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Gear6 Cloud Cache for AWS EC2 Getting Started

Accelerate your web services on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

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Why run your Web Apps on Amazon with Gear6 Cloud Cache? Get radical acceleration from this 100% Memcached-complaint server with advanced features that maximize performance in cloud environments. Gear6 Cloud Cache for EC2 includes standard and high-memory EC2 AMIs, and economical pay-as-you-go pricing.

New Dynamic Services: Elastic Memcached pool sizing allows administrators to add and subtract Memcached resources without losing cache data. This is a unique Gear6 Memcached enhancement and is available first on EC2.

There are two ways to use Gear6 Cloud Cache on EC2. 32 bit versions are free to run. 64 bit versions incur small charges paid through Amazon. Support is available for the free 32-Bit versions on our forums Gear6 Cloud Cache Server Forum. 64-Bit versions include paid 24x7 email support and forums.

Click Here to learn more about how to use the Free 32-bit version.

Screencast for installing Gear6 Cloud Cache Server in AWS.

Registering for the 64-bit version

1. Before being able to use Gear6 Cloud Cache for AWS EC2 you need to subscribe to the Gear6 Cloud Cache Server:

Click here to add Gear6 Cloud Cache to your AWS EC2 account.

2. Fill in the necessary information, and follow the instructions.
3. Once the subscription process is completed a message will appear showing your confirmation/verification code. (note: There is no charge to subscribe. You only incur charges once you begin to use a 64-Bit Gear6 Cloud Cache Server instance, 32-Bit instances are free; you are still responsible for AWS charges. You will not need the confirmation/verification code.)
4. You are now able to start Gear6 Cloud Cache instances.

Launching a Gear6 Cloud Cache using the Amazon AWS Web Management Console

1. Go to the Amazon AWS Management Console.
2. Login using your Amazon AWS credentials, use the same credentials you have used to subscribe for WebCache.
3. Select the "Amazon EC2" tab. (It will probably already be selected.)
4. If necessary, create a security group. This needs to be done only once. If the "g6webcache" group already exists, you can skip creating a security group.
5. To create a security group, in the "Navigation" pane, select "Security Groups". Then press the "Create Security Group" button. A "Create Security Group" dialog will appear.

  • a. For "Security Group Name", enter "g6webcache".
  • b. For "Description", enter "Gear6 Cloud Cache".
  • c. In the bottom pane, confirm that the "Group Name" is "g6webcache".
  • d. Under the "Connection Method", in the dropdown, select "HTTP". Press the "Save" button.
  • e. Under the "Connection Method", in the dropdown, select "HTTPS". Press the "Save" button.
  • f. Under the "Connection Method", select "Custom". For "Protocol", select "TCP". For "from Port", enter "11211". For "to Port", enter "11211". Press the "Save" button.
  • g. Under the "Connection Method", select "Custom". For "Protocol", select "UDP". For "from Port", enter "11211". For "to Port", enter "11211". Press the "Save" button.

6. Choose the AMI. In the left "Navigation" pane, under "Images", click the link "AMIs". Then, by "Viewing", select "All Images" and "All Platforms".
7. Type "gear6" in the text box.
8. Select the latest Gear6 Cloud Cache image.
9. Press the "Launch" button. The "Launch Instance Wizard" dialog will appear.

  • a. For "Number of Instances", enter "1"
  • b. For "Instance Type", pick what size fits your needs. The smallest one will be cheapest per hour, the largest one will be cheapest per gigabyte hour.
  • c. For "Key Pair Name", pick "No Key Pair".
  • d. For "Security Groups", pick "g6webcache".
  • e. Press the "Launch" button.

10. Look at your instance. In the left "Navigation" pane, under "Instances" select the "Instances" link
11. Watch the instance launch, that is, wait until the status is "Running".
12. Select the instance, so that the "EC2 Instance" pane below is populated
13. Copy the value of "Public DNS", the string that looks something like "ec2-99-999-999-99.compute-9.amazonaws.com", to the copy/paste clipboard.
14. Open a new web browser tab.
15. Paste into the URL bar the domain name that you just copied in the step above.
16. You are now at the Gear6 Cloud Cache management GUI.
Launching a Gear6 Cloud Cache using the Amazon AWS Command Line Tools

Launching a Gear6 Cloud Cache using the Amazon AWS Command Line Tools

1. Go to the Amazon EC2 API tools.
2. Download and install and configure the command line tools.
3. Create the Security Group, by running the following commands:

  • a. ec2-add-group g6webcache -d "Gear6 WebCache"
  • b. ec2-authorize g6webcache -P tcp -p 80 -s 0.0.0.0/0
  • c. ec2-authorize g6webcache -P tcp -p 443 -s 0.0.0.0/0
  • d. ec2-authorize g6webcache -P tcp -p 11211 -s 0.0.0.0/0
  • e. ec2-authorize g6webcache -P udp -p 11211 -s 0.0.0.0/0

4. Start the Instance

  • a. Run the command "ec2-run-instances ami-2411f34d -g g6webcache"
  • b. Look for the "Instance ID', which looks something like "i-7be59c13".
  • c. Run the command "ec2-describe-instances i-7be59c13" (replacing the instance id).
  • d. Repeat running this command until the status changes from "pending" to "running".
  • e. Look for the external DNS name, it looks like "ec2-99-999-999-99.compute-9.amazonaws.com".
  • f. Paste that string into a web browser URL bar.

5. You are now at the Gear6 Cloud Cache management GUI.

6. For questions, feedback, and support please visit our forum here

Free 32-bit AMIs

Launching a Gear6 Cloud Cache using the Amazon AWS Web Management Console

1. Go to the Amazon AWS Management Console.
2. Login using your Amazon AWS credentials, use the same credentials you have used to subscribe for Cloud Cache.
3. Select the "Amazon EC2" tab. (It will probably already be selected.)
4. If necessary, create a security group. This needs to be done only once. If the "g6webcache" group already exists, you can skip creating a security group.
5. To create a security group, in the "Navigation" pane, select "Security Groups". Then press the "Create Security Group" button. A "Create Security Group" dialog will appear.

  • a. For "Security Group Name", enter "g6webcache".
  • b. For "Description", enter "Gear6 Web Cache".
  • c. In the bottom pane, confirm that the "Group Name" is "g6webcache".
  • d. Under the "Connection Method", in the dropdown, select "HTTP". Press the "Save" button.
  • e. Under the "Connection Method", in the dropdown, select "HTTPS". Press the "Save" button.
  • f. Under the "Connection Method", select "Custom". For "Protocol", select "TCP". For "from Port", enter "11211". For "to Port", enter "11211". Press the "Save" button.
  • g. Under the "Connection Method", select "Custom". For "Protocol", select "UDP". For "from Port", enter "11211". For "to Port", enter "11211". Press the "Save" button.

6. Choose the AMI. In the left "Navigation" pane, under "Images", click the link "AMIs". Then, by "Viewing", select "All Images" and "All Platforms".
7. Type "gear6" in the text box.
8. Select the latest Gear6 32-bit Cloud Cache image (eg gear6-eu/memcache-server-2.3.6-i386.manifest.xml)
9. Press the "Launch" button. The "Launch Instance Wizard" dialog will appear.

  • a. For "Number of Instances", enter "1".
  • b. For "Instance Type", pick what size fits your needs. The smallest one will be cheapest per hour, the largest one will be cheapest per gigabyte hour.
  • c. For "Key Pair Name", pick "No Key Pair".
  • d. For "Security Groups", pick "g6webcache".
  • e. Press the "Launch" button.

10. Look at your instance. In the left "Navigation" pane, under "Instances" select the "Instances" link
11. Watch the instance launch, that is, wait until the status is "Running".
12. Select the instance, so that the "EC2 Instance" pane below is populated
13. Copy the value of "Public DNS", the string that looks something like "ec2-99-999-999-99.compute-9.amazonaws.com", to the copy/paste clipboard.
14. Open a new web browser tab.
15. Paste into the URL bar the domain name that you just copied in the step above.
16. You are now at the Gear6 Cloud Cache management GUI.

Launching a Gear6 WebCache using the Amazon AWS Command Line Tools

1. Go to the Amazon EC2 API tools.
2. Download and install and configure the command line tools.
3. Create the Security Group, by running the following commands:

  • a. ec2-add-group g6webcache -d "Gear6 WebCache"
  • b. ec2-authorize g6webcache -P tcp -p 80 -s 0.0.0.0/0
  • c. ec2-authorize g6webcache -P tcp -p 443 -s 0.0.0.0/0
  • d. ec2-authorize g6webcache -P tcp -p 11211 -s 0.0.0.0/0
  • e. ec2-authorize g6webcache -P udp -p 11211 -s 0.0.0.0/0

4. Start the Instance

  • a. Run the command "ec2-run-instances ami-2411f34d -g g6webcache".
  • b. Look for the "Instance ID', which looks something like "i-7be59c13".
  • c. Run the command "ec2-describe-instances i-7be59c13" (replacing the instance id).
  • d. Repeat running this command until the status changes from "pending" to "running".
  • e. Look for the external DNS name, it looks like "ec2-99-999-999-99.compute-9.amazonaws.com".
  • f. Paste that string into a web browser URL bar.

5. You are now at the Gear6 Cloud Cache management GUI.

6. For questions, feedback, and support please visit our forum here