Packer for single source AMI configuration

I talk about boot strapping on this blog post:
http://cloudconclave.blogspot.com/2013/08/boot-strapping-with-user-data-and.html

Another method of single source configuration for EC2 instances without getting into the dilemma of 'AMI sprawl' is to use Packer. More on the use of Packer here:
http://blog.controlgroup.com/2013/10/21/packer-cloudformation-power-couple/

Boot strapping with user data and CloudFormation

For simple bootstrapping, user data text/scripts may be adequate.  Keep in mind the limit on size is 16K for user data.

s3cmd is often used to load the bootstrap scripts for S3. More on this can be found here:

http://s3tools.org/s3cmd

https://github.com/s3tools/s3cmd

A very good document on using user data, CloudFormation, Chef, Puppet and other tools to bootstrap EC2 instances can be found here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/cloudformation-examples/BoostrappingApplicationsWithAWSCloudFormation.pdf

CloudFormation access denied error message

In the event you get this message when a CloudFormation script:

AccessDenied. User doesn't have permission to call ec2:RunInstances, this could mean that the AMI is not available or you don't have access to it.  The error is not intuitive.  Check to make sure the AMI exists or if you have access to it.

Amazon CloudFormations and Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder

Yesterday I blogged about AWS AMIs and Oracle VM templates. These are great mechanisms to stand up an initial cloud environment. However, they don't provide the capability to manage, provision and update an environment once it is up and running. This is where AWS Cloud Formations and Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder comes into play. In a way, these tools/frameworks pick up where AMIs and VM templates leave off.


Once again, there a similar offers from AWS and Oracle that compliant and also overlap with each other. Let's start by looking at the definitions:


AWS CloudFormation gives developers and systems administrators an easy way to create and manage a collection of related AWS resources, provisioning and updating them in an orderly and predictable fashion.


AWS CloudFormations




Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder - Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder makes it possible for administrators to quickly configure and provision entire multi-tier enterprise applications onto virtualized and cloud environments.


Oracle VM Builder




As with the discussion around should you use AMI or VM Templates, there are pros and cons to each:


1. CloudFormation is JSON, Assembly Builder is GUI and CLI


2. VM Templates can be used in any private or public cloud environment. Of course, CloudFormations is tied to AWS public cloud