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 Liberty 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 (start) the WebSphere servers.

Visit the MidVision RapidDeploy for Liberty page on the AWS Marketplace

2. Launching an instance

In order to launch the MidVision RapidDeploy for Liberty 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.

From the AWS Marketplace

From the AWS EC2 Control Panel

From the AWS Marketplace

From the AWS EC2 Control Panel

Select the AMI based on your requirements;
Right click on the AMI, or from the drop down menu, choose the ‘Launch’ option;
On the ‘Choose Instance Type‘ tab, choose the instance type.The m1.medium type or larger is recommended when running IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty Profile. t2.small is the minimal requirement. Larger instances may be required based on the number of IBM WebSphere application servers etc required and the expected resource use of each; Click ‘Next: Configure Instance Details‘.
On the ‘Configure Instance‘ tab Configure the instance to your requirements or leave the defaults. Click ‘Next: Add Storage‘.
On the ‘Add Storage‘ tab, add additional storage as required or leave as default. Click ‘Next: Tag Instance‘.
On the ‘Tag Instance‘ tab, Tag your instance with a suitable name. Click ‘Next: Configure Security Group'.
On the ‘Configure Security Group‘ tab, specify the security group. The security group needs to permit to following ports:
```
Port 22 to connect via SSH (enabled by default), 
Port 9080 to connect to the helloworld application in Liberty Profile
Port 9090 to reach RapidDeploy web console, 
Port 20000 and 20100 to open for RapidDeploy Remote Agent (optional),
```
- To open all ports, Click ‘Add Rule‘.
- In the ‘Type‘ dropdown, Specify ‘All TCP‘ or your preferred configuration.
- In the ‘Source‘ dropdown, Specify ‘Anywhere‘ or your preferred configuration.
Click ‘Review and Launch‘.
Review settings, then click ‘Launch‘.
Add your key pair, Check the ‘Acknowledge key file access’ checkbox and click ‘Launch Instance‘.

3. Initial login and setup

The MidVision RapidDeploy for Liberty products are shipped with a base binary installation, and a defaultServer configuration, with a helloworld.war application installed into this server. On the first login to the instance, you will be placed into a console wizard, which will guide you through the process of creating and configuring IBM WebSphere Liberty Profile. 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).

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
```

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
        * Support: http://support.midvision.com/redmine/projects/devtestcloud
        * Forum:   https://www.midvisioncloud.com/community/      

Welcome, this is DevTestCloud Websphere Application Server image first run configuration
Note that you can rerun this configuration wizard again by executing /home/midvision/firstrunsetup.sh script
Configuration steps
1. Set RapidDeploy framework initial password
2. Open ports on RHEL firewall

All inputs asking for specific data can be left as blank just by hitting [return], which will pick the default value displayed at the end of the question. Please refer to IBM documentation for WebSphere Application Server Liberty Profile configuration.

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

Open required firewall ports on Red Hat Linux firewall. Select ‘y‘ and hit [return].

Open firewall ports for Websphere application server (default port 9060 9061 9043 9044) and RapidDeploy (port 9090) [y/n]?

4. Accessing the command line and web consoles

4.1 Subsequent logins via SSH to the instance

When logging into the instance after the first time, you will be asked if you wish to enter the console menu. Selecting ‘y‘ places you in a management console. Selecting ‘n‘ will take you to a command prompt. You can access the menu at any time by typing ‘menu‘ at the command prompt. In the menu context, after first login you should perform the following actions:

Change the public IP address from the default ‘localhost‘ to your IP address. Note that if you use an elastic IP, this is a one off operation. If you do not use an elastic IP, you’ll need to do this each time you start the server. Select option three from the main menu as highlighted below

Main Application Administration Menu on ip-172-31-44-143
========================================================
Please select from list
 1. Display Status for ip-172-31-44-143
 2. Manage Websphere Liberty Profile
 3. Change public IP Address
 4. Open Firewall Port on ip-172-31-44-143
 5. Help for the Management menu
 x. Quit
>3

After changing the IP address, restart the server. To do this, elect option two(2) from the main menu and then stop and start the server (option one(1) then option two(2)).

WebSphere Administration Menu on ip-172-31-44-14
=================================================
Please select from list
 1. Stop Liberty Profile Server: defaultServer
 2. Start Liberty Profile Server: defaultServer
 3. Liberty Profile Server Status: defaultServer
 4. Select Liberty Profile Server: Current Server: defaultServer
 5. Liberty Profile Version
 6. Liberty Profile Validation
 7. Liberty Profile Features
 x. Quit
>

Once the server is started, you can check the installation by accessing the hello world application

4.2 Accessing the Hello World application

Once the Liberty profile server has been started, test the installation by accessing Hello World application on:

http://[publicip]:9080/helloworld

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.

Using the Liberty Profile menu console

The menu script is a useful tool provided by MidVision to manage your WebSphere Liberty profile image. Access it by typing ‘menu’ on the command line.

Use the “Display Status” menu to display the state of IBM WebSphere liberty profile servers
Use the “Manage WebSphere” menu to select, stop and start IBM WebSphere liberty profile servers
Use the “Change IP” Menu to assign a new public IP address to this host. You will need to run this each time you start this host without a bound elastic IP address.
Use the “Open Firewall port” menu to open new firewall ports on this host for any new IBM WebSphere Liberty Profile servers you add.

Instance Users

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.

Opening Red Hat Entreprise Linux firewall with the open-firewall.sh script

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 ]

Changing hostname or IP address for restarted non-elastic IP instances with the setuphost.sh script

You can use the WebSphere Liberty Profile install in three host configurations:

Leave as the default ‘localhost‘
Assign to an elastic IP address. You will need to run setuphost.sh once to change the address from ‘localhost‘ to the elastic IP address
Use dynamically assigned hostname. You will need to run setuphost.sh on each restart of the instance

The setuphost.sh script provided in the midvision user home directory will search and replace for the old host name (localhost) occurrences in all the necessary WAS the configuration files. We recommend leaving ‘localhost‘ default setting or using an elastic IP address to avoid having to run setuphost.sh on each restart.

sudo /home/midvision/setuphost.sh

Files used for MidVision-Cloud services

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.

Starting and stopping RapidDeploy manually

To restart RapidDeploy manually from the filesystem, use the rapiddeploy linux service. The RapidDeploy version is 5.0.4. RapidDeploy home is located at /var/rd/midvision Example usage:

[midvision@ ] sudo service rapiddeploystart start 
[midvision@ ] sudo service rapiddeploystart 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.

Changing RapidDeploy initial password

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 Cannot access the Hello World Application

Once the Liberty profile server has been started, you should be able to test the installation by accessing Hello World application on:

http://[publicip]:9080/helloworld

If you cannot access this application, check the following:

You have opened the 9080 port in the firewall
You have followed the instructions in 4.1 to change the hostname and restart the Liberty Profile server

6.3 Contacting MidVision support

Please visit our support website.