InstallationLesson 3

Deploying Acumatica ERP on AWS

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Lesson 3: Deploying Acumatica ERP on AWS

Part 1: Installation

You can launch Acumatica ERP on Amazon Web Services (AWS). In this case, you use the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) to host the web server and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) to host the databases. This section includes our recommendations for configuring the EC2 and RDS instances and the details about deploying Acumatica ERP on AWS.

Lesson Objectives You will learn how to do the following (you do not need to perform the steps to pass the training):

  • Launch an Amazon EC2 Instance.
  • Create a Database Instance on Amazon RDS.
  • Deploy the Acumatica ERP on Amazon EC2. | Step 3.1: Launching an Amazon EC2 Instance | 41

Step 3.1: Launching an Amazon EC2 Instance Before you deploy an Acumatica ERP instance on Amazon Web Services, you should do the following:

  • Sign up for Amazon Web Services.
  • Create a key pair, which you will need to get access to your Amazon EC2 instance.
  • Create a security group that will specify your Amazon EC2 instance and that can access your Amazon RDS instance.
  • Investigate the system requirements for the server computer and software and be sure they are met: System Requirements for Acumatica ERP 2017 R2.
  • Investigate the recommended parameters of virtual machines: Typical Hardware and Virtual Machine Configurations for PCS and PCP Licenses. The overall process of installation Acumatica ERP on Amazon Web Services consists of the following three steps:
  1. Launch an Amazon EC2 instance.
  2. Create a database instance by using Amazon RDS.
  3. Install Acumatica ERP Tools and deploy a new application instance. In this step, you will read how to launch an Amazon EC2 instance. Do the following:
  4. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon EC2 console.
  5. In the top right corner of the Amazon EC2 console, select the region for your EC2 instance. You must select the same region for your EC2 and RDS instances and for the key pair you use to sign in to your instances.
  6. From the console dashboard, click Launch Instance.
  7. On the Select an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) page, select the Windows Server 2012 Base 64- bit AMI.
  8. On the Select an Instance Type page, select the m1.medium hardware configuration for your instance.
  9. On the Security Groups page, select the security group that you’ve prepared to launch Acumatica ERP.
  10. On the Review Instance Launch page, review the settings for your instance, and then click Launch.
  11. In the Select an existing key pair or create a new key pair dialog box, select Choose an existing key pair, and then select the prepared key pair.
  12. When you are ready, select the acknowledgment check box, and then click Launch Instances. A confirmation page lets you know that your instance is launching.
  13. Click View Instances to close the confirmation page and return to the console.
  14. On the Instances page, view the status of your instance. It takes a short time for an instance to launch. When you launch an instance, its initial state is pending. After the instance starts, its state changes to running, and it receives a public DNS name.
  15. On the Instances screen, select the instance and click Connect.
  16. In the Connect to Your Instance dialog box:
  • Select the prepared key.
  • Download the Remote Desktop file.
  1. Run the Remote Desktop file you’ve downloaded to access the web server you have launched. | Step 3.1: Launching an Amazon EC2 Instance | 42
  2. For the operating system of the virtual machine, turn on the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) and make sure the required IIS features are turned on. | Step 3.2: Creating a Database Instance on Amazon RDS | 43

Step 3.2: Creating a Database Instance on Amazon RDS After you set up the EC2 instance, you can create a database instance by using the RDS console. To create a database instance on Amazon RDS, do the following:

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Amazon RDS console.
  2. In the top right corner of the Amazon RDS console, select the region in which you want to create the database instance. You must select the same region for your EC2 and RDS instances and for the key pair you use to sign in to your instances.
  3. In the navigation pane, click Instances.
  4. Click Launch DB Instance to start the Launch DB Instance wizard. The wizard opens on the Engine Selection page.
  5. If you want to use MS SQL database, do the following:
  • In the Launch DB Instance Wizard window, click the Select button for the MS SQL Server Web Edition.
  • On the DB Instance Details page, specify your database instance information, including the following settings:
  • DB Instance Class: db.m1.medium
  • Allocated Storage: 20 GB
  • DB Instance Identifier
  • Master User Name
  • Master Password
  1. If you want to use MySQL database, do the following:
  • In the Launch DB Instance Wizard window, click the Select button for the MySQL Community Edition.
  • On the DB Instance Details page, specify your database instance information, including the following settings:
  • DB Engine: as specified in System Requirements for Acumatica ERP 2017 R2
  • DB Instance Class: db.m1.medium
  • Allocated Storage: 20 GB
  • Multi-AZ Deployment: No
  • DB Instance Identifier
  • Master User Name
  • Master Password
  1. Click Next Step.
  2. On the Additional Configuration page, provide the additional information that RDS uses to launch the SQL Server database instance, including the following setting:
  • DB Security Groups: Select the prepared security group you used when launching the EC2 instance.
  1. Click Next Step.
  2. On the Management Options page, you can specify backup and maintenance options for your database instance.
  3. Click Next Step. | Step 3.2: Creating a Database Instance on Amazon RDS | 44
  4. On the Review page, review the options for your database instance. When you’re certain of all the settings, click Launch DB Instance.
  5. On the final page of the wizard, click Close.
  6. On the RDS console, the new database instance appears in the list of instances. The database instance will have a status of creating until it is created and ready for use. When the state changes to available, you can connect to the database instance. Depending on the database instance class and store allocated, it could take several minutes for the new instance to be available.
  7. On the RDS console, select the database and check the DNS name of the instance in the Endpoint box; you will need this name during Acumatica ERP installation. | Step 3.3: Deploying Acumatica ERP on Amazon EC2 Instance | 45

Step 3.3: Deploying Acumatica ERP on Amazon EC2 Instance After you launch the Amazon EC2 and RDS instances, you can install Acumatica ERP Tools and deploy application instances. Do the following:

  1. Use the Remote Desktop Connection to connect to the web server running on your Amazon EC2 instance.
  2. Copy the Acumatica ERP installation package to the web server.
  3. Install the Acumatica ERP Tools, as described in To Install the Acumatica ERP Tools.
  4. On the Welcome page of the Acumatica ERP Configuration Wizard, click Deploy New Application Instance.
  5. On the Database Server Connection page, specify the database server that will be used by the Acumatica ERP instance: a. In the Server Type box, select the server type you used to deploy the database on Amazon RDS. The following options are available: Microsoft SQL Server or MySQL Server. b. In the Server Name box, enter the DNS name of the Amazon RDS database instance you’ve launched. Also, you can specify a custom port number after a comma. If you cannot connect to the server, check the security groups you’ve selected for the EC2 and RDS instances: You must select the same group for both services. For a MySQL server, the port number defaults to 3306. c. Select the SQL Server Authentication method, and specify the login that you created while you set up the Amazon RDS database instance:
  • Login: Master User Name
  • Password: Master Password
  1. Click Next.
  2. On the Database Configuration page, connect to the database that you’ve launched on Amazon RDS. Do the following: a. Click Connect to an existing database. b. In the Available databases on server list, enter the database name. c. Depending on the schema of the database you have selected, select the relevant check box to update, repair, or set up the database, if required. d. If you want to shrink data after the database maintenance, select the Shrink data check box.
  3. Click Next.
  4. On the Company Setup page, do the following: a. Configure the new company, named Company, that the Acumatica ERP Configuration Wizard created by default:
  • To rename the company, double-click the company name in the Login Company Name column, type a new company name, and press Enter.
  • If you want to fill the database with demo data, select SalesDemo in the Insert Data column. b. Optional: Add more tenants if you want to create a multi-company Acumatica ERP instance. c. Optional: For a multi-company Acumatica ERP instance, if you want to restrict the list of companies a user can see only to the companies the user has access to, select the Secure Company on Login Form check box. In this case, the Company box does not | Step 3.3: Deploying Acumatica ERP on Amazon EC2 Instance | 46
          appear on the Welcome page by default and all users first authenticate themselves by
      entering their login and password.
d.    Optional: For a multi-company Acumatica ERP instance, if you want to configure data
      sharing between companies, select the Advanced Settings check box.
  1. Click Next.
  2. Optional: On the Tables Configuration page (which is displayed only if you have selected the Advanced Settings check box on the Company Setup page), configure data sharing between companies, and then click Next. Table configuration is a dangerous operation that can result in database corruption. Any changes you make are at your own risk. If you configure tables, be sure to first back up the database.
  3. On the Database Connection page, specify the authentication method that this instance of Acumatica ERP will use to connect to the database. Do the following: a. Select the SQL Server Authentication authentication method. b. Select Use Existing Login option and specify the login you created while you set up the Amazon RDS database instance:
  • Login: Master User Name
  • Password: Master Password
  1. Click Next.
  2. On the Instance Configuration page, specify the following options:
  • Instance Name: Type a name for this Acumatica ERP instance.
  • Create Portal: Leave the check box cleared.
  • Local Path to the Instance: Enter the path on the local computer to this application instance.
  1. Click Next.
  2. On the Web Site Configuration page, do the following: a. In the Web Site Settings section, configure the list of websites and create a virtual directory. To use the URL of the Internet Information Services (IIS) default site (that is, http://www.domain.com), clear the Create Virtual Directory check box. b. In the Application Pool Settings section, specify the application pool. You may want to use a dedicated application pool to better isolate instances and fine-tune resources that are allocated for the instance by IIS. To specify the dedicated application pool, select one of the following options:
  • To create a new application pool, click Create New Application Pool and type the name in the Application Pool Name box.
  • To use an existing application pool, click Use Existing Application Pool and select the name of the application pool in the list of available application pools. The list of application pools includes all the application pools you can use to install Acumatica ERP from the list of pools configured in Web Server (IIS), either classic or integrated. Acumatica ERP employs the application pools that use one of the supported .NET Framework versions.
  1. Click Next.
  2. On the Confirm Configuration page, do the following: a. Check the configuration settings you have specified. b. Optional: To make any changes, click Back to return to the required wizard page, and then make necessary changes. | Step 3.3: Deploying Acumatica ERP on Amazon EC2 Instance | 47

c. If you want to save the configuration settings in an XML file on your computer, click Save Configuration. d. Click Finish to deploy this Acumatica ERP instance. | Lesson Summary | 48

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, you have learned how to deploy Acumatica ERP on Windows Azure Review Questions:

  • Compare and contrast deployment of Acumatica ERP on Windows Azure over local installation.
  • How are web.config settings are accessed in Windows Azure?
  • Discuss optimal configuration for Acumatica ERP on Windows Azure.
  • Why would you deploy a customer on Azure using this process instead of purchasing the Acumatica SaaS solution? | Part 2: Configuring User Authentication with External Applications | 49