Deploying AWS AMI (Amazon Machine Image)
Configuring the Virtual Appliance
Overview
Login VSI publishes an AWS Community Marketplace AMI (Amazon Machine Image) in select regions. Supported regions include:
- US-EAST-1
To deploy a Login Enterprise virtual appliance in your AWS account using EC2 services, follow the steps below.
Deploying AWS AMI (Amazon Machine Image)
1. Log in
- Sign in to the AWS Management Console using your credentials.
- Ensure you are in the correct AWS region where the AMI is available. You can select the region from the top-right corner of the console.
2. Navigate to EC2
- In the AWS Management Console, go to the EC2 Dashboard. You can find this by selecting EC2 from the Services menu.
3. Launch instance
- Click Launch Instance to start the process of creating a new EC2 instance.
4. Select AMI
- In the Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image) step, you can either select an AMI from the AWS Marketplace or search for the specific AMI you want to use. For a Community Marketplace AMI, use the AWS Marketplace tab and search for the AMI by name or ID. For example, Login Enterprise.
5. Choose instance type
- Select the instance type that meets your needs. Common choices include t2.xlarge or t3.xlarge (which are also the ones that we’ve tested).
6. Select key pair
- In the Key pair (login) step, select a key pair to log in, or click Create new key pair to create a new one.
7. Determine IP addressing requirements
- Based on your AWS networking configuration, determine the IP addressing requirements that suit your organization.
8. Configure security group
- Based on your AWS networking and security requirements, define or select the appropriate security group for your organization. The virtual appliance is managed through a console accessible via SSH, and its user interface is web-based and accessible via HTTPS.
9. Configure storage
- In the Configure storage, configure at least 100 GiB of gp3 storage.
10. Review and launch
Review all your settings and configurations. Click Launch to start the deployment process.
The Virtual Appliance will take several minutes to initialize, and it is important to wait until the status check shows “2/2 checks passed” before proceeding. However, even after this status is confirmed, the boot process may continue for several more minutes, and not all services may be fully operational immediately.
Configuring the Virtual Appliance
1. Obtain the public IP address
- Go to the EC2 Dashboard in the AWS Management Console.
- Click on Instances in the left-hand menu.
- Find and select the instance you want to connect to. In the Instance Summary section, locate the Public IPv4 address.
2. Connect via SSH
- Open a terminal on your local machine.
- Use the SSH command to connect to your instance. Replace <path to key> with the path to your key pair file and <Public IPv4 DNS> with the Public IPv4 DNS name obtained in the previous step:
ssh -i <path to key> admin@<Public IPv4 DNS>
3. Initial configuration
- Change the hostname:
- From the appliance menu, choose System > Change the hostname.
- Delete the existing hostname.
- Input the Public IPv4 DNS name from the AWS Console. For example, ec2-100-25-255-59.compute-1.amazonaws.com
- Confirm to regenerate the self-signed certificates when prompted (even if you do not plan to use them).
- Do not restart the services. Type N and hit Enter to return to the System menu.
- Reboot the appliance.
4. Post-reboot configuration
- After the instance reboots, SSH into the instance again.
- Verify that the hostname matches the Public IPv4 DNS name. For this:
- Navigate to the System menu where hostname configuration options are available.
- In the System menu, select Change the hostname. This will open the hostname editor popup.
- In the hostname editor popup, check that the hostname matches the Public IPv4 DNS name of the instance.
5. Updating Allowed URLs
- Navigate to the Change Allowed URLs in the appliance menu.
- Ensure that the first entry matches your hostname.
- Edit or remove any other entries as needed to align with your instance details. Note that the addresses in this text editor are semicolon-delimited. That is, separated by ;
- Save changes by taking the following steps:
- Hit Ctrl + O to write the changes to the file.
- Hit Enter to confirm saving the file.
- Hit Ctrl + X to exit the editor.
6. Change your password
- Navigate to Change the password from the appliance menu.
- Enter and confirm your new password.
7. Final reboot
- Reboot the instance again to apply changes.
8. Access the appliance
Open a web browser and navigate to the Public IPv4 DNS name using https. For example:
https://ec2-100-25-255-59.compute-1.amazonaws.com
Log in using your credentials.
Congratulations on successfully configuring and accessing your virtual appliance!