MidVision RapidDeploy for HTTP Server on AWS

Amazon EC2 Installation guide

1. Overview

This guide will provide step by step instructions how to start using the installed products on your AWS EC2 instance.

This AMI contains a ready-to-run MidVision RapidDeploy for HTTP Server (IBM IHS) image at the selected version. In order to use this image, you need to launch it with your selected type, and log in via SSH to activate it.

Visit the MidVision RapidDeploy for HTTP Server (IHS) page on the AWS Marketplace

2. Launching an instance

In order to launch the MidVision RapidDeploy, for HTTP Server instance, a few settings need to be configured on the AWS console as follows. The instructions for launching an instance differ depending on where you launch from. Initially you will launch the instance from the AWS Marketplace.

 

 3. Initial login and setup

The MidVision RapidDeploy for HTTP Server products are shipped with a base binary installation. On the first login to the instance – after logging onto the instance via SSH as the ‘midvision’ user you will be placed in a setup wizard. The following is an overview of the steps you will be guided through to create the required profiles on the instance:

Once the instance has started up (you can see it by having ” 2/2 checks passed ” in EC2 console).

  1. Log onto the instance from the EC2 console or via SSH as the ‘midvision’ user, using the key you selected above.  For example:
    • From the EC2 console by clicking  the “Connect to your instance” button with username “midvision“, using the previously (instance launch-time) selected .pem keyfile.
    • Via SSH from your desktop, for example
      ssh -i ./MidVisionUSMC.pem midvision@ec2-52-87-198-23.compute-1.amazonaws.com
  2. You should see the MidVision banner and then you are placed in a setup wizard.
    Welcome to
     __  __ _     ___     ___     _                    ____ _                 _ 
    |  \/  (_) __| \ \   / (_)___(_) ___  _ __        / ___| | ___  _   _  __| |
    | |\/| | |/ _` |\ \ / /| / __| |/ _ \| '_ \ _____| |   | |/ _ \| | | |/ _` |
    | |  | | | (_| | \ V / | \__ \ | (_) | | | |_____| |___| | (_) | |_| | (_| |
    |_|  |_|_|\__,_|  \_/  |_|___/_|\___/|_| |_|      \____|_|\___/ \__,_|\__,_|                                                                            
                                                           A MidVision Service
    
            * WebSite: https://www.midvisioncloud.com/product-category/amazon-web-services-marketplace
            * Support: http://support.midvision.com/redmine/projects/devtestcloud
            * Forum:   https://www.midvisioncloud.com/community
    
    Welcome, this is MidVisionCloud RapidDeploy and IBM HTTP Server image first run configuration.
    
    Configuration steps:
    - Start IBM HTTP server
    - Set RapidDeploy framework initial password
    - Open ports on RHEL firewall
    
    Start IBM HTTP server? [y/n]
    
  3. Set initial password for RapidDeploy user “mvadmin“. Hit [return] to accept the default of the instance id.
    Configuring password for RapidDeploy default user 'mvadmin'
    Set password for user 'mvadmin'. Submit blank for default value of the instance id: i-380002a3
  4. Open required firewall ports on Red Hat Linux firewall. Select ‘y’ and hit [return].
    Open firewall ports for RapidDeploy and IBM HTTP Server (default port 9090 and  80) [y/n]?

4. Accessing the web consoles

4.1 Access the IBM HTTP Server (IHS)

Confirm installation. The IBM IHS Web Server should be running on port 80:

http://[publicip]

4.3 Access the RapidDeploy Web Console

RapidDeploy server and agent will start up automatically when you start your instance. You can access the web console on:

http://[publicip]:9090/MidVision

Note: make sure you have port 9090 open in your Security group when trying to access RapidDeploy web console. For the first time, you can set the password for the default username ” mvadmin “. 

5. Maintaining the installation

The following sections cover some of the activities you might want to perform after the instance has been started.
  • midvision: This is the default user, which you can log in as. It is permitted to use all SUDO rights. To switch to the root user, type “sudo su“.
  • root:      This is the superuser in linux systems. You can log in as any other user without using passwords. E.g: “su ec2-user“, “su midvision
  • ec2-user:  This user does not have SUDO rights. If you want to switch back to root user, type “exit“, this will take you back to the previous user session.

RHEL instances are shipped with a firewall by default to protect your machine. For security reasons, the instance is only accessible via SSH (port 22) at first, so further ports can be opened on the firewall as needed. You will need to open all the ports in this internal firewall, which you have open in your Security group. There is a script placed in the user home of midvision (/home/midvision), which is also the starting location when logged in. You will need to be the root user to run this script. Example usage:

[midvision@ ] sudo ./open-firewall.sh 9090
Open firewall port 9090 iptables: Saving firewall rules to /etc/sysconfig/iptables:[ OK ]
 

There are a few scripts and other files in midvision and root users home directory, which will need to remain unchanged in order to keep the provided scripts working. There are a set of scripts in midvision home directory. Those scripts are executed when logging into the instance controlled by .bash_profile, but you can also execute them manually whenever they are needed. There are some hidden files used as well,.firstrun indicates that the setup wizard has already run once, .host file is needed to determine the previously bound hostname to WebSphere service.

To restart RapidDeploy manually from the filesystem, use the rapiddeploy linux service. The RapidDeploy version is 4.0.7. RapidDeploy home is located at /var/rd/midvision Example usage:

[midvision@ ] sudo service rapiddeploy start 
[midvision@ ] sudo service rapiddeploy stop

The RapidDeploy server uses an in-memory database, so your RapidDeploy framework needs to be shut down properly to save your work. This happens when the instance is stopping or when calling the stop service manually from the command line. Note that on instance restart, unsaved data will be lost.

For security reasons, you will need to change the default password (default value is ‘[instance-id]‘) for user mvadmin. This will be requested the first time only when you log in to the RapidDeploy server.

6. Troubleshooting

6.1 Session loss during setup

If you lose your SSH connection to the target instance during the first run setup script execution (e.g. as a result of a network problem), we advise you to delete and recreate the EC2 instance and run the script again.

6.2 Contacting MidVision support

Please visit our support website.