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I have a web app that will definitely be a low-traffic app (less than a few dozen hits per day), but when it does get a "hit" (the user actually has to kick off an action), it wakes up and does some heavy-duty number crunching (very CPU-intensiive) for several hours per request. As such, once live, I could foresee the server's CPUs going full bore throughout the day, even though the site itself might only receive ~15 visitors and even less number-crunching requests.

I'm trying to determine if the AWS Elastic Beanstalk Free Tier is appropriate for what I need.

Is there a certain "max CPU cycles" or "max CPU utilization" that Beanstalk is capped at for the Free Tier? If so, what is it and what are the terms & conditions surrounding it? I tried looking for it on their prices page but didn't find much relating to CPUs.

Also, if anybody knows of a Java PaaS that would be more suited for my CPU-intensive, low-traffic app (and that is free!) please speak up and let me know! Thanks in advance!

3 Answers3

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Free tier gets you a micro instance. Micro instances, unlike all other instances, have a burstable CPU profile. They can burst up to two compute units for a few minutes, then they are restricted to less than 1.

If you need to max out CPU usage for several hours, you will need something bigger than a micro instance.

datasage
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  • Thanks @datasage (+1) - but can you be a bit more specific? "*...then they are restricted to less than 1.*" How is this determined? Would they throttle your app to, say, 0.5 compute units? And if I need to go bigger (than a micro instance), how do I know which type of instance I need? I'm still not finding anything concrete regarding an instance's (compute unit's) max CPU utilization. Thanks again! –  Apr 30 '13 at 11:16
  • Its not specifically documented as to what you would be limited to. Some people have tested it and it appears to be around 0.1 to 0.2 compute units. To figure out what instance works best, you can test each size at relatively low cost until you find one that works best for you. – datasage Apr 30 '13 at 13:29
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see this: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/faqs/#What_is_an_EC2_Compute_Unit_and_why_did_you_introduce_it

The free tier has 1 ec2 compute unit.

Abdullah Shoaib
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  • Thanks @Abdullah but I already knew about EC2 compute units, and that each unit is roughly equivalent to a 1.0GHz Opteron 2007 processor. My question was about the *utilization* of one of these units: how long can I keep it running at 100% capacity for? Are there terms/conditions that prevent me from going over a certain usage amount, or max # of computations, etc. –  Apr 30 '13 at 10:36
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Your questions can be answered on this page: Amazon Free Tier FAQs.

You can max out the micro instance to your hearts delight for 12 months following sign up date.

Tomanow
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