Amazon Web Services (AWS)

I have a problem.  Regular readers of this blog will know that I use Oracle Virtualbox for all my virtualization needs.  It has all the features I require and is very easy to set up and administer.  There is however one slight issue that has reared its head recently with the release of Windows Server 2012 and that is Hyper V.  Hyper V is so intergrated within Windows Server 2012 that it would be stupid not to use it for virtualization in this kind of environment.  And herein lies the problem – I have never used Hyper V and I have no hardware at the moment to run it on.  In short I would have to spend hundreds of pounds purchasing new hardware inorder to learn it and that is not an option at the moment.

Enter stage left Amazon Web Services (AWS).  I have used this service in the past as part of a job interview (5 interviews and still didn’t get the job!!).  I decided to have a second look yesterday to see if I could use an online server to install Hyper V and learn it that way.  For readers who have never used AWS it is an online service from Amazon which allows you to ‘rent’ server space in the cloud.  You only pay for the time that you use rather than a set fee.  This means that if you require extra capacity on your network for a short period you could use AWS rather than invest in new hardware.  Their pricing is not bad either.

There are so many products that are offered it can get a bit confusing.  The one I chose is EC2  (Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud) which allows me to use the AWS Free Tier.  As a new user you can sign up to AWS Free Tier and get 750 hours FREE each month for a year (and then standard pricing after that) using the t1.micro instances.  An instance is basically a virtual server and Amazon has some predefined ready for you to use.  In the t1 bracket you can choose from a selection of Linux servers (RedHat, SUSE, Ubuntu etc), Windows based (Server 2012 or 2008 R2) or even Amazon based.

I have chosen both Windows Server 2012 and 2008 R2 (along with Ubuntu in the past) which you connect to using Remote Desktop (Windows) or SSH (Linux) using a key pair. Whatever you do don’t lose the key pair as you will not be able to use the server if you do (trust me I have done this in the past!!).

I still haven’t figured out how you connect further computers to the servers yet or even set static ip addresses (DO NOT CHANGE THE AMAZON ONES OR YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CONNECT AGAIN) but will figure these out in due course and provide you with details.  As a tool to test out new software (fancy learning Windows Server 2012 anyone?) AWS surely can’t be beaten.

And Hyper V? It turns out that Amazon Web Services use the Xen Hypervisor so I can’t install Hyper V anyway.  Bugger!! Never mind I still get to learn new software along the way.

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.