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Version: Self Hosted Lite

AWS

Setting up SnappyFlow in your own environment​

SnappyFlow can be consumed via SnappyFlow Cloud or it can be setup in your own environment such as an on-prem data center or it can be setup in your cloud account in AWS and Azure.

caution

The below guide is applicable for setups with an ingest rate below 500 GB/day. For higher ingest rates, reach out to support@snappyflow.io

What you need to get started​

  • A SnappyFlow account. An account can be created here.

  • An approximate idea of your monthly ingest rates. The more accurate your data is, the better. This data is useful to ensure the right-sizing of your infrastructure

Size your infrastructure using the sizing tool​

SnappyFlow providesHead to accounts.snappyflow.io and use your SnappyFlow credentials to login. Once logged in, click on Pricing Calculator.

Choose your cloud platform and select the region where you want to deploy SnappyFlow. The region can be changed at a later stage too.

Total ingest rate​

In the configuration page, enter the total ingest rate for your stack. This ingest rate is the daily average sum of all logs, metrics and traces. The tool automatically assumes a breakup between logs, metrics and traces and you can also manually adjust this breakup to match your stack needs or leave it at its default value.

Data retention​

The next input on data retention defines how long the ingested data is retained in a high-performance storage. A very high data retention can significantly increase storage requirements and costs.

Extended backup​

Using extended backup is one way to reduce infrastructure costs. All metrics and logs stored in the backup can easily be retrieved for easy visualizations. This backup is available only for metrics and logs. Any ingested log or metric that ages beyond the primary data retention period defined in the previous section is backed up in a low cost storage service.

Backup for SnappyFlow account data​

It is recommended to create a backup for SnappyFlow account data. This account data is stored in a dedicated database. This helps in quick recovery in case of cloud infrastructure failures. This database stores all account and configuration information.

Click on Calculate Price button to continue.

Cost summary​

A summary of the infrastructure required and their cost is provided on the right. By default, a 1 year reserved instance pricing is taken. The tool also provides a list of alternate servers that can be choose either for better performance or for optimizing costs.

Dowload template to create SnappyFlow stack​

Click on the Download button at the end of the infrastructure summary to get a template depending on the choice of cloud platform selected.

For AWS, a Cloud Formation Template is provided.

For Azure, a Custom Template is provided.

These templates are pre-loaded with the required stack information such as server types, quantities and help you quickly launch a SnappyFlow stack.

Create SnappyFlow stack on AWS​

Pre-Requisites​

  • AWS account
  • IAM role with required permissions
  • Subscription for SnappyFlow Appliance & Ubuntu from the AWS Marketplace

Create an IAM Role​

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the IAM console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/

  2. Follow the below steps to create a policy in the IAM console.

    • Navigate to Access management > Policies

    • In the Policies window, click the Create policy button

    • In the Create policy window, go to the JSON tab

    • Copy and paste the below-mentioned JSON code into the policy editor

    {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
          {
            "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "rds:*",
                "aws-marketplace:*",
                "s3:*",
                "cloudwatch:*",
                "cloudformation:*",
                "ec2:*",
                "elasticloadbalancing:*",
                "acm:*",
                "iam:GetServerCertificate",
                "iam:UploadServerCertificate",
                "lambda:List*",
                "elasticache:Describe*",
                "lasticache:List*"
                ],
                "Resource": "*"
            }
        ]
    }

    • Click the Next: Tags > Next: Review button

    • In the Review policy window, give a unique Name and Description (Optional) for the policy and review the list of permissions

    • Click the Create policy button

  3. Follow the below steps to create an IAM role.

    • Navigate to Access management > Roles

    • Click the Create role button

    • In the Select trusted entity window, select the AWS service

    • Select the Use case as EC2 and click Next

    • Go to the Add permissions section

    • Select the policy created in Step 2

    • Click the Next button

    • In the Role details, give a Role name and Description (optional)

    • Review the entities and permissions

    • Click the Create role button

Uploading the template​

  1. Sign into your AWS console. Search for Cloudformation using the search bar on top and select the CloudFormation service.


  1. Click on Create Stack and select With new resources option.

  2. Select Template is ready and upload the template provided by SnappyFlow sizing tool and click Next.

Configuration​

In this page, provide a stack name and configure subnets and IAM Roles required for the stack.

Deployment

Choose Recommended.

Database Type

If a backup for SnappyFlow account is required, choose 'RDS'. Else select 'Local'.

Private Subnet

APM and Opensearch instances will be created under selected Subnets. If RDS is selected as DatabaseType, add two subnets with same VPC and different availability zones, as RDS creation needs to cover all availability zones in the region. APM and Opensearch instances will be created with first subnet(first selection in checkbox) !!!

note

If DatabaseType is chosen as RDS, provide two Private Subnets. Without two separate subnets, stack creation will fail.

Public Subnet

Loadbalancer and bastion will be created under this Subnet. Select public subnet of availibility zone same as first PrivateSubnetIds (first selection in checkbox) of same VPC.

For example: If a private subnet with availability zone "a" is selected, a public subnet of availability zone "a" should be added under same VPC, so that the Loadbalancer can forward request to target group of instances.

Allowed IP

Provide a list of IP addresses which can access SnappyFlow server.

KeyName

Provide an existing key for SSH access to SnappyFlow instances.

IAMRole

Provide an existing IAM Role with appropriate permissions. This is required to discover end points and create a S3 storage required for logs and metric backup.

  1. Click on Next to continue.

  2. In the Configure stack options screen, provide tags and verify all permissions and other stack creation options.

  3. Click on Next to continue.

  4. Review all configuration settings and click on `Create Stack' to create SnappyFlow stack.

  1. Once the stack is successfully created, it should appear under the list of stacks in CloudFormation service.

Accessing SnappyFlow server​

  1. Click on the stack and select Outputs tab
  1. SnappyFLow portal can be accessed using the server URL provided here. The default username is admin and password is the instance id.
  1. SnappyFlow will complete the installation automatically. This process takes upto 30 minutes.