Bitrix Virtual Appliance: Amazon EC2

Amazon Elastic Block Store Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) provides block level storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances. Amazon EBS volumes are off-instance storage that persists independently from the life of an instance. Amazon Elastic Block Store provides highly available, highly reliable storage volumes that can be attached to a running Amazon EC2 instance and exposed as a device within the instance. Amazon EBS is particularly suited for applications that require a database, file system, or access to raw block level storage.

Go To Amazon EBS

Bitrix, Inc. is proud to present a beta release of Amazon Elastic Block Store volume customized especially for Bitrix Virtual Appliance: Amazon EC2 Edition v.1.5. Now you can create back-up copies of your web projects and intranet portals, roll-back your projects to a certain point in time and remain always sure that your data is securely stored. You will benefit from a great number of advantages when using an Elastic Block Store volume along with Bitrix Virtual Appliance: Amazon EC2 Edition!

	All data used by an Amazon EC2 instance user is stored on EBS that will not be erased or deleted when an instance stops operating;
	An EBS volume is mounted as an additional drive to any Amazon EC2 instance;
	A copy of the state of a system deployed on your AMI at a certain point (snapshot) can be stored using an EBS volume;
	Any EBS volume can be deployed on RAID-disks;
	Your data safety is provided and guaranteed by Amazon.com.

Bitrix Virtual Appliance: Amazon EC2 Edition Download

The Bitrix Virtual Appliance *.ami image will be available for free download after you have logged in to the Amazon Web Services™ web page. If you do not have an Amazon Web Services™ user account, please sign up to be able to use Amazon Web Services™, including Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, and Amazon EBS. Bitrix Virtual Appliance is a free software product, however when you use the Amazon Web Services™ there are certain fees applied that have to be taken into consideration. Please learn more about Amazon EC2 price policy before using Bitrix Virtual Appliance. To sum up, simply follow these steps:

	Sign up / Log in to the Amazon Web Services™ web page.
	Choose the Bitrix Virtual Appliance AMI-image from the list of available Cloud Computing products.
	Choose one of the Amazon EC2, Amazon EBS, and/or Amazon S3 payment options.
	Follow the installation instructions provided on the Amazon EC2 download page.
	Use Amazon EC2 web service to configure security and network access. See also Fine Tuning Tips tab for more details.
	Mount the Bitrix Virtual Aplliance *.ami image.
	Choose whether you want to restore an existing project or install a Bitrix software product anew.
	Enjoy enhanced performance of Bitrix software products in Amazon EC2!

Go To Amazon EC2 What's new in version 1.5?

Installation and Fine Tuning Tips ? See a step-by-step installation guide here. ? Fine Tuning Tips offer additional information.

Preparing to install the Bitrix Virtual Appliance

	Sign up / Log in to the Amazon Web Services™ web page.
	Choose the Bitrix Virtual Appliance AMI-image from the list of available Cloud Computing products.
	Choose one of the Amazon EC2, Amazon EBS, and/or Amazon S3 payment options.
	Follow the installation instructions provided on the Amazon EC2 download page.
	Use Amazon EC2 web service to configure security and network access. See also Fine Tuning Tips tab for more details.
	Mount the Bitrix Virtual Aplliance *.ami image.
	Choose whether you want to restore an existing project or install a Bitrix software product anew.
	Enjoy enhanced performance of Bitrix software products in Amazon EC2!

Installing and using the Bitrix Virtual Appliance Amazon EC2 Edition

It is assumed that you already have an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account set up before using Bitrix Virtual Appliance: Amazon EC2 Edition / AMI Instance. If you do not already have an account, you should set one up or get more information. Choose one of the following AMIs on Amazon EC2:

• ami-dd2a7b98 (Region: US-West-1)
• ami-e530dd8c (Region: US-East)
• ami-2ff4df5b (Region: EU).

Please see the Amazon EC2 documentation of more details on how to run an instance. You may also wish to learn more on Bitrix products installation, see below:

1.	Launch the Bitrix Installation Wizard. The welcome screen will ask you whether you want to create a new website or you want to restore your project from a backup file:

2.	If you choose to create a new website, the next dialogue window will ask you which of the Bitrix software products you want to be installed (Bitrix Intranet Portal or Bitrix Site Manager):

3.	As the next step the setup files will be uploaded from the Internet directly into your Bitrix Virtual Appliance. After uploading, the setup files will be automatically extracted and run.

4.	Depending on what you have chosen, the setup wizard will guide you through the installation process of either the Bitrix Intranet Portal or the Bitrix Site Manager.

5.	After the backup file has been restored (or a new website has been installed) you will definitely notice a great enhancement in productivity from using the Bitrix Virtual Appliance. Enjoy!

	Don't forget to have a closer look at the advantages of Amazon EBS whcih is now also available for Bitrix Virtual Appliance: Amazon EC2 Edition! Also, learn more details on the Bitrix Intranet Portal or Bitrix Site Manager authentic installation process.

Bitrix Virtual Appliance: Amazon EC2 Edition Fine Tuning Tips

Bitrix Virtual Appliance: Amazon EC2 Edition is best configured and run when choosing "bitrix" as the security group option which can be done before the Amazon EC2 instance (AMI) startup. If you choose "default" as your security group option, the instance might not always remain stable and fully functional.

What's new in version 1.5?

	Fedora 8 OS packages updated;
	Zend Server CE 4.0.6 application package files updated;
	PHP 5.2.11 application package files updated;
	NGINX configuration was improved (especially the compression mechanisms);
	UNIX-like start-up menu was added;
	General system performance improvements;
	RAM consumption improvements;
	Setup file bitrixsetup.php now includes additional Bitrix products available for installation;
	AMIs are available at Amazon EC2 for three regions: ami-dd2a7b98 (US-West-1), ami-e530dd8c (US-East), and ami-2ff4df5b (EU).

Version 1.4

General system improvements.

Version 1.3

	Product release (still available at Amazon EC2).
	AMIs made available for two regions: ami-c058b8a9 (US-East), and ami-d64a61a2 (EU).