Subscribing to Altus Director in the AWS Marketplace
Cloudera has made available a listing for Cloudera Altus Director in the AWS Marketplace. The primary purpose of the Altus Director offering in the AWS Marketplace is to provide a way to establish an easy-to-use, usage-based billing arrangement with Cloudera for your CDH clusters. This enables Cloudera to leverage the well-established billing mechanisms of AWS for single billing and predictable metering.
Outside of AWS Marketplace billing, a customer would need to have a separate contract for usage-based billing with Cloudera using a billing ID to operate on AWS. For information about how usage-based billing works, see Usage-Based Billing.
- Base image for Cloudera Altus Director. This image is for running Altus Director. Cloudera allows you to use this image for free and does not charge you for running instances launched from it. However, you still incur the costs for running an instance in EC2.
- Base image for Cloudera Manager deployed by Cloudera Altus Director. This image is for running Cloudera Manager. Cloudera allows you to use this image for free, although you still incur the cost of running an instance in EC2.
- Base image for clusters deployed by Cloudera Altus Director. This image is for running cluster services. The use of this image is not free. You are charged both by AWS and by Cloudera for running instances launched from them.
There may be multiple versions of the AMIs for running Cloudera Manager and for running cluster services, depending on the images that Cloudera decides to include in the offering.
The listing page for Altus Director shows the costs for running cluster AMIs based on instance type. Cloudera charges you only while cluster instances are running. You have the option to shrink or stop clusters and to stop cluster instances to reduce or eliminate charges originating from Cloudera.
When you install Altus Director through the AWS Marketplace, Cloudera bills you for metered usage of your CDH clusters through the AWS billing mechanism. Based on your requirements, this payment model may fit the needs of your organization better than other payment models.
To subscribe to and launch Altus Director from the AWS Marketplace, follow the instructions on the Altus Director listing page.
Altus Director Enterprise License Key
Every deployment bootstrapped by Altus Director from the AWS Marketplace requires a Cloudera enterprise license key.
Contact Cloudera at partners_orders@cloudera.com to get an enterprise license key. You must provide your AWS account ID to get the enterprise license key. The listing page for Altus Director in AWS Marketplace provides a link for you to contact Cloudera to get the license key.
You can subscribe to and launch Altus Director in the AWS Marketplace before you obtain the enterprise license key. However, you cannot create a deployment in Altus Director unless you have an enterprise license key.
When you create a deployment, use the enterprise license key for Altus Director from the AWS Marketplace. The enterprise license key determines the billing mechanism Cloudera uses for your clusters. Use the appropriate license key for clusters managed by Altus Director from the AWS Marketplace, even if you already have a license for another payment model. Using the correct license key ensures that support for your clusters is established correctly.
Launching Altus Director in the Marketplace
Installing Altus Director through the AWS Marketplace is different from installing it in other ways, such as from an operating system package repository.
Altus Director provides a CloudFormation template to help you create a stack of resources in your AWS account appropriate for your Altus Director deployments. The CloudFormation template is freely available for you to review before you subscribe to the Altus Director offering.
After you subscribe to the Altus Director offering in AWS Marketplace, you can configure and launch the offering. Altus Director launches through the CloudFormation template. The Altus Director listing in the AWS Marketplace has full instructions and descriptions of the resources created through the CloudFormation template.
- EC2 instance. Created based on the Altus Director AMI. This is the instance where Altus Director is installed and runs.
- Security group. The EC2 instance where Altus Director runs belongs to this security group.
The security group provides access to the SSH port 22 and the default Altus Director HTTP port, 7189, from the IP address range you specify as a parameter to the template.
The new security group initially contains only the instance running Altus Director. However, you may use it, or other security groups, for deployments and clusters.
- IAM role. Includes the permissions necessary for Altus Director to work.
- Instance profile. Associates the new IAM role with the EC2 instance where Altus Director runs.
Running the CloudFormation template does not automatically bootstrap any deployments or clusters. After you create the resource stack from the CloudFormation template, log in to the new Altus Director instance to start creating deployments and clusters.
Guidelines for Using Altus Director from the AWS Marketplace
Some features in Altus Director installed from the AWS Marketplace work differently than in Altus Director installed through other mechanisms.
Use the following guidelines when you create and run deployments and clusters in an AWS Marketplace installation of Altus Director:
Image for an Instance Template
Normally, when you create a new instance template for AWS in Altus Director, you can use any image available for your operating system. You also must provide the AMI ID, whether you create the instance on the Altus Director UI or using a configuration file.
When you create an instance template in Altus Director installed through the AWS Marketplace, you can specify only an image that is included in the AWS Marketplace offering. On the Altus Director UI, you specify the instance template by selecting an AMI image name. In a configuration file, you must provide the AMI ID.
- Image name selection on the Altus Director UI
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When you create an instance template on Altus Director UI, you cannot enter an AMI ID. Instead, the Image (AMI) ID field presents a list of image names that correspond to the images included in the AWS Marketplace offering. You must select the appropriate image name from the list.
For an instance template to be used for a deployment, select a Cloudera Manager image name. For an instance template to be used for a cluster, select a CDH image name.
- AMI ID in the Altus Director configuration file
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When you use a cluster configuration file to create an instance template, you cannot use image names. You must specify an AMI ID that corresponds to an image that is included in the AWS Marketplace offering.
An easy way to discover the correct AMI ID for a deployment or cluster is to create an instance template using the Altus Director UI, selecting the name of the image you want to use. After creation, the instance template will contain the AMI ID.
Cluster AMI Usage
The cluster AMI included in the Altus Director offering in the AWS Marketplace is not free. If you use the cluster AMI outside of Altus Director installations created from the AWS Marketplace offering, you will be charged for any cost incurred by any instance launched from it.
Although you can use it in other scenarios, be aware that it is not designed for such use and running instances based on it triggers charges from both AWS and Cloudera. To avoid unexpected charges, only use the AWS Marketplace cluster AMI in Altus Director installations based on your Marketplace subscription.
Billing ID Not Required
Altus Director from the AWS Marketplace rejects deployment templates that include a billing ID.
A separate usage-based billing mechanism supported by Altus Director requires you to provide a billing ID along with an enterprise license when creating a new deployment. For information about usage-based billing, see Usage-Based Billing.
When you create a deployment template for Altus Director installed through the AWS Marketplace, a billing ID is unnecessary. The use of the cluster AMIs included in the Marketplace offering is sufficient to enable metered billing.
If you already have a billing ID, you may continue to use it in other Altus Director installations.
Simple Setup Not Available
The simple setup procedure, which provides a quick path to bootstrapping a cluster, is not available in Altus Director installed from the Marketplace.
Passwords
The passwords for logging in to Altus Director are randomized for each installation created from the AWS Marketplace offering. The passwords are stored in directorpasswords.txt in the home directory of the centos user account. To view the passwords, log in as the centos user via SSH to the EC2 instance where Altus Director runs.
The directorpasswords.txt file contains the password for the admin user, represented by the lp.security.bootstrap.admin.password property, and the password for the guest user, represented by the lp.security.bootstrap.guest.password.
lp.security.bootstrap.admin.password: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX lp.security.bootstrap.guest.password: YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY lp.database.username: dbuser lp.database.password: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Use the default passwords to initially log in to Altus Director. After you log in, change the passwords to maintain security.
Plug-ins for Other Cloud Providers
An Altus Director installation created from the Marketplace offering includes only the cloud provider plug-in for AWS. It does not include plug-ins for any other public cloud provider. You can create an environment only for AWS.
EC2 Instance Profile
The EC2 instance where Altus Director installed from the Marketplace runs has an instance profile which grants all the permissions necessary for Altus Director to work. When you create an environment, it is not necessary to supply an access key ID and secret access key. The permissions from the instance profile are inherited.
If you supply access keys, Altus Director operations use the roles associated with the keys instead of the instance profile.