Configure Amazon Web Service Cloud Bursting

Create an Amazon Web Service (AWS) user account so that you can later create a cloud account in Control.

1. Login in the AWS console.
2. Using the search box located under AWS services, enter IAM.
3. Click the IAM search result.
   The Identity and Access Management dashboard is opened.
4. In the navigation pane on the left-hand side of the web page, click Users.
5. Click Add user.
   This user will have administrative rights to any machines hosted in the cloud.
6. Enter the following information to add a user:
   1. For User name, enter a name for the user.
      The name can be anything meaningful to your organization, e.g., pc_clouduser.
   2. For Access type, enable Programmatic access.

      The user requires this type of access because Control needs to make API calls or use the AWS CLI. An access key ID and a secret access key are generated for the user.

7. Click Next:Permissions.
8. Optional: Click Add user to group.
   This button may already be selected.
9. Click Create group.
10. Enter the following information to create a group, add the user to the group, and choose a permission policy for the group.
    1. For Group name, enter a group name.
       The name can be anything meaningful to your organization, e.g., pc_cloudgroup.
    2. For Policy type, enable AdministratorAccess.

       This policy provides full access to AWS services and resources.

11. Click Create group.
    You are returned to the Add user page and the new group is enabled indicating that the user is added to the new group.
12. Click Next: Tags.
13. Click Next: Review.
14. Click Create user.
15. Click Download.csv.
16. Download and save this file in a secure location.
    This file contains an access key ID and a secret access key and is used later to add a cloud account to Control.
17. Click Close.
    The new user account is displayed.

Add an existing AWS user account to Control so that you can create a cloud bursting scenario.

1. Login to Control.
2. Click the Cloud tab.
3. Click Cloud from the Infrastructure menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
4. Click .
5. Enter the following to add a cloud account:
   1. For Account name, enter any name for the cloud account.
      The name can be anything meaningful to your organization, e.g., aws_cloudaccount.
   2. For Access Key ID, copy and paste the value of Access key ID from the downloaded CSV file.
   3. For Secret Access Key, copy and paste the Secret access key value from the downloaded CSV file.
6. Enable Use AWS China, to create a cloud account AWS China.
7. Click Create account.

Create a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) so that you can later create a virtual machine for cloud bursting.

Login to your AWS Management Console and choose a region based on the geographical location of your users. All cloud resources that are created are placed in this region. For more information see Regions and Availability Zones. The menu for selecting a region is located at the upper right-hand corner of the AWS Console menu bar.

Figure 2. AWS Region

AWS documentation can be found at Getting Started with IPv4 for Amazon VPC and Working with VPCs and Subnets.

To configure the bursting scenario so that cloud nodes can be burst in several Availability Zones, create a subnet for each Availability Zone that you want to burst in. For more information see Multi-Availability Zone Management on AWS.

1. Login in the AWS console.
2. Click located in the upper left-hand corner of the web page.
3. Using the search box located under AWS services, enter VPC.
4. Click the VPC search result.
   The VPC dashboard is opened.
5. Click Your VPCs from the menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.

Create a virtual private cloud.

6. Click Create VPC.
7. Enter the following to create a VPC:
   1. For Name, enter any name for the VPC.
      The name can be anything meaningful to your organization, e.g., bursting_vpc.
   2. For IPv4 CIDR block, provide an address range in CIDR notation.
   3. For IPv6 CIDR block, enable No IPv6 CIDR Block.
   4. For Tenancy, choose Default.
8. Click Yes, Create.

Create subnets for the VPC:

9. Click Subnets from the menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
10. Click Create Subnet.
    1. For Name tag, enter a name for the subnet.
       The name can be anything meaningful to your organization, e.g., bursting_subnet.
    2. For VPC, choose the VPC that was previously created (e.g. bursting_vpc).
    3. For Availability Zone, choose one of the following options:
       • Choose a unique availability zone for each subnet.
       • Choose No Preference to let Amazon choose an Availability Zone for you.
    4. For IPv4 CIDR block, provide an address range in CIDR notation.
11. Click Create.
12. Click Close.

Create an internet gateway and attach it to the bursting VPC.

1. Login in the AWS console.
2. Click located in the upper left-hand corner of the web page.
3. Using the search box located under AWS services, enter VPC.
4. Click the VPC search result.
   The VPC dashboard is opened.
5. Click Internet Gateways from the menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
6. Click Create internet gateway.
7. Enter the following to create an internet gateway:
   1. For Name tag, enter a name for the internet gateway.
      The name can be anything meaningful to your organization, e.g., bursting_gateway
8. Click Create.
9. Click Close.
10. Select the internet gateway that was just created by enabling the check box next to the name of the gateway.
    Tip: You may need to deselect any other internet gateways that are displayed in the list. Amazon creates default resources for your selected region so a default internet gateway may already exist.
11. Click Actions > Attach to VPC.
12. Select the VPC that was created previously (e.g. bursting_vpc).
13. Click Attach internet gateway.

Add a rule to the VPC route table that allows all internet access and associate the route table to the bursting subnet.

1. Login in the AWS console.
2. Click located in the upper left-hand corner of the web page.
3. Using the search box located under AWS services, enter VPC.
4. Click the VPC search result.
   The VPC dashboard is opened.
5. Click Route Tables from the menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
   A list of route tables is displayed.
6. Click Create route table.
7. Provide a name for the route table.
8. Select the VPC to use for this route table.
9. Click Create route table.
10. Click the Routes tab at the bottom of the web page.
11. Click Edit routes.

    
    
    Figure 3. Add a Route

12. Click Add route.

Add a rule that allows all traffic access to the internet gateway:

13. Enter the following to add a rule:
    1. For Destination, enter 0.0.0.0/0.
    2. For Target, select Internet Gateway and then the internet gateway that was created previously (e.g. bursting_gateway).
14. Click Save routes.
15. Click Close.

Associated the route table to the bursting subnet:

16. Click the Subnet Associations tab.
17. Click Edit subnet associations.
18. Select the subnet created for cloud bursting from the list.
19. Click Save associations.

Add inbound rules to the VPC security group so that a connection can be established with an AWS VM using SSH or RDP.

1. Login in the AWS console.
2. Click located in the upper left-hand corner of the web page.
3. Using the search box located under AWS services, enter VPC.
4. Click the VPC search result.
   The VPC dashboard is opened.
5. Click Security Groups from the Security menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
6. Click Create security group.
7. Provide a name for the security group.
8. Select the VPC to be associated with the security group.
9. Click Add rule in the Inbound Rules tab at the bottom of the web page.
10. Add security rules based on your site's requirements.
    • On Linux platforms, add an inbound rule to allow SSH traffic on port 22.
    • On Windows platforms, add an inbound rule to allow RDP traffic on port 3389.

    
    
    

    Warning: 0.0.0.0/0 enables all IPv4 addresses to access your instance. ::/0 enables all IPv6 address to access your instance. This is acceptable for a short time in a test environment, but it's unsafe for production environments. In production, authorize only a specific IP address or range of addresses to access your instance.

    Figure 4. Security Rules

11. Click Create security group.

Create a virtual machine in AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

1. Login in the AWS console.
2. Click located in the upper left-hand corner of the web page.
3. Using the search box located under AWS services, enter EC2.
4. Click the EC2 search result.
   The EC2 dashboard is opened.
5. Click Instances from the menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
6. Click Launch Instance.
7. Click AWS Marketplace from the menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
8. Using the search box:
   • On Linux platforms, enter CentOS 7 or RHEL and press ENTER.
   • On Windows platforms, enter Windows and press ENTER.
9. Locate the appropriate Amazon Machine Image (AMI) and click Select.
   On Linux platforms, cloud bursting has been tested on CentOS 7.2 - 7.6.
   On Windows platforms, cloud bursting has been tested on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2012.
10. Click Continue.
11. Select an Instance Type appropriate for your site's workload based on:
    • the number of cores
    • the amount of memory
    • storage
    • network performance

    Consider the nature of the applications that you plan to deploy on the instance, the number of users that you expect to use the applications, and also how you expect the load to scale in the future. Remember to also factor in the CPU and memory resources that are necessary for the operating system.
12. Click Next: Configure Instance Details.
13. Enter the following to configure instance details:
    1. For Number of instances, specify 1.
    2. For Network, choose the VPC that you previously created (e.g. bursting_vpc).
       The bursting subnet is automatically populated.
    3. For Auto-assign Public IP, select Enable.
14. Click Next: Add Storage.
15. Specify the storage options as per your site's requirements.
    Tip: It is recommended to enable Delete on Termination to delete EBS volumes when the virtual machine is terminated.
16. Click Next: Add Tags.
17. Optional: You can add tags in key-value pairs for the VM per your site's requirements.
18. Click Next: Configure Security Group.
19. Enter the following to assign a security group to the VM:
    1. For Assign a security group, enable Select an existing security group.
    2. Select the security group that was automatically created for the cloud bursting VPC by enabling the check box next to its name.
20. Click Review and Launch.
21. Review the VM information of the VM and click Launch.
22. Create a new public/private key pair for the VM by entering the following:
    1. Select Create a new key pair.
    2. Provide a name for the key pair.
    3. Click Download Key Pair.
    4. Download and save this file in a secure location.
       The information in this .pem file is used later to SSH into the VM.
23. Click Launch Instances.
24. Click View Instances located at the bottom of the web page.
    All virtual machines that have been created are displayed.

Your virtual machine is ready when the Instance State is equal to "running" and Status Checks are complete. The virtual machine can be accessed using its IPv4 Public IP.

Figure 5. Bursting Virtual Machine

Create an image of the virtual machine configured per your site's requirements.

1. Login in the AWS console.
2. Click located in the upper left-hand corner of the web page.
3. Using the search box located under AWS services, enter EC2.
4. Click the EC2 search result.
   The EC2 dashboard is opened.
5. Click Instances from the menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
6. Select the virtual machine created for cloud bursting by enabling the check box next to its name.
7. At the top, click Actions > Instance State > Stop.
8. Click Yes, Stop.
   It may take some time for the virtual machine to be stopped.

   Important: Do not proceed until the Instance State is "stopped".
9. Click Actions > Image > Create Image.
10. For Image name, enter a name for the image.
    The name can be anything meaningful to your organization, e.g., bursting_image.

    Important: On Windows platforms, the name of the image should contain the string "windows" (case insensitive). For example, Windows_Server-2012-R2_RTM-English-64Bit-Base-2019.11.13.
11. Click Create Image.
12. Click the View pending image ami-xxxxxxxxxx link.
    The image is complete when its Status is "available".

Create an AWS bursting scenario so that PBS Professional execution nodes can be burst in the cloud.

1. Navigate to the Control browser window.
2. Click the Cloud tab.
3. Click Bursting from the Infrastructure menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
4. Click Add Bursting Scenario.
5. Enter information about the bursting scenario such as name, cloud provider, cloud account, and geographic location.
   1. For Name, enter a name for the cloud bursting scenario.
   2. For Description, enter a description.
   3. For Cloud Account, choose a registered AWS account from the list.
   4. For Region, select a region from the list that matches the region selected in AWS.

      
      
      Figure 7. AWS Region

6. Click Next.
7. For Domain name, provide the domain name of your organization for the cloud bursting network.
   altair.com, burst.altair.com
8. For Hostname prefix, enter a prefix for the names of the burst nodes.
   If "node" is entered , the cloud bursting nodes will be available to PBS Professional as node1, node2, node3, etc.
9. Navigate to the cloud provider browser window.
10. Click located in the upper left-hand corner of the web page.
11. Using the search box located under AWS services, enter EC2.
12. Click the EC2 search result.
    The EC2 dashboard is opened.
13. Click AMIs from the menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
14. Select the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) created for cloud bursting by enabling the check box next to its name.
15. In the Details tab located at the bottom of the web page, hover over the AMI ID.
    A copy to clipboard icon is displayed.
16. Click .
17. Navigate to the Control browser window.
18. For AMI ID, paste the AMI ID copied from AWS.
19. Navigate to the cloud provider browser window.
20. Click Security Groups from the NETWORK & SECURITY menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
21. Select the Security Group associated with the VPC and the VM by enabling the check box next to its Group ID.
22. In the Description tab located at the bottom of the web page, hover over the Group ID.
    A copy to clipboard icon is displayed.
23. Click .
24. Navigate to the Control browser window.
25. For Security group ID, paste the Group ID copied from AWS. You can add multiple ids separated by a comma.
26. Navigate to the cloud provider browser window.
27. Click located in the upper left-hand corner of the web page.
28. Using the search box located under AWS services, enter VPC.
29. Click the VPC search result.
    The VPC dashboard is opened.
30. Click Subnets from the menu located on the left-hand side of the web page.
31. Select the subnet for the bursting VPC by enabling the check box next to its name.
32. In the Description tab located at the bottom of the web page, hover over the Subnet ID.
    A copy to clipboard icon is displayed.
33. Click .
34. Navigate to the Control browser window.
35. For Subnet ID, paste the Subnet ID copied from AWS.
    To configure the bursting scenario so that cloud nodes can be burst in several Availability Zones, providing a comma-separated list of subnet IDs.
36. Enable Add public IP to VMs if you need to connect to the cloud bursting nodes from the internet.
    It is recommended to leave this disabled.
37. For Cloud-init script, click Browse, browse for the startup script file and select it.
    This script will run after a cloud node is burst.
38. Add public SSH keys for any users that you want to have access to the burst nodes:
    1. Login to the PBS Professional Server.
    2. Copy the public SSH key for the user.
       Public key files are usually stored in /.ssh in the user's home directory.
    3. Navigate to the Control browser window.
    4. Click Add to add the public key.
    5. For Public SSH keys, paste the public SSH key.
    6. Repeat steps a through e to add additional public SSH keys.
    The public keys are copied to each burst node for secure connectivity.
39. For Idle time before unbursting, enter the minimum time that a cloud node can be idle before it is unburst.

    It is expressed as an integer whose units are in seconds.

40. For Tags, enter a key-value pair to add a label to the cloud node and press ENTER.
    A tag is a label that is assigned to a cloud node. Tags enable cloud nodes to be categorized in different ways, for example, by purpose, owner, or environment.
    The key-value pair must be entered as key:value. The key must be less than 36 characters and the value must be less than 43 characters. The length of both the key + value should be less than 80 characters. Valid values are alphanumeric, dash (-) and an underscore ( _ ).
    Once the tag is added, it will appear within its own bubble.

    
    
    Figure 8. Key-Value Tag

41. Repeat the previous step to add more tags.

    
    
    Figure 9. Additional Tags

    Tip: To remove a tag click on the 'x' located within the tag bubble.
42. Click Next.
43. Click the Select instance types for bursting link.
44. Select the instance types to enable for the bursting scenario by clicking the Enabled checkbox located to the far right of the instance type name.
45. Click Save.
46. Click the Create an API Key/ Token link.
47. For Name, enter a name for the token.
48. For Expiration date, use the calendar widget to specify the expiration date.
49. Click Add Token.
    An API key is generated and displayed.
50. Copy and save this API key.
    The API key is only displayed once. It is pasted in the configuration file used to configure the cloud bursting hook.
51. Click Close.
52. Enable the bursting scenario by clicking the slider at the top next to the scenario title.
    If an attempt is made to burst nodes with a disabled instance type, the node is not burst and the below message is displayed in the PBS Server logs (if bursting through PBS), the Cloud logs and through the Cloud component user interface.

    TYPE is not enabled

    Where TYPE is the instance type used when attempting to burst the node.