This article provides an overview of how to get Exasol up and running on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
AWS provides a suite of infrastructure services that enable you to deploy Exasol in a highly available, scalable, and affordable way.
Before you begin
Read the following sections before you start setting up Exasol on AWS.
Familiarize with AWS
We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the following AWS services and concepts before you deploy Exasol on AWS:
| AWS service | More information |
|---|---|
| AWS Marketplace | AWS Marketplace is a digital catalog where you can discover, deploy, and manage software that runs on AWS. |
| AWS account |
You need an AWS account to deploy Exasol on AWS. If you do not have one, sign up for an AWS Account. |
| IAM user |
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a web service that helps you securely control access to AWS resources. You use IAM to control who is authenticated (signed in) and authorized (has permissions) to use resources. For more information, see Create an IAM User. |
| IAM policy |
The Exasol Cloud Tool defines an IAM policy that is required for Exasol to run on AWS. For information about AWS IAM policy, see AWS Identity and Access Management. |
| Key pair |
AWS uses public-key (assymetric) cryptography to secure authentication for your instance. Unlike in symmetric cryptography, you need one key to encrypt data and another key to decrypt it. This allows you to openly publish one of the keys while you keep the other one secret. Together those two keys form a key pair. For more information, see Create a Key Pair. |
| Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and connection considerations |
A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) allows you to control your networking environment, including selecting your own IP address range, creating subnets, and more. For the purposes of installing Exasol, you need to set up a VPC with a single public subnet. You can do this using the AWS Console. For more information, see Create a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) . |
| Security group |
A security group is set of allow-list rules for a stateful IP-level firewall. It is associated with the network interfaces of an instance, and controls the inbound and outbound traffic through these interfaces. For more information, see Security Groups for Your VPC. |
| Instance type |
EC2 instance types have different hardware and architecture configurations, which also influences the pricing for running Exasol on AWS. For a list of available EC2 instance types you can use, see Exasol's AWS Marketplace page. The recommended instance families for Exasol are:
|
| Storage considerations |
Before launching Exasol on an AWS instance, you must consider the storage type for your data storage, import, export, and backups.
For more information, see Storage. |
| Amazon EC2 service limits |
Based on your region, there may be limits on the resources that you can use. Check these limitations to manage your resources better. For more information, see Amazon EC2 Service Limits and AWS Service Limits. |
AWS Marketplace
Exasol 7.1 is offered on AWS Marketplace as Exasol Analytic Database (Single Node / Cluster, Pay-As-You-Go).
The pay as you go (PAYG) license model is a flexible and scalable license model for deployment of Exasol on a cloud platform. With the PAYG model, you pay for your cloud resources and Exasol software through the cloud platform’s billing cycle. You can always change your setup later to scale up or down your system, and the billing changes accordingly.
For more information about pricing, see Pricing.
Recommendations
We recommend the following cloud-specific configurations for an Exasol deployment on AWS:
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Instance families: Use m5, r5, or c5 instances.
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Storage: Instance-integrated hard drives (ephemeral storage) and EBS volumes are supported for data storage. In production environments, use EBS drives, as these provide maximum reliability and durability. For EBS type we recommend using at least General Purpose SSD (gp2) volumes. For data backup and restore as well as data import and export, S3 storage is recommended.
-
Memory: The minimum main memory size recommended is 16 GiB
We recommend setting up Exasol as a cluster. This offers the following advantages:
- Scalability: easily scale out a cluster by adding additional nodes to process more data and to serve more concurrent users.
- High availability: If a node fails, the system automatically tries to repair this node or includes a standby node into the system (if a standby node was configured). See also Fail Safety (Cloud).
For small data sizes or evaluation purposes, a single-node system would be sufficient and more appropriate. Setting up a cluster using our CloudFormation templates is as easy as setting up a single node system.
Step 1: Subscribe to Exasol
- Sign in to AWS Marketplace with your AWS credentials. If you do not have an AWS account, you can create one from the Amazon Console.
- Search for Exasol in the AWS marketplace and select Exasol Analytic Database (Single Node / Cluster, Pay-As-You-Go). A product overview page is displayed that provides you with pricing and other information.
- Click Continue to Subscribe. On successful subscription, the next page shows you details about your subscription.
Do not continue to configure or launch Exasol from the AWS Marketplace, as this may make your deployment invalid. Only use the Exasol Cloud Deployment Wizard or CloudFormation templates to deploy Exasol on AWS.
Step 2: Installation and template configuration
You can deploy Exasol on AWS using either Exasol Cloud Deployment Wizard or CloudFormation templates.
Using Exasol Cloud Deployment Wizard
Exasol recommends configuring and deploying an Exasol cluster or single node system using Exasol Cloud Deployment Wizard. The wizard guides you through the sizing, configuration, and deployment process. Internally it uses and parameterizes the standard CloudFormation templates.
To get a quick overview on how to deploy using the cloud deployment wizard, watch the following video:
After configuring your cluster, you can either launch your AWS stack or download the pre-configured CloudFormation template. When you select the Launch Stack option, it opens with the AWS CloudFormation UI to proceed with the deployment process. In the CloudFormation UI, you can review and customize the stack settings.
For step by step instructions on how to install Exasol on AWS using the wizard, see Installation Using Exasol Cloud Deployment Wizard.
Using CloudFormation templates
If you do not want to use the configuration recommendations of the wizard, you can use the CloudFormation templates to install Exasol. For detailed instructions, see Exasol Installation Using CloudFormation Templates.
Step 3: Install drivers and connect tools
When your Exasol database is up and running on AWS, you can connect to it using database clients and other tools that are compatible with the Exasol drivers and programming languages, such as tools for business intelligence, data integration, data warehouse automation, machine learning, etc.
For more information about how to install drivers and connect tools, see Connect to Exasol.
Step 4: Load data
Once you are connected to your Exasol database, you can start loading data into it from various sources. To learn more about different methods, tools, and best practices for loading and processing your data, see Loading Data.
Step 5: Administration
To learn more about administration tasks in Exasol such as scaling your system, managing storage, creating and restoring backups, and managing access to your system, see Administration on AWS.
Support, troubleshooting, software updates
The Exasol PAYG subsription includes the Enterprise 24x7 (Gold) support level. To get help from our Support team, create a case.
