Micro Focus Enterprise Server and development tools on AWS

These are two different situations where the server lends itself to the cloud and developer tools do not.

1.     Micro Focus Enterprise server - This is like an application server for COBOL applications that ran on the mainframe (cloud 1.0) and have been moved to open systems to save cost.  This server can run on AWS EC2 with no problems (will need to check the OS they are running...if not windows or linux will be an issue to migrate OS platforms).  Running MF Enterprise Server in AWS (cloud 2.0) makes all the sense in the world as these applications are running very simple UI interfaces and the application is made for hosted/cloud computing.

2.     Micro Focus Enterprise Developer - This product runs in Eclipse or MS Visual Studio environment.  It does not lend itself to the cloud (at least a virtual server environment) as each developer has their own developer tool (lends itself more to a VDI environment).  If there were not that many developers, each run could have their own Windows EC2 instance.   What could also be done is to have one Windows EC2 Instance and each developer have their own login which would give them their own desktop.  When doing this, you would have to make sure you size the one instance accordingly (as their could be many concurrent users).

Oracle Virtual Server and AWS VPC

Oracle Virtual Manager (OVM) is currently not supported with AWS VPC.  This means that Oracle AMIs based upon OVM can not be run (you are able to launch them so be aware) AWS VPC.  This also means that OVM can not be used with GovCloud (VPC must be used with GovCloud).

AWS booth at Oracle OpenWorld

I will be at the Amazon Web Services booth in 415 Moscone South on Monday (10-2 PM) and Tuesday (2-6 PM).  

AWS Environment Management Tool - ElasticWolf

Great tool to manage your AWS environment. 
https://github.com/vseryakov/ElasticWolf/downloads
Works with GovCloud as well.

Oracle not starting on EC2

If you can not start your Oracle database on EC2 and get the following errors:

ORA-00119: invalid specification for system parameter LOCAL_LISTENER

ORA-00132: syntax error or unresolved network name 'wcs'

Chances are you created this database on a port  (i.e. port 1522) other than  the default 1521 port. 

You just need to add one entry to the tnsnames.ora file:

wcs = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP) (HOST=10.0.1.185) (PORT = 1522))

(Note: wcs is the DB listener name) 

Then start up your database:

$ SQLPlus /  AS SYSDBA

>startup

Connecting to AWS EC2 using SSH and SFTP

As I mentioned in a previous blog, you can only use SFTP (can not use FTP) to connect to an EC2 instance.  The other thing you need to have correct is an entry in the SSH config file for your  private key (of the key pair value for the EC2 instance).   In the Unix/Mac world, this file is called config and it is located in the ~/.ssh directory.  The following entry needs to be added to this config file:

identityFile ~/tomlaszKeys/PemFileName.pem

Adding this entry will also allow you to connect via SSH without having to pass in the private key file location:

ssh ec2-user@ec2-23-23-237-99.compute-1.amazonaws.com

Instead of:

ssh ec2-user@ec2-23-23-237-99.compute-1.amazonaws.com

 -i ~/PemfileName.pem

Human Piston Bicycle Challenge

Check out the bicycle challenge @ Boars Head in Hampton, NH on October 7, 2012 - humanpiston.com

Oracle client connection through VPN

If you are attempting to connect to your Oracle RDS or EC2-based Oracle DB through SQL Developer and SQL Plus from a client machine, you will get a ORA-12541: TNS:no listener if connecting through VPN ( or maybe a corporate firewall ). If you can connect to your instance through SQL Plus on an EC2 instance, it could be because of VPN or a firewall.

AWS EC2 public key from private key

In some cases, you may only have a private key (pem file) and you need to create a new instance from an AMI which requires a public key.  In this case, you can use the following SSH command:

ssh-keygen -y -f /path/to/private-key > /path/to/public-key

||

You can use PuttyGen to create the public key from the private key

AWS Cloud Formation error with private AMI

In working with Cloud Formation, I came across an issue that had an easy resolution that I thought would be more difficult given the error:

"CREATE_FAILED AccessDenied. User doesn't have permission to call ec2:RunInstances"

It turns out the error message is a bit deceiving as the problem was that the AMI attempting to be instantiated was private so no one but the owner could create the instance.  Just needed to make this a public AMI in order for the cloud formation template to work.

AWS exploring and managing services using Eclipse

There is an open source AWS plug-in for the Eclipse. You can access and administer your AWS infrastructure, including Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon EC2, and more while developing your application.  Download here:

http://aws.amazon.com/eclipse/

AWS S3 Firefox plug in

There is a nice plugin to manage S3 buckets and files called s3fox (http://www.s3fox.net/).