Redshift SQL query tools

      Here are two tools that can be used with Amazon Redshift to issue query commands:      

1    1. SQL Workbench :

http://www.sql-workbench.net/downloads.html

The information required regarding your Redshift cluster are:

A. JDBC or ODBC connection string: example JBDC connection string looks like this: jdbc:postgresql://redshiftexamplecluster.cvhv40lk8tel.us-east-1.redshift.amazonaws.com:5439/redexampletl?tcpKeepAlive=true

B. User ID : master

C. password : password

More details here: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift/latest/mgmt/connecting-using-workbench.html

2. Aginity : http://www.aginity.com                       A. Server (endpoint): example looks like this: lab.cfmvmxhkrtel.us-west-        2.redshift.amazonaws.com

B. User ID : master

C. password : password

D. Database: databasename

E. Port: 5439

The nice thing about Aginity is that there is no JDBC driver to install. With SQL Workbench, you will need to download and install 

More on where to find the  JDBC driver and configure with SQL Workbench

1. Location of driver: http://jdbc.postgresql.org/download/postgresql-8.4-703.jdbc4.jar

2.     Add the downloaded driver JAR to the driver to the PostGres Driver in SQL Workbench

AWS Import/Export file limits

AWS import/Export can handle volumes of larger then 1TB to be stored on Amazon EBS volumes. However, there is a intermediate step using S3.  If your storage device’s capacity is less than or equal to the maximum Amazon EBS volume size of 1TB, its contents will be loaded directly into an Amazon EBS snapshot. So, in theory no size limit. AWS does not mount the file system on your storage device, nor is a file system required to be present. AWS Import/Export performs a block for block copy from your device to an Amazon EBS Snapshot. If your storage device’s capacity exceeds 1TB, a device image will be stored within your specified Amazon S3 log bucket. You can then create a RAID of EBS volumes using software such as Logical Volume Manager, and copy the image from Amazon S3 to this new volume

IAM users and billing information

    By default, IAM users do not have access to the Account Activity or Usage Reports pages. However, as account owner you can grant IAM users permission to see either or both. You can then activate access to the billing pages, and those IAM users will have access to the billing pages according to the permissions you grant. (You can deny them access to some billing information.) http://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/about/ControllingAccessWebsite.html

AWS SNS, SMS and mobile push

Three methods to send messages to mobile devices:

1. SNS mobile push : http://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/mobile-push-send-directmobile.html 

2. SNS mobile push with topics: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/mobile-push-send-topicmobile.html

3. SNS with SMS: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/SMSMessages.html

More details here on all three methods to send messages to phones using SNS here: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/SNSMobilePush.html

 Here are some things to be aware of:

·         AWS Region: Mobile push to Android, iOS and Kindle Fire devices works in all public AWS regions, but SMS is only available in US-East

·         Recipient location: Mobile push recipients can be anywhere in the world so long as they have IP connectivity.  But SNS currently only supports US numbers.

·         Topic versus Direct mobile push: Mobile push notifications can be directly addressed to a single endpoint, but SMS currently must be delivered through a topic.

Oracle Virtualization on AWS

Oracle has a number of different virtualization offerings: Oracle VM, Oracle VM VirtualBox, and Oracle Solaris Zones being the most prominent. 

Oracle VM can be run on AWS, however, Oracle VM is a "bare-metal" / "type 1" hypervisor so it my does not run on top of an operating system or the Amazon Xen hypervisor.  There are a number of Oracle VM Templates that can be used to deploy an Oracle technical or application stack in minutes. These templates can only be used to deploy to Oracle VM.

The Oracle VM VirutalBox is a type 2 or "hosted" hypervisor which means that it runs on a host operating system.  Therefore, VBox templates can be run on Amazon Xen Linux or Windows instances. 

Oracle Solaris is not supported on AWS so Oracle Solaris Zones (builtin OS virtualization) does not apply.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk and NAT instance

An Elastic BeanStalk launched in a VPC with a private subnet requires a NAT. Each instance needs to be able to talk to the Internet in order to answer the waitcondition. Connectivity can be provide through a NAT instance but there does have to be access to the internet.

The following show a VPC configuration with a private VPC. It is the connectivity to the Elastic Beanstalk end point that is needed. As you can see it is outside the VPC.

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/AWSHowTo-vpc-basic.html

You can find more detailed instructions for creating and configuring a NAT instance here:

 http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/VPC_NAT_Instance.html

AWS PIOPS SSD backed

The question of what the technology backing EBS Provisioned IOPS volumes comes up often.  PIOPS volumes are backed by Solid-State Drives (SSDs), Provisioned IOPS volumes support up to 30 IOPS per GB which enables you to provision 4000 IOPS on a volume as small as 134 GB. 

More details here:
https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/details/