. Select Public images.
   2. Filter on "Owner : 686087431763" to see all of the Pexip images.
   3. Select the row for Pexip Infinity Management Node <version> build <build_number> where <version> is the software version you want to install. (You may also want to filter on the version number to refine the list of images.)

   4. Select Launch an instance.

      This launches a wizard in which you will select and configure your image.

4. Specify Name and tags.

   Enter a Name for your instance and optionally any additional tags if you want to categorize your AWS resources.

5. Select an Instance type.

   For deployments of up to 30 Conferencing Nodes, we recommend using an m5.xlarge instance type for the Management Node.

6. Select or create a Key pair.

   Select the key pair that you want to associate with this instance, and acknowledge that you have the private key file.

   You will need to supply the private key if you SSH into this instance.

7. Configure the Network settings:

   VPC and Subnet	Select your VPC and Subnet.
   Auto-assign public IP	Enable or disable this option according to whether you want the node to be reachable from a public IP address. Your subnet may be configured so that instances in that subnet are assigned a public IP address by default. Note that the Management Node only needs to be publicly accessible if you want to perform system administration tasks from clients located in the public internet.
   Firewall (security groups)	Select your security group for your Management Node instance.

8. Configure your Storage.

   Accept the default settings (the Pexip AMI sets these defaults appropriately for a Management Node).

9. Review the Summary panel and select Launch instance.

   You may receive a warning that your security group is open to the world. This is to be expected if you are deploying a public or hybrid Management Node that is intended to be accessible to publicly-located clients.

10. You should see a Success message containing a link to your instance summary page that includes the state of your instance.

    Ensure that your Instance State is Running.

    The status screen also indicates the private IP address, and public IP address if appropriate, of the instance.

11. Connect into the Management Node instance to complete the installation of Pexip Infinity.

    You can use an SSH client to access the Management Node by its private IP address, supplying your private key file as appropriate.

    If you connect over EC2 Serial Console you don’t have to provide the SSH key and you don’t have to restart the environment.

12. Follow the login process in the SSH session:

    1. At the login prompt, enter the username admin.
    2. Supply the key passphrase, if requested.
    3. At the "Enter new UNIX password:" prompt, enter your desired password, and then when prompted, enter the password again.

    This will then log you out and terminate your SSH session.

    

13. Reconnect over SSH into the Management Node instance and continue the installation process:

    1. Log in again as admin.

       You are presented with another login prompt:

       [sudo] password for admin:

    2. Enter the UNIX password you just created.

       The Pexip installation wizard will begin after a short delay.

    3. Complete the installation wizard to apply basic configuration to the Management Node:

       IP address Network mask Gateway	Accept the defaults for the IP address, Network mask and Gateway settings.
       Hostname Domain suffix	Enter your required Hostname and Domain suffix for the Management Node.
       DNS servers	Configure one or more DNS servers. You must override the default values if it is a private deployment.
       NTP servers	Configure one or more NTP servers. You must override the default values if it is a private deployment.
       Web administration username Password	Set the Web administration username and password.
       Enable incident reporting	Select whether or not to Enable incident reporting.
       Send deployment and usage statistics to Pexip	Select whether or not to Send deployment and usage statistics to Pexip.

       The DNS and NTP servers at the default addresses are only accessible if your instance has a public IP address.
       The installation wizard will fail if the NTP server address cannot be resolved and reached.

    After successfully completing the wizard, the SSH connection will be lost as the Management Node reboots.

14. After a few minutes you will be able to use the Pexip Infinity Administrator interface to access and configure the Management Node (remember to use https to connect to the node if you have only configured https access rules in your security group). You can configure your Pexip Infinity platform licenses, VMRs, aliases, locations etc. as described in Initial platform configuration — AWS before you go on to add Conferencing Nodes.