Start an instance of the CoSolvent Community Server AMI
“Attach” the EBS Volume to the CoSolvent instance.
These steps are not absolutely required; but EBS provides relatively stable storage and an easy backup mechanism for EC2 storage needs. You can use more than one EBS volume for storage if needed; and EBS volumes can be resized if you require more space in the future, so don’t spend too long worrying about the proper size – we recommend at least 250 GB, possibly larger if you anticipate a large number of high quality media files.
When the CoSolvent AMI is launched, the instance is not yet fully configured. The basic operating system (Ubuntu Linux) is installed along with all the libraries; however as CoSolvent is currently undergoing rapid development, we do not package the CoSolvent files as part of the AMI – instead we provide a web based installer that will download and install the latest release of CoSolvent. Our installer will also walk you through the steps of mounting a storage device, either the Instance’s Ephemeral Storage (Make sure to setup an S3 backup program!), or the EBS volume you attached.
The following shows how to use the CoSolvent Configuration Wizard, a graphical web application which completes the installation. Advanced users may wish to use the Setup Shell method to run the installer from the Linux shell (over ssh).
To access the configuration wizard, after launching a new instance, wait for the instance to start, then copy the “Public DNS” and open a new web browser window with that address. You will be presented by a welcome screen:
If you choose to run the web installer, click the “Start” button toward the bottom right of the page. The first screen will ask you for the details of your subscription activation – namely your AWS Id, your PID (persistant identifier), and the email address that you used to register:
Assuming the information you enter here matches our records, the latest release of CoSolvent will be downloaded to your EC2 instance:
Then you will be asked to choose a storage option. For simple testing the ephemeral storage option works well, and is already ready-to-go; however for production use we strongly recommend using an EBS volume.
If you select an unformatted EBS volume, our wizard will attempt to format it using the Linux LVM manager and an encrypted ext3 partition. This means that any backups you make using EBS snapshots should be securely encrypted, and if you disconnect the EBS volume from the instance for maitenance the data will not be readable without the proper passcodes. During the install a randomized passcode will be generated and you will be asked to copy it for storage – if you loose this passcode you will not be able to access the data on the device! Because of this, during a normal installation, a second passcode will be generated and transmitted to iPOV – contact us if you wish us to delete this information. During formatting of the EBS volume you will get a progress bar – do not refresh the page.
Once you have a working data drive, you’ll be asked to fill in the final information to configure your CoSolvent Community Server, including setting up the initial administrator account and password.
Once you complete this step, you’ll get another progress bar as the configuration takes place – this usually takes around a minute. Once configured we have to restart the Apache web server for the new configuration to take effect, you’ll be presented with a final page. When ready, you’ll get a “Start” button which will take you to the front page of your newly installed CoSolvent Community Server.
Setup Wizard
Before starting setup you should do 3 things.
These steps are not absolutely required; but EBS provides relatively stable storage and an easy backup mechanism for EC2 storage needs. You can use more than one EBS volume for storage if needed; and EBS volumes can be resized if you require more space in the future, so don’t spend too long worrying about the proper size – we recommend at least 250 GB, possibly larger if you anticipate a large number of high quality media files.
When the CoSolvent AMI is launched, the instance is not yet fully configured. The basic operating system (Ubuntu Linux) is installed along with all the libraries; however as CoSolvent is currently undergoing rapid development, we do not package the CoSolvent files as part of the AMI – instead we provide a web based installer that will download and install the latest release of CoSolvent. Our installer will also walk you through the steps of mounting a storage device, either the Instance’s Ephemeral Storage (Make sure to setup an S3 backup program!), or the EBS volume you attached.
The following shows how to use the CoSolvent Configuration Wizard, a graphical web application which completes the installation. Advanced users may wish to use the Setup Shell method to run the installer from the Linux shell (over ssh).
To access the configuration wizard, after launching a new instance, wait for the instance to start, then copy the “Public DNS” and open a new web browser window with that address. You will be presented by a welcome screen:
If you choose to run the web installer, click the “Start” button toward the bottom right of the page. The first screen will ask you for the details of your subscription activation – namely your AWS Id, your PID (persistant identifier), and the email address that you used to register:
Once you have a working data drive, you’ll be asked to fill in the final information to configure your CoSolvent Community Server, including setting up the initial administrator account and password.
Once you complete this step, you’ll get another progress bar as the configuration takes place – this usually takes around a minute. Once configured we have to restart the Apache web server for the new configuration to take effect, you’ll be presented with a final page. When ready, you’ll get a “Start” button which will take you to the front page of your newly installed CoSolvent Community Server.