Administering your Amazon EC2 machine with Remote Desktop

Once you've created an Amazon EC2 instance running ArcGIS Server, you can log in and begin configuring data and services on the instance.

Steps:

1. Log in to the AWS Management Console and click Instances.
2. In the My Instances list, find your instance and make sure it is started.
3. In the My Instances list, click your instance and examine the detailed information that appears below. Note or copy the name given for Public DNS.
4. Right-click your instance and click Get Windows Password.
5. In Notepad or a simple text editor, open the key pair file (.pem) that you specified when you created the instance. Select and copy the entire text of the file, then paste it into the Private Key input box.
6. Click Decrypt Password and save or note the password in a secure place.
7. Right-click your instance and click Get System Log. This page shows the status of your instance. You should not continue with the remaining steps until about 5 minutes after the message "Windows is ready to use" appears in this log.

   Note the following about using the system log to look for "Windows is ready to use":

   • You may have to repeatedly open the log to check for this message.

   • The time it takes for this "ready" message to appear can vary based on the responsiveness of Amazon EC2. Factors affecting response time may include the time of day, your location, and the health of the Amazon EC2 zone and region you are using. Expect to wait at least 10 minutes.

   • If the message does not appear after a long period of time (for example, 30 minutes), Amazon is experiencing a problem starting the instance. Consider terminating the instance and launching a new one.

8. About 5 minutes after "Windows is ready to use" appears in the system log, open All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection.
9. In the Computer text box, enter the public DNS name that you copied or wrote down previously and click Connect.
10. Choose to connect using the Administrator account.
11. Type the administrator password you retrieved earlier in these steps.

    When you start the instance, a script configures ArcGIS Server for you. This means you do not have to run the GIS Server Post Install or the Web Services Post Install.

    Dive-in:

    Every time you stop and start the instance, Amazon assigns your instance a new machine name and Public DNS name/IP Address. To help you avoid having to manually edit the ArcGIS Server configuration files that store these changing values, the ArcGIS Server AMI has a service built in to it that updates the appropriate files when the instance starts.

    Because your machine name changes every time you stop and restart, it is not helpful to create shortcuts or hard-coded references to your instance unless you have configured an Amazon Elastic IP for your instance and you remap this IP (followed by an instance reboot) every time you start the instance. Also beware that the previous machine name is sometimes persisted in the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box. You need to replace it with the new name before logging in.

12. Change your Administrator password.
    1. Click Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.
    2. Expand Local Users and Groups > Users.
    3. Right-click the Administrator account and click Set Password.
    4. Type the new password twice to confirm, then click OK.
    Caution:

    It is strongly recommended that you follow the above steps to change the initial Administrator password.

    Your randomly-generated Administrator password is not always going to be available for retrieval through the AWS Management Console. After stopping and starting the instance, Get Windows Password no longer shows the password retrieval dialog. Instead, a dialog appears informing you that "No password was found".

13. Authorize ArcGIS Server by completing the Software Authorization Wizard. This wizard is open when you first log into the instance. If you close this wizard, you can open it again through the Authorize Server shortcut on the desktop.

    The authorization process may require you to supply an authorization file that you have received from ESRI Customer Service. The easiest way to get the file onto your instance may be through a browser-based e-mail client. You can alternatively use one of the techniques in Strategies for data transfer to Amazon.

14. Authorize ArcGIS Desktop.
    1. Open ArcGIS Administrator by clicking Start > ArcGIS > ArcGIS Administrator.
    2. Click the Desktop folder and choose a licensing option. If you choose a Concurrent Use license, supply the address of a license manager that is visible to the instance. If you choose a Single Use license, click Authorize Now and proceed through the wizard.
    3. Click Start > All Programs > EC2ConfigService Settings and uncheck Set Computer Name. Then click OK.

       This helps prevent your license from becoming untrusted when the instance stops and starts.

15. Test your server by opening the ArcGIS Services Directory from the ArcGIS Server home page. You should see a sample service running.

You can now move data to your instance and configure additional GIS services.