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Creating a New Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Instance for Partek® Flow® Software
Note: This guide assumes all items necessary for the EC2 instance does not exist, such as VPCsAmazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), subnets, and security groups, thus their creation is covered as well.
Log in to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) management console at: at https://console.aws.amazon.com
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On the left menu, click on Instances, then click the Launch Instance button. The first step denoted Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) appears page will appear.
Click the Select button next to Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS (HVM), SSD Volume Type - ami-f4cc1de2
Choose an Instance Type, the selection depends on your budget and the size of the Partek Flow deployment. We recommend m4.large for testing or cluster front-end operation, m4.xlarge for standard deployments, and m4.2xlarge for alignment-heavy workloads with a large user-base. See the section AWS instance type resources and costs for assistance with choosing the right instance. In most cases, the instance type and associated resources can be changed after deployment, so one is not locked into the choices made for this step.
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Note: For multi-node Partek Flow deployments or instances where you would like Partek to manage AWS resources on your behalf, please see Partek AWS support and set up an IAM role for your Partek Flow EC2 instance. In most cases a specialized IAM role is unnecessary and we only need instance ssh keys.
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Note: All Partek Flow data is stored on a non-root EBS volume. Since only the OS is on the root volume and not frequently re-booted, a fast root volume is probably not necessary or worth the cost. For more information about EBS volumes and their performance, see the section EBS volumes.
Click Add New Volume and set the following options:
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Note: This is the minimum for ST1 volumes, see: EBS volumes
Volume Type: Throughput optimized HDD (ST1)
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The AWS console will suggest this server not be booted from a magnetic volume. Since there is not a lot of IO on the root partition and reboots are will be rare, choosing Continue with Magnetic will reduce costs. Choosing an SSD volume will not provide substantial benefit but it OK if one wishes to use an SSD volume. See the EBS Volumes section for more information.
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The new instance will now boot. Use the left navigation bar and click on Instances. Click the pencil icon and assign the instance the name Partek Flow Server
Enabling External access to the Partek Flow EC2 Instance
The server should be assigned a fixed IP address. To do this, click on Elastic IPs on the left navigation menu from the EC2 management console.
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$ ssh -i Flow-Testing.pem ubuntu@elastic.ip
Attaching the EBS volume for Partek Flow data storage
Attach, format, and move the ubuntu home directory onto the large ST1 EBS volume. All Partek Flow data will live in this volume. Consult the AWS EC2 documentation for further information about attaching EBS volumes to your instance.
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Disconnect the ssh session, then log in again to make sure all is well
Installing Partek Flow on a New EC2 instance
Note: For additional information about Partek Flow installations, see our generic Installation Guide
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Done! Partek Flow is ready to use.
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After the EC2 instance is provisioned, we are happy to assist with setting up Partek Flow or other issues you encounter with the usage of Partek Flow. The quickest way to receive help is to allow us remote access to your server by sending us Flow-Key.pem and amending the SSH rule for Flow-SG to include access from IP 97.84.41.194 (Partek HQ). We recommend sending us Flow-Key.pem via secure means. The easiest way to do this is with the following command:
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We also provide live assistance via GoTo meeting or TeamViewer if you are uncomfortable with us accessing your EC2 instance directly. Before contacting us, please run $ ./partek_flow/flowstatus.sh to send us logs and other information that will assist us with your support request.
General recommendations
With newer EC2 instance types, it is possible to change the instance type of an already deployed Partek Flow EC2 server. We recommend doing several rounds of benchmarks with production-sized workloads and evaluate if the resources allocated to your Partek Flow server are sufficient. You may find that reducing resources allocated to the Partek Flow server may come with significant cost savings, but can cause UI responsiveness and job run-times to reach unacceptable levels. Once you have found an instance type that works, you may wish to use reserved instance pricing which is significantly cheaper than on-demand instance pricing. Reserved instances come with 1 or 3-year usage terms. Please see the EC2 Reserved Instance Marketplace to sell or purchase existing reserved instances at reduced rates.
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We do not recommend placing any data on instance store volumes since all data is lost on those volumes after an instance stops. This is too risky as there are cases where user tasks can take up unexpected amounts of memory forcing a server stop/reboot.
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The values below were updated April 2017. The latest pricing and EC2 resource offerings can be found at http://www.ec2instances.info
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Network performance values for US-EAST-1 correspond to: Low ~ 50Mb/s, Medium ~ 300Mb/s, High ~ 1Gb/s.
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Choice of a volume type and size:
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