Initializing CloudCore

This section provides instructions to initialize CloudCore, a component of Elastic Path CloudOps for AWS. The bootstrap script runs an initialization script, init.sh, inside a bootstrap Docker container. This initialization script creates CloudFormation stacks to set up CloudCore’s infrastructure using settings from a version set file.

Prerequisites

The following requirements and preparations are needed before initializing CloudCore:

• Requirements are fulfilled
• CloudCore runBootstrap.sh Settings values are gathered, to be used in step 4. Edit the runBootstrap.sh script

Procedure

1. Clone the CloudCore repository from the Git repository hosting service as described in the Requirements page

2. Check out the correct branch for the version of CloudCore that you want to initialize

3. Run the following command to copy a private SSH key authorized to clone from the Git repository hosting service to the Containers/bootstrap/ sub-directory: cp /path/to/${PRIVATE_GIT_KEY} path/to/cloud-core-aws/Containers/bootstrap/

4. Edit the runBootstrap.sh script with the required parameters. For information about the parameters, see the comments in the script.

   Note: For additional information on each CloudCore runBootstrap.sh parameter, see CloudCore runBootstrap.sh Settings.

5. Run the runBootstrap.sh script. You can monitor the progress of the initialization on the terminal window and in the AWS CloudFormation web console.

   Tip: Monitor the progress of the initialization in the terminal window and in the AWS CloudFormation web console

6. When the script is run, ensure that an SSH key named ep-bastion is copied into the same directory as the runBootstrap.sh script.

   Important: This is the only copy of the key. You cannot access the application servers using SSH without the key

7. Update the name servers to the domain name with the values generated by the initialization script

8. Check the installation by following the Validating CloudCore Initialization section below

Validating Initialization

After running the bootstrap containers to initialize the component to initialize CloudCore, validate the following to ensure that CloudCore is setup as required.

AWS Security Groups

Access to resources created by CloudOps is controlled through AWS Security Groups. This includes the Bastion and Jenkins servers and the Config Store. By default, CloudOps only grants access to these resources to the IP address from which CloudCore was initialized. For more information about the security groups, see Security in Elastic Path CloudOps for AWS.

Warning: Access to the Public and Bastion security groups must be restricted as they grant access to the Config Store. The Config Store contains sensitive information including EC2 keys and other credentials.

Granting additional access to the Jenkins server and Config Store

1. Identify the external IP address of the users who will need access to the Jenkins server and the Config Store
2. Update the Public security group as needed

Granting additional access to the Bastion server

1. Identify the external IP address of the users who will need access to the Bastion server
2. Update the Bastion security group as needed

AWS CloudFormation Stacks

Ensure that the following Amazon CloudFormation stacks are completed successfully:

• EP-CC-Network: Initializes the CloudOps network
• EP-CC-Bastion: Creates the Bastion server used to access VMs in private subnets
• EP-CC-Route53: Creates the Route53 hosted zone and DNS entries
• EP-CC-Config-Store: Creates the Consul cluster used to store config
• EP-CC-Jenkins-Server: Creates the master Jenkins server

Note: You may see additional CloudFormation stacks named EP-CC-AMI or EP-CC-ECS-AMI during the initialization of CloudCore. These stacks must be automatically deleted before CloudCore initialization is completed.

AWS S3 Bucket

Ensure that the ep-cloudops-<account_id> Amazon S3 bucket exists and contains:

• A CloudCore folder with the following structure:

CloudCore/
|
|---/
    |
    |---CloudFormation/
    |---Files/
    |   |
    |   |---consul/
    |   |
    |   |---jenkins/
    |
    |---Scripts/

AWS Machine Images (AMIs)

Ensure that the following two AMIs are created, are owned by your AWS account, and are private:

• baseEpAmi
• baseEpEcsAmi

Jenkins Server

Confirm that a Jenkins instance is created and is accessible.

Option 1: DNS already configured

If the DNS name server values is already updated, find the hostname of the Jenkins server in the Outputs section of the EP-CC-Jenkins-Server CloudFormation stack and access it from there.

Option 2: DNS not configured

If the DNS name servers are not updated yet, find the DNS name of the Jenkins load-balancer and access the Jenkins server from there.

Default login credentials

Field	Value
Username	admin
Password	El4stic123

Reference Materials

runBootstrap.sh Parameters

You must provide the following details to initialize CloudCore:

Field	Description
versionSetFileName	The file name of the component version set to use. This file and the default files for supported versions of EP Commerce can be found in the folder: cloud-core-aws/Containers/bootstrap/versionsets/. An example filename for EP Commerce version 7.3 would be: ep73.conf. For more information on each version set file parameter, see CloudCore version set file settings section below.
epCloudCoreGitRepoUrl	The SSH URL to the CloudCore repository.
epCloudCoreBranch	The CloudCore branch and release version to use for CloudCore initialization. This setting is optional. The default setting for this parameter is master.
gitSSHKeyFileName	The name of a private SSH key authorized to clone from your Git repository hosting service. Ensure that the private key is in the same folder as the bootstrap Dockerfile, Containers/bootstrap/, and that the key is not password protected.
gitUsername	This setting is optional if you don’t use AWS (Amazon Web Services) CodeCommit. If you use AWS CodeCommit as a git service for all CloudOps repositories, use the 'SSH Key ID’ as mentioned in the AWS documentation.
awsAccessKeyId	The access key ID for the AWS account in which you want to initialize CloudCore.
awsSecretAccessKey	The secret access key for the AWS account in which you want to initialize CloudCore.
awsRegion	The AWS region in which you want to deploy CloudOps.
accountRoleTag	The tag to apply to every EC2 instance in the AWS account you are initializing. It should describe the purpose of the account. For example, dev or prod. The default setting is dev. For more information about EC2 tags CloudOps uses see the EC2 Tags page.
epCloudOpsDomain	The domain name to use with CloudCore. This setting is optional. If left blank, CloudCore’s DNS resolution works only within AWS. The default setting is aws.epcloudops.com.
certificateArn	The ARN (Amazon Resource Name) for an HTTPS certificate in AWS Certificate Manager. This setting is optional. If left empty, CloudCore does not use SSL.

CloudCore Version Set File Settings

During CloudCore initialization, the bootstrap process consumes a file that specifies several version parameters for various technologies CloudOps for AWS uses. This file is called the version set file.

During CloudCore bootstrap, you must provide a version set file that is compatible with the EP Commerce version used in your deployment of the CloudOps components. For example, if using EP Commerce version 7.3, you must use the version set file ep73.conf. If you provide your own version set file you must commit and push the changes to your Git repository hosting service and specify that branch and version set file to the bootstrap script before deploying the CloudOps Components.

Default files for supported versions of EP Commerce can be found in the CloudCore component in the folder cloud-core-aws/Containers/bootstrap/versionsets/

The version set file provides the following parameters when initializing CloudCore:

Field	Description
customEcsAmiId	The AMI (Amazon Machine Image) id of a custom Amazon AMI. It is used to build the base Elastic Path ECS (Elastic Container Service) AMI. This setting is optional. If left blank, CloudCore will use the AMI specified in amazonOptimizedEcsAmiName. For CloudOps for AWS 3.2, images based off of Amazon Linux must use Amazon Linux 2.
customLinuxAmiId	The AMI id of a custom Amazon AMI. It is used to build the base Elastic Path Linux AMI. This setting is optional. If left blank, CloudCore will use the AMI specified in amazonLinuxAmiName. For CloudOps for AWS 3.2, images based off of Amazon Linux must use Amazon Linux 2.
amazonOptimizedEcsAmiName	An Amazon provided ECS-optimized Amazon Linux AMI. Used as the default AMI to build the base Elastic Path ECS AMI. This parameter should not be modified.
amazonLinuxAmiName	An Amazon provided Amazon Linux AMI. Used as the default AMI to build the base Elastic Path Linux AMI. This parameter should not be modified.
jenkinsVersion	The version of Jenkins CloudCore will use to create the Jenkins server.
consulVersion	The version of Consul CloudCore will use to create the configuration store.
activemqVersion	The version of ActiveMQ CloudOps will use when deploying EP Commerce.
tomcatVersion	The version of Tomcat CloudOps will use with EP application servers.
javaDownloadUrl	A Java JRE (Java Runtime Environment) download link.
rdsVersion	The RDS (Relational Database Service) engine version CloudOps will use when deploying EP Commerce databases.
rdsParameterGroup	The RDS parameter group CloudOps will use when deploying EP Commerce databases.

Related Topics

• DNS Configuration (Amazon Route53)
• Bastion Instance
• Author and Live Architecture