ScaleXtreme Support Forum/Support/Tutorials

How to Deploy a LAMP Server in Three Steps

ScaleXtreme Support
posted this on Jan 27 01:23 pm

Contents

How to Deploy a LAMP Server in Three Steps 

Objectives

This tutorial shows you how to deploy a ready-to-use LAMP (Linux, Apache, Mysql, PHP) web server from a Server Template in three easy steps. It also introduces you to many of ScaleXtreme's powerful cloud-based management features and gets you started using ScaleXtreme to simplify, automate, and accelerate production server deployments and management tasks across your data center and clouds. 

Topics Covered

  • Script Library 
  • App Store
  • Server Templates
  • Launching Templates
  • Configuring Instances for EC2
  • Adding Script Parameters
  • Checking Template Job Status

Prerequisites

  • ScaleXtreme free or subscription account -There are three versions of ScaleXtreme: Xpress, our free edition, supports a single cloud provider; Xpert and Xtreme, our proressional-level subscription services, support multiple cloud providers. If you don't have an account, go to www.scalextreme.com and click on Get Free Edition!

  • Cloud Provider Account (Amazon EC2) linked to ScaleXtreme - To use this tutorial you must have a pre-existing Amazon EC2 account with proper credentials linked to your ScaleXtreme account. For more information on linking a cloud provider account, see Adding Cloud Providers. If you don't yet have a cloud provider account, you can quickly set up a free trial account at Amazon. For more info, see Set up a Free Cloud Provider Account. 

Overview

The first step in deploying your LAMP server is to download the EC2 LAMP server template from our App Store. Our server templates come with everything you need already onboard to deploy the LAMP server. (See About EC2 LAMP server template). The second step is to launch the LAMP template on EC2. This involves specifying the EC2 account where you want to launch the template, selecting a key pair and security group, and defining script parameters (if necessary).The third and final step is to check the status of your template job and confirm that your LAMP server is up and running as expected. That's all there is to it!  Once you've downloaded your LAMP server template from our App Store, you can launch it unlimited times to quickly scale-up resources as needed to keep pace with growing demand on your web site.

About EC2 LAMP Server Template

This tutorial uses our Amazon EC2 LAMP - AMI 64bit server template. The template launches a pre-configured 64-bit Linux server on an EC2 account, with a LAMP installer script onboard that executes on the instance once it is running. The template also includes a handful of setup scripts to help configure the LAMP server, including LAMP_conf_vhost (to configure virtualhost), Apache_start-stop, firewall (to open/close ports by adding a rule to iptables configuration), and IP_info (output returns web server IP address). This server template is intended for demonstration purposes only.

Step 1: Download the LAMP Server Template from the App Store

  • In the top menu, click Library. The Library tab opens.

  • In the Script Library (at left), click on the App Store icon. The App Store opens.

    screenshot-script-library-app-store.png

     

  • In the App Store, click on the Templates category. The Templates section of the App Store opens:

screenshot-appstore-templates-free-cropped.png

 

  • Click on Amazon EC2 LAMP - AMI 64bit to view more information about the server template:

screenshot-template-details-page.edit.flat.png

 

  • Click on "One Click." The template is downloaded to the Purchased Templates folder of your Script Library. Note that all ScaleXtreme App Store server templates and scripts are available free of charge. For more information, see Buying Scripts from the App Store and The Script Library.

screenshot-one-click-message-cropped.png

 

Step 2: Launch the LAMP Server Template 

Now that you've downloaded the Lamp server template from the App Store to your Script Library, the next step is to launch the template on your EC2 account. 

  • In the Purchased Templates folder of your Script Library, click on Amazon EC2 LAMP - AMI 64bit: 

screenshot-template-in-purchased-folder-zoom.png

 

The View Template page opens. Here you can access template information, including details about the instance and the scripts that the template will launch. It's also where you perform actions on your template, including Edit, Launch Template, Publish, and Delete. Or you can choose to launch previously edited and saved versions of a template via the Versions pop-up menu.

 

screenshot-launch-template.png

 

  • Click Launch Template -> Click Next. The System (Resources) page opens. 
  • Select an Amazon EC2 account where you want to launch the template. (If you have not yet linked your EC2 account to ScaleXtreme, click "Add an Amazon EC2 Cloud Provider." )

screenshot-select-provider-zoom.png

 

  • Select an EC2 Key Pair to associate with the server instance. This key pair will be used to authenticate your identity when you login to the instance. The menu lets you choose from the key pairs currently available on your EC2 account. If you don't have a key pair, login to the EC2 console, and click "Key Pair." Follow the instructions to create a new key pair. For more information on EC2 key pairs and working with EC2 key pairs in ScaleXtreme, see Working with EC2 Key Pairs.

  • Select a Security Group. If you have already created your own security groups, you can select one from the pop-up menu. Otherwise, select default group.

screenshot-select-key-pair.png

 

  • Click Next. The Stack (Scripts) page opens showing you all of the scripts included with the template, along with any parameters defined for each script. You can use this window to modify parameters or add new parameters if necessary before launching your template. (Note that our templates are fully configured, so you don't need to adjust any parameters for this tutorial.) Here we see parameters for our Lamp Installer script:

screenshot-stack-scripts-page-lamp-only.png

 

  • Click Finish. A message appears indicating that you have successfully launched your template. The Next Step is to check on the status of your template job in the Operations tab. 

screenshot-success-template-launch.png

screenshot-view-template-job-button.png

Step 3: Check Status of LAMP Server Deployment

Once you've launched your template, the next step is to check the status of the template jobs to confirm that your instance has launched on EC2 and that your scripts have executed as expected. Of course you'll also want to make sure the web server is up and running and is accessible via web browser.

  • First, let's check the overall status of the template job. Click on the View Template's Job button. This takes us to the Operations tab where we can see the status of our template job is "complete":  

     screenshot-manage-overview-complete.png

     

  • Next, we'll check the status of each task performed by our template. Click on the job name "Amazon EC2 LAMP-AMI 64bit".  A new Tasks pane opens showing the status of each task as "complete":

    screenshot-template-job-complete.png

     

  • Now, let's check the job run output to make sure that each task process has completed as expected. Click on "launch machines on ec2" to confirm that our instance has launched on Amazon. The output shows a  green check mark next to a Linux machine with IP address, indicating the instance been successfully launched on EC2. It also shows "Agent registration success" which means the Scalextreme Agent has been successfully installed and the server can now be managed via the ScaleXtreme Manage tab.

    screenshot-linux-instance-output.png

     

  • Next, click on "LAMP installer" to view the output of the LAMP installer script. Our output shows a successful installation for each application in the LAMP stack:

    screenshot-lamp-install-output-zoom.png

     

  • Finally, let's make sure our newly deployed LAMP server is up and running: First, Click on "IP_info" so we can get the IP address of the web server from the output of the script. 

screenshot-ip_info-output.png

 

  • Enter the IP address into your web browser. If the LAMP server is functional you'll see this index.html page:

screenshot-example.png

 

Congratulations! You now have a fully operational LAMP web server up and running on EC2 fully managed by ScaleXtreme. You can now proceed to the Manage tab and interact with your new web server: Browse filesystem and manage files, monitor performance, get info on Linux Packages, run commands via browser-based command shell and much more. Or go to the Library tab, and start creating and launching your own server templates. For more information, see Creating Templates. 

Please remember to terminate your demo web server on EC2! Go to Manage -> Clouds -> <server-name> -> Delete.

In our next tutorial, we'll show you how to create your own server templates, using our Dynamic Server Assembly (DSA) technology. And we'll show you how to modify and save new versions of your templates to meet the evolving needs of your IT environment. Stay tuned.

References

For more information on the topics covered in this tutorial, see the following documentation: