Amazon EC2 migration FAQ

Lots of answers because you have lots of questions ™ ;-)

1. Can we run our Linux server with custom application and PostgreSQL / MySQL / Oracle database in the EC2 cloud ?

   Yes. we can run any flavour of Linux and Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL databases on Amazon EC2.

2. Will the end users feel any difference ?

   No. But in certain cases they will feel faster access as you can choose the geographical location of your servers (US/Europe).

3. Can I run Microsoft windows servers in the Amazon cloud ?

   Yes.

4. Will our J2EE / JSP/ Perl / PHP / Ruby application and Postgre database run in this environment or do we need to be port it to MySql as I didn't see Postgre on their website?

   EC2 is like virtual hardware and you can install a multitude of operating systems – various Linux flavors, Windows flavors, OpenSolaris etc and any application that runs on these operating systems, provided they need only one public IP per instance (server) will run on EC2.

5. Why only one Public IP ?

   Amazon AWS/EC2 provides public IPs via their NAT based technology called Elaspic IP. As of now only one Elastic IP can be assigned to an instance and that is one of the biggest drawbacks of the EC2 offering.

6. How much small instance with 30GB outgoing and 10GB incoming will cost me?

   76USD.

7. Can I host multiple websites on a single EC2 instance ?

   Yes.

8. Are there any additional costs besides the instance and bandwidth ?

   If you enable EBS for backup, there will be additional cost otherwise No.

9. Will our Perl app and Postgre database run in this environment or do we need to be port it to MySql as I didn’t see Postgre on their website?

   EC2 is like virtual hardware and you can multitude of operating systems and various Linux flavors, Windows flavors, OpenSolaris etc and any application that runs on these operating systems, provided they need only one public IP will run on EC2.

10. Does Amazon provide hardware support, or in cloud computing is that not necessary?

    We don't need hardware support at all. Getting rid of hardware is one of the positive sides of cloud computing. The cloud is a SaaS model where you get all services from internet cloud. The hardware is transparent to you. The cloud offers a pay-as-you-go model and it is 100% scalable.

11. How would we access our server to view our files ?

    SSH / FTP / NFS / telnet / remote desktop / Exceed / Citrix - well anything that you were normally using.

12. Will I be able to access the database tables to view and edit data via FTP as I do now?

    Yes.

13. What about ongoing maintenance and support? I currently have exceptional 24/7 support at my managed server provider. Who will provide 24/7 support. Amazon? Agileblaze? Both Agileblaze and Amazon?

    All application and normal server issues can be handled by Agileblaze.com. We will need Amazon support's help only in the instance of a corrupt backup. Ie if need to restore from a backup and the backup itself crashed or if the entire EC2/S3/EBS system fails, we will need Amazon's support. But that is very unlikely considering their exceptionally good data centers and backup technology.

14. If Agileblaze will provide support, Is there someone available 24/7? How would I contact them?

    You can sign up for out per-incident plan and our support staff will be available 365x24x7. We will give you access to our ticketing system and you can open a ticket wit us for issues.

15. What is the monthly cost for support?

    You can use our per-incident plan which will be charged at hourly rate.

16. What about weekly and incremental daily back-up? How is that handled?

    By default Amazon is not providing a ready made backup solution. We will configure our custom backup solution for you which will take a snapshot of your data and store in persistent storage.

17. If we need to restore data, who does that?

    In all the normal scenarios other than loosing the persistent storage, Agileblaze will do data restoration for you.

18. Do you sign an SLA / NDA ?

    Yes.