How to Run the XebiaLabs DevOps Platform on the AWS Cloud

For DevOps teams, designing a cloud-based infrastructure in a way that scales for enterprise needs is a challenge––a challenge that most would rather not accept. Developers don’t want to worry about “making the cloud work.” Developers want to build new features, using the tools they love, and send their work straight to the cloud.

XebiaLabs offers teams everything they need to execute fast, repeatable, scalable deployments to the cloud. And now available as an AWS Quick Start, you can run a secure, highly-available, Production-ready installation of the XebiaLabs DevOps Platform on the AWS Cloud in just a few clicks.

AWS Quick Starts are automated reference deployments that use AWS CloudFormation templates to deploy technologies in the cloud. The XebiaLabs Quick Start is designed for Development teams, infrastructure architects, and DevOps professionals who want to quickly get started with the XebiaLabs DevOps Platform. Let’s check it out.

AWS Quick Starts

AWS Quick Starts are billed as ‘automated, gold-standard deployments in the AWS Cloud.’ Built by AWS solutions architects and partners, Quick Starts can help you deploy various technologies in the cloud with the assurance that you’re using AWS’ best practices for security and high availability. With a Quick Start, teams can eliminate hundreds of manual procedures and quickly build usable Test and Production environments.

XebiaLabs DevOps Platform

The XebiaLabs DevOps Platform enables users to provision and manage infrastructure running in the AWS Cloud, supporting deployments to a variety of AWS services––ECS, EKS, Fargate, Service Catalog, and more. From there, users can leverage our end-to-end release orchestration capabilities and deployment automation processes for their Continuous Integration Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline and link it straight to AWS. This enables you to build efficient, repeatable, and scalable release and deployment processes for all types of technologies.

Before you get started

From a technical standpoint you’ll need an AWS account, the ability to launch AWS CloudFormation templates to create IAM roles, and a trial or commercial license for the XebiaLabs DevOps Platform. For users with an AWS account and a familiarity with AWS services and XebiaLabs, building and deploying an architecture in a new or existing virtual private cloud (VPC) will only take about 40 minutes. If you’re new to AWS or XebiaLabs, there are implementation details and a step-by-step guide to follow.

AWS Quick Start: A New User’s First-Hand Experience

AWS Quick Starts help users quickly and securely deploy various technologies in the AWS cloud. Scott Erlanger, Senior Product Marketing Manager at XebiaLabs, provides his first-hand experience with the XebiaLabs Quick Start.

Prepare for take off

You have two options for deployment with the Quick Start––deploying the XebiaLabs DevOps Platform into a new VPC or into an existing VPC. The first option builds a new AWS environment to deploy XebiaLabs on. The second provisions the XebiaLabs DevOps Platform in your existing AWS infrastructure. You can start the deployment process by preparing your AWS account:

• Log in or create an AWS account, here
• Choose the AWS Region where you want to deploy to
• Create a key pair in your preferred region
• If needed, request a service limit increase for the Amazon EC2 instance type

Get a XebiaLabs DevOps Platform license:

• Obtain a trial license, here
• Purchase a commercial subscription by contacting XebiaLabs

Launch the Quick Start

1. Again, you can deploy the XebiaLabs DevOps Platform into a new or an existing VPC. Each deployment should take about 40 minutes. If you’re deploying into an existing VPC, you need to ensure that it has four private subnets in two different Availability Zones––two per zone. 2. Confirm that the region checked in the upper-right corner of the navigation bar is correct. This is where the network infrastructure will be built––It’s important to note that this Quick Start uses Amazon EFS, which is supported only in the regions listed here. The template launches in the US East (Ohio) Region by default. 3. On the Select Template page, keep the default setting for the template URL. 4. On the Specify Details page––change the stack name, review the template parameters, and provide values for the parameters that require input. For the other parameters, review the default settings and customize as necessary. When you’re done, choose Next. Parameters are listed by category and described separately for the two deployment options: Option 1: Deploying into a new VPC Option 2: Deploying into an existing VPC 5. On the Options page, specify tags for resources in your stack and set advanced options. 6. On the Review page, confirm the template settings. Under Capabilities, select the check box to acknowledge that the template will create IAM resources. 7. Choose Create to deploy the stack. 8. When the status of the stack is CREATE_COMPLETE, the XebiaLabs DevOps Platform cluster is ready. 9. Use the URLs displayed in the Outputs tab for the stack to view the resources that were created.

Test your deployment

Once the deployment has succeeded, you can access the products at: https://:4516 (XL Deploy) https://:5516 (XL Release) As part of the testing process, there are a handful of best practices for using XebiaLabs on AWS that you need to run through. For starters, it’s recommended to regularly back up the data in the Amazon RDS instance, as well as the contents of the EFS volume. Regular backups will prevent data loss if the stack is accidentally removed. It’s also recommended that you fine-tune the security groups and IAM roles to your needs. For setting up users and groups in the XebiaLabs DevOps Platform itself, check out the product documentation.

Try it out!

You can visit our GitHub repository to download the templates and scripts for this Quick Start. If you’re not already a XebiaLabs user, sign up for a free 30-day trial. Then head over the XebiaLabs Quick Start page. Learn More:

• XebiaLabs for Amazon Web Services
• Code Your Way to the Stratosphere
• XebiaLabs Quick Start for AWS – It’s Now Easier Than Ever to Move Apps to the Cloud
• AWS Service Catalog and XebiaLabs: Curated Cloud Resources Integrated into the DevOps Pipeline
• AWS Fargate: More! Faster! No Chaos with XebiaLabs