dellhenryhan / easyawsenv

This is a project that helps you set up a series of instances in AWS quickly

Easy Environment in AWS

This project helps you set up instances with configurations quickly in AWS

Prerequisites

it only requires a configuration file(.ini) providing the instance information. Refer to myinstance.ini in the folder InstanceSample. The file consists of the following part:

[GLOBAL]
...
[INSTANCE1]
...
[INSTANCE2]
...

Every section stands for an instance with its parameters, except GLOBAL which has the shared parameters for all the instances, which means the parameters under the section GLOBAL are for all the other sections, and they'll override the parameters under the other sections if they have the same parameter names.

These are the parameters required for an instance.

parameter name	description	example
ImageId	the image id for the instance, it should be quoted if it is a tring, it can also be the value used in cloudformation template	ImageId="ami-221dcb4f"
InstanceType	the instance type	InstanceType=m1.large
DiskSize	the disk size	DiskSize="60"
SubnetId	the subnet id. it should be quoted if it is a tring, it can also be the value used in cloudformation template	SubnetId={ "Fn::ImportValue": "PreSubnet" }
Role	the Role of the instance, the value depends on what template name you'll use. If it's template_instance, you can just set it to Default; if it's template_spotfleet, you should choose Dc for domain controler, Member for the members under the domain controller and Default if it is an independent one.	Role=Default

These are optional parameters

parameter name	description	example
InstanceName	the instance name	InstanceName=myinstance_dc
DC	the section name of the domain controller that current instance will join	DC=dc
InstanceRoleProfile	the instance profile for the instance, it should be quoted if it is a tring, it can also be the value used in cloudformation template	InstanceRoleProfile={ "Fn::ImportValue": "PreRoleProfileName" }
Step*	the Powershell scripts for instance configuration, the scripts will be executed ordered by the number after "Step", e.g. step1, step2 ..., Restart-Computer is allowed among the steps;the scripts should not be as simple as possible; complicate scripts is recommended to be stored somewhere, downloaded and executed within the steps	Step1=Get-Host, step2=restart-computer

You can also have self defined parameters, and all the parameters will be set as environment variables of Windows system that can be used for later configuration.

Generate Cloudformation Template

Clone this repository

Git Clone https://github.com/DellHenryHan/EasyAWSEnv.git

Generate Cloudformation template with powershell, select proper templates according to the way you start instance, use the ini file described above. The target file will be %temp%\temp.json, you can also specify it with the parameter -outfile

. .\file_handler.ps1
Make-CfFile -IniFile .\myinstance.ini -templatePath .\templates_instance

Start specific instances

Go to AWS console for Cloudformation and create a stack with the template generated. Wait for the launch and the instances