OpenEdge on the AWS Cloud

Quick Start Reference Deployment

July 2020
Edsel Garcia, Progress Software
Dave May - Partner Solution Architect, Quick Start team

Visit our GitHub repository for source files and to post feedback, report bugs, or submit feature ideas for this Quick Start.

This Quick Start was created by Progress in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Quick Starts are automated reference deployments that use AWS CloudFormation templates to deploy key technologies on AWS, following AWS best practices.

Overview

The Quick Start is for users who want to deploy a highly available three-tier Progress OpenEdge stack on the AWS Cloud.

Amazon may share user-deployment information with the AWS Partner that collaborated with AWS on the Quick Start.

OpenEdge on AWS

Progress OpenEdge on AWS is a convenient way to create the infrastructure required to run an n-tier OpenEdge Advanced Business Language (ABL) application with a web user interface (UI), representational state transfer (REST) data services, and the OpenEdge database. It combines AWS services and OpenEdge functionality to achieve high availability, redundancy, and scalability.

You can use the Quick Start CloudFormation template to create a new infrastructure, or use the CloudFormation CLI to automate deployments of OpenEdge applications from a CI/CD pipeline.

The template has user-provided deployment packages for the web server, Progress Application Server (PAS) for the OpenEdge application, and OpenEdge Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) for the OpenEdge database. Using this approach, you can package your on-premises application to deploy it to the AWS Cloud.

The web server and PAS for OpenEdge dynamically download and install the latest packages when Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances are created. This can be used to roll out new versions of the application if desired. The database configuration can use OpenEdge replication sets to provide redundancy.

AWS costs

You are responsible for the cost of the AWS services and any third-party licenses used while running this Quick Start. There is no additional cost for using the Quick Start.

The AWS CloudFormation templates for Quick Starts include configuration parameters that you can customize. Some of the settings, such as the instance type, affect the cost of deployment. For cost estimates, see the pricing pages for each AWS service you use. Prices are subject to change.

After you deploy the Quick Start, create AWS Cost and Usage Reports to deliver billing metrics to an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket in your account. These reports provide cost estimates based on usage throughout each month and aggregate the data at the end of the month. For more information, see What are AWS Cost and Usage Reports?

Software licenses

This Quick Start requires an OpenEdge license. To use the Quick Start in a production environment, sign up for a license through the Progress website. After the OpenEdge infrastructure launches, enter the license key to activate the software.

The Quick Start requires a subscription to the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for OpenEdge RDBMS and the AMI for PAS for OpenEdge. Additional pricing, terms, and conditions may apply. For more information, see step 2 in the deployment section.

Architecture

Deploying this Quick Start for a new virtual private cloud (VPC) with default parameters builds the following OpenEdge environment in the AWS Cloud.

Figure 1. Quick Start architecture for OpenEdge on AWS

The Quick Start sets up the following:

A highly available architecture that spans two Availability Zones.
A VPC configured with public and private subnets, according to AWS best practices, to provide you with your own virtual network on AWS.
In the public subnets:
- Managed Network Address Translation (NAT) gateways to allow outbound internet access for resources in the private subnets.
- A Linux bastion host in an Auto Scaling group to allow inbound Secure Shell (SSH) access to EC2 instances in public and private subnets.
In the private subnets:
- EC2 instances running a Web Server in an Auto Scaling group.
- EC2 instances running PAS for OpenEdge in an Auto Scaling group.
- Three EC2 instances running OpenEdge RDBMS with support for replication sets.

Planning the deployment

Specialized knowledge

This deployment requires a moderate level of familiarity with AWS services. If you’re new to AWS, see Getting Started Resource Center and AWS Training and Certification. These sites provide materials for learning how to design, deploy, and operate your infrastructure and applications on the AWS Cloud.

This Quick Start assumes familiarity with OpenEdge technologies, such as PAS for OpenEdge and OpenEdge RDBMS.

This deployment guide also requires a moderate level of familiarity with AWS services. If you’re new to AWS, see Getting Started with AWS and AWS Training and Certification. These sites provide learning materials for how to design, deploy, and operate your infrastructure and applications on the AWS Cloud.

AWS account

If you don’t already have an AWS account, create one at https://aws.amazon.com by following the on-screen instructions. Part of the sign-up process involves receiving a phone call and entering a PIN using the phone keypad.

Your AWS account is automatically signed up for all AWS services. You are charged only for the services you use.

Technical requirements

Before you launch the Quick Start, review the following information and ensure that your account is properly configured. Otherwise, deployment might fail.

Resource quotas

If necessary, request service quota increases for the following resources. You might need to request increases if your existing deployment currently uses these resources and if this Quick Start deployment could result in exceeding the default quotas. The Service Quotas console displays your usage and quotas for some aspects of some services. For more information, see What is Service Quotas? and AWS service quotas.

Resource	This deployment uses
VPCs	1
Elastic IP addresses	1
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) security groups	2
IAM roles	1
Auto Scaling groups	1
Application Load Balancers	2
EC2 instances	8

Supported AWS Regions

For any Quick Start to work in a Region other than its default Region, all the services it deploys must be supported in that Region. You can launch a Quick Start in any Region and see if it works. If you get an error such as “Unrecognized resource type,” the Quick Start is not supported in that Region.

For an up-to-date list of AWS Regions and the AWS services they support, see AWS Regional Services.

Certain Regions are available on an opt-in basis. For more information, see Managing AWS Regions.

IAM permissions

Before launching the Quick Start, you must sign in to the AWS Management Console with IAM permissions for the resources that the templates deploy. The AdministratorAccess managed policy within IAM provides sufficient permissions, although your organization may choose to use a custom policy with more restrictions. For more information, see AWS managed policies for job functions.

Deployment options

This Quick Start provides one deployment option:

Deploy OpenEdge into a new VPC (end-to-end deployment). This option builds a new AWS environment consisting of the VPC, subnets, NAT gateways, security groups, bastion hosts, and other infrastructure components. It then deploys OpenEdge into this new VPC.

The Quick Start lets you configure Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) blocks, instance types, and OpenEdge settings, as discussed later in this guide.

Deployment steps

Sign in to your AWS account

Sign in to your AWS account at https://aws.amazon.com with an IAM user role that has the necessary permissions. For details, see Planning the deployment earlier in this guide.
Ensure that your AWS account is configured correctly, as discussed in the Technical requirements section.

Subscribe to the OpenEdge AMI

This Quick Start requires a subscription to the AMI for OpenEdge in AWS Marketplace.

{https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B08CRKD9MY?qid=1594739011658&sr=0-3&ref_=srh_res_product_title}[Open the page for the Progress Application Server AMI in AWS Marketplace], and then choose Continue to Subscribe.
{https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B08CS3KFH5?qid=1594739011658&sr=0-1&ref_=srh_res_product_title}[Open the page for the Progress OpenEdge RDBMS AMI in AWS Marketplace], and then choose Continue to Subscribe.
Review the terms and conditions for software usage, and then choose Accept Terms.
A confirmation page loads, and an email confirmation is sent to the account owner. For detailed subscription instructions, see the AWS Marketplace documentation.
When the subscription process is complete, exit out of AWS Marketplace without further action. Do not provision the software from AWS Marketplace—the Quick Start deploys the AMI for you.

Launch the Quick Start

You are responsible for the cost of the AWS services used while running this Quick Start reference deployment. There is no additional cost for using this Quick Start. For full details, see the pricing pages for each AWS service used by this Quick Start. Prices are subject to change.

Launch the AWS CloudFormation template. For help with choosing an option, see deployment options, earlier in this guide.

Deploy OpenEdge into a new VPC on AWS

If you deploy OpenEdge into an existing VPC, ensure that your VPC has two private subnets in different Availability Zones for the workload instances and that the subnets aren’t shared. This Quick Start doesn’t support shared subnets. These subnets require NAT gateways in their route tables, to allow the instances to download packages and software without exposing them to the internet.

Also, ensure that the domain name in the DHCP options is configured according to the Amazon VPC documentation. Provide your VPC settings when you launch the Quick Start.

Each deployment takes about 20 minutes to complete.

Check the AWS Region that’s displayed in the upper-right corner of the navigation bar, and change it if necessary. This is where the network infrastructure for OpenEdge is built. The template is launched in the us-east-1 Region by default.

On the Create stack page, keep the default setting for the template URL, and then choose Next.
On the Specify stack details page, change the stack name if needed. Review the parameters for the template. Provide values for the parameters that require input. For all other parameters, review the default settings, and customize them as necessary.

+ In the following tables, parameters are listed by category and described separately for the deployment options. When you finish reviewing and customizing the parameters, choose Next.

+ NOTE: Unless you are customizing the Quick Start templates for your own deployment projects, keep the default settings for the parameters Quick Start S3 bucket name, Quick Start S3 bucket Region, and Quick Start S3 key prefix. Changing these settings automatically updates code references to point to a new Quick Start location. For more information, see the AWS Quick Start Contributor’s Guide.

+ . On the Configure stack options page, you can specify tags (key-value pairs) for resources in your stack and set advanced options. When you finish, choose Next. . On the Review page, review and confirm the template settings. Under Capabilities, select the two check boxes to acknowledge that the template creates IAM resources and might require the ability to automatically expand macros. . Choose Create stack to deploy the stack. . Monitor the status of the stack. When the status is CREATE_COMPLETE, the OpenEdge deployment is ready. . To view the created resources, see the values displayed in the Outputs tab for the stack.

Best practices for using OpenEdge on AWS

For best practices about using OpenEdge on AWS, see the Progress Information Hub.

Security

The OpenEdge application is accessed by default via a web browser using HTTP. For information about how to implement HTTPS access, see the Progress Information Hub.

You can use the RemoteAccessCIDR and WebserverCIDR parameters to restrict the IP addresses that you use to access the application.

FAQ

Q. I encountered a CREATE_FAILED error when I launched the Quick Start.

A. If AWS CloudFormation fails to create the stack, we recommend that you relaunch the template with Rollback on failure set to Disabled. (This setting is under Advanced in the AWS CloudFormation console, Options page.) With this setting, the stack’s state is retained and the instance remains running so that you can troubleshoot the issue. (For Windows, see the log files in %ProgramFiles%\Amazon\EC2ConfigService and C:\cfn\log.)

When you set Rollback on failure to Disabled, you continue to incur AWS charges for this stack. Ensure to delete the stack when you finish troubleshooting.

For additional information, see Troubleshooting AWS CloudFormation.

Q. I encountered a size-limitation error when I deployed the AWS CloudFormation templates.

A. We recommend that you launch the Quick Start templates from the links in this guide or from another S3 bucket. If you deploy the templates from a local copy on your computer or from a location other than an S3 bucket, you might encounter template-size limitations. For more information about AWS CloudFormation quotas, see AWS CloudFormation limits.

Customer responsibility

After you successfully deploy this Quick Start, confirm that your resources and services are updated and configured — including any required patches — to meet your security and other needs. For more information, see the AWS Shared Responsibility Model.

Send us feedback

To post feedback, submit feature ideas, or report bugs, use the Issues section of the GitHub repository for this Quick Start. To submit code, see the Quick Start Contributor’s Guide.

Quick Start reference deployments

See the AWS Quick Start home page.

GitHub repository

Visit our GitHub repository to download the templates and scripts for this Quick Start, to post your comments, and to share your customizations with others.

Notices

This document is provided for informational purposes only. It represents AWS’s current product offerings and practices as of the date of issue of this document, which are subject to change without notice. Customers are responsible for making their own independent assessment of the information in this document and any use of AWS’s products or services, each of which is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, whether expressed or implied. This document does not create any warranties, representations, contractual commitments, conditions, or assurances from AWS, its affiliates, suppliers, or licensors. The responsibilities and liabilities of AWS to its customers are controlled by AWS agreements, and this document is not part of, nor does it modify, any agreement between AWS and its customers.

The software included with this paper is licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. A copy of the License is located at http://aws.amazon.com/apache2.0/ or in the accompanying "license" file. This code is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either expressed or implied. See the License for specific language governing permissions and limitations.