Manual Launch Procedure

To maximize customization, Manual Launch is the recommended choice for initial setup. Below are the basic steps to follow.

Launch Instance

•  Once an AWS account has been created, log into the management console, and select EC2 from All services, or if applicable, Recently visited services, and navigate to the EC2 Dashboard.
  
  

•  Create Instance from the Launch Instance item that appears on the Dashboard as well as the Instances page.

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Choose a SoftNAS Amazon Machine Image (AMI) Choose a SoftNAS Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

1. Choose a SoftNAS® Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

•  From the menu on the left, click AWS Marketplace and search for SoftNAS.

•  Select the version that most accurately fits the needs of deployment.
•  Click Next.

Image RemovedImage Added

•  Select the instance size that best fits the expected environment. 

•  Then click Next: Configure Instance Details.

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Configure Instance Details Configure Instance Details

3. Configure Instance Details

Click Next: Add Storage.

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Add Storage Add Storage

4. Add Storage

This section allows you to attach additional EBS volumes and instance store volumes or edit the settings of the root volume. SoftNAS recommends skipping this step, as it is easier to configure and add disks within the SoftNAS UI, rather than creating disks and later provisioning disks created in the azure portal. 

Using gp3 SSDs with SoftNAS

If you are planning to use the EBS General Purpose SSD gp3, it needs to be added using the EC2 console or during the initial creation of the SoftNAS Instance. For additional information about this specific SSD, please refer to AWS Getting Started - Storage.  There is also an article titled "Adding an AWS gp3 disk device to a SoftNAS deployment: Best Practice" for additional information.

See also: Managing Volumes

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Instance Tags Instance Tags

5. Instance Tags

The EC2 environment takes advantage of keyword tag benefits by proactively setting a connection between an account and access to the current instance.  Assigning a name tag to a new deployment helps to easily locate it on the EC2 Dashboard when there are many other instances deployed.

Note the following basic tag restrictions:

• The aws: prefix is reserved for AWS use, and tags with this prefix do not count against tags per resource limit.
• Maximum Tags: 10 tags per resource
• Maximum Key String: 127 Unicode characters (case-sensitive)
• Maximum Value String: 255 Unicode characters (case-sensitive)

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Creating AWS Security Group Creating AWS Security Group

6. Creating or Selecting a Security Group

Next, network settings and services can be determined in advance by setting up a Security Group. Depending on use case and the services you may wish to apply to your SoftNAS environment, the 

1. If creating a new security group for your instance, select the Create a new security group radio button.
2. To create a custom configuration, simply click Add Rule, and select the desired protocol, the desired port, and for improved security, place a limit on the accepted source IP.
3. To select an existing security group configuration, click the Select an existing security group radio button, and select the desired option from the dropdown that appears.

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InstanceCreationCreateKeyPair InstanceCreationCreateKeyPair

Creating a Key Pair

A Key Pair is a pair of security credentials associated with this Instance; the Public Key and the Private Key. The Create Key Pair section of the wizard will be displayed. In this step, create a public/private key pair used with SSH to access and administer the SoftNAS® instance in the cloud.

The Key Pair helps to securely connect to an instance when it is launched. You have two options to choose from. Either choose from existing key pairs that have been created in the current region or create a new key pair.

•  If choosing from existing key pairs, simply select from the available options under "Select a key pair"
•  Click on the "Acknowledgement" followed by
•  Click on Launch Instances.

If creating a key pair, simply select said option from the top dropdown.

Upon clicking Create a new key pair, the following dialog appears:

•  Name this key pair something that will help identify it later.
•  Download the .pem file created, in order to gain access to your VM. As the warning below states, this will be the only opportunity to do so.

•  Click on Launch Instances.

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View Instance Details View Instance Details

View Instance Details

Once you have deployed an instance, from the EC2 console you can select your specific deployment and under it you will see several tabs providing details including Description, Status Checks, Monitoring and Tags.  To accomplish this:

•  Click Instances in the left panel. 
  All the instances in the region will be displayed. 
   
•  Select the instance for which details are to be viewed. 
  The details of that instance will be displayed at the bottom of the screen in different tabs. 

The Description tab shows all the basic and general information of the instance.

The Status Checks tab displays the information on system status checks and instance status checks. Status Check Alarms are created from here: 
Status Checks & Alarms

The Monitoring tab displays all the CloudWatch alarm and metrics in graph format.

The Tags tab will show all the tags that are associated with the instance. Add, edit or remove tags in this area.