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.

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

  4. Complete Step 2: Choose an Instance Type:
    1. For deployments of up to 30 Conferencing Nodes, we recommend using an m5.xlarge instance type for the Management Node.
    2. Select Next: Configure Instance Details.
  5. Complete Step 3: Configure Instance Details:

    1. Complete the following fields (leave all other settings as default):

      Number of instances 1
      Subnet Use default 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.

      Primary IP

      Either leave as Auto-assign or, if required, specify your desired IP address.

      (AWS reserves the first four IP addresses and the last one IP address of every subnet for IP networking purposes.)

      Tenancy Select Dedicated.
    2. Select Next: Add Storage.
  6. Complete Step 4: Add Storage:
    1. Accept the default settings (the Pexip AMI sets these defaults appropriately for a Management Node).
    2. Select Next: Add Tags.
  7. Complete Step 5: Add Tags:
    1. You can optionally add tags to your instance, if you want to categorize your AWS resources.
    2. Select Next: Configure Security Group.
  8. Complete Step 6: Configure Security Group:
    1. Select and assign your security group to your Management Node instance.
    2. Select Review and Launch.
  9. Complete Step 7: Review Instance Launch:
    1. This step summarizes the configuration details for your 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 VPC that is intended to be accessible to publicly-located clients.

    2. Select Launch.
  10. You are now asked to select an existing key pair or create a new key pair:
    1. 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 when you subsequently SSH into this instance.

    2. Select Launch instances.

      The Launch Status screen is displayed.

  11. Select View Instances to see all of your configured instances and 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.

  12. Connect over SSH into the Management Node instance to complete the installation of Pexip Infinity.

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

  13. 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.

  14. 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 serversConfigure one or more DNS servers. You must override the default values if it is a private deployment.
      NTP serversConfigure 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 reportingSelect whether or not to Enable incident reporting.
      Send deployment and usage statistics to PexipSelect 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.

  15. 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.