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Hi I am completely new to EC2 and new to server admin and have been working on a windows 2003 server with our current web application made with PHP pages, mySQL database, and serving image files from a single standalone windows 2003 server.

I would like to know how to go about 'packing up' our server and installing it as an image on Amazon Web Services.

Is there an easy way to do this or do I need to rebuild on amazon. Is there a base Windows image with PHP & MySQL already installed?

I have gone through the process of signing up and have connected to server using Remote Desktop Connection. I am used to working with server files in dreamweaver, how would i go about using dreamweaver to connect to EC2 server?

Anyone know of some good tutorials for this?

many thanks

undefined
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2 Answers2

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This is the list of Windows Images. I couldn't find one with what you are asking, so you need to start from an existing one (better to start with one that has IIS already installed) and then install PHP and MySQL yourself. Then you could save this as your base image and use it for all your subsequent deployments.

However, the infrastructure you are describing doesn't fit well with a Cloud environment. At first, MySQL or any other relational database isn't a suitable persistence mechanism. It is not guaranteed that your instance will not go away, and if that does happen, then all data stored in the local file system will be lost. You can only safely use MySQL by employing Elastic Block Storage. This is another consideration for you.

For the same reason, it is not recommended to use a simple image to serve files. Amazon offers S3 service, which is great on this respect.

As a conclusion, deploying in a Cloud environment is different than deploying in dedicated servers. You need a different architecture, not just to reproduce your installations.

kgiannakakis
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  • Hi thanks for your answer, yes I can see the need for EBS and found the tutorial for this but its not for Windows image. – undefined Mar 15 '09 at 18:50
  • I believe S3 is preferred over EBS as it is replicated our "close to the clients" and therefore suitable for static content. Apparently EBS isn't? – andig Oct 11 '11 at 11:44
  • Yes, but you can't have a relational database in S3. This is important for legacy applications that weren't designed for the cloud. – kgiannakakis Oct 11 '11 at 12:41
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Depending on how well-documented and well-backed up your site is, it shouldn't be too bad. Of course, try to stick to an OS as similar as possible to your original system. In fact, you can even build your image from scratch by following the documentation. There are even ways to build a system from install media in your own VMWare setup and then push it up to EC2 (see here and here). I've never done that but it sounds doable in principle. If I had a long-term server I was to run on EC2.

On the other hand, you could just spend a hundred bucks or so and go to odesk.com or somewhere and have somebody migrate it for you. Just tell him you want a comprehensive listing of everything he did, and voila—instant documentation.

Edit: As kgiannakakis says, make sure you are clear on the EC2 technology, as it is not the same as hosting.

JasonSmith
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