AWS Quick Start for Commerce Server

commerceserver.net, Inc.
Published: August, 2013

Abstract
This document details the Amazon Web Services (AWS)-based Commerce Server offerings.
Machine type options for an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) are mapped to restrictions, limitations
and performance metrics to enable an AWS customer to select an appropriate Commerce Server
Solution.

Contents
AWS Quick Start for Commerce Server ....................................................................................... 5
Getting Started ..................................................................................................................... 5
Commerce Server Cloud Starter Edition ............................................................................ 5
Commerce Server Cloud Evaluation Edition....................................................................... 5
Commerce Server Editions Available Through AWS Marketplace ...................................... 6
BYOL Solutions ................................................................................................................. 6
System Requirements ....................................................................................................... 6
Creating a Commerce Server AMI......................................................................................... 7
Customizing a Commerce Server AMI................................................................................... 7
Operating a Commerce Server AMI ...................................................................................... 7
Maintenance Windows VM Guidance................................................................................. 7
Renaming a Machine ......................................................................................................... 7
AWS Networking Guidance ............................................................................................... 8
AWS Backup Guidelines: ................................................................................................... 8
Troubleshooting a Commerce Server AMI ............................................................................. 8

AWS Quick Start for Commerce Server

This document details the Amazon Web Services (AWS)-based Commerce Server offerings.
Machine type options for an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) are mapped to restrictions, limitations
and performance metrics to enable an AWS customer to select an appropriate Commerce Server
Solution.

Getting Started
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers several services that enable you to build anything from a
one off development box to a full size production site that is highly available. Commerce Server
Cloud Starter Edition is available in the Amazon Marketplace as a prepackaged EC2 image.
Alternatively, you can bring your own license for Commerce Server 10.1 to a M1 Medium or
larger instance running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012.

Commerce Server Cloud Starter Edition

Commerce Server Starter Edition is bundled with SQL 2012 Standard on M1.Medium or
M1.Large instance. This single-server solution supports a small site and a production
environment.

Commerce Server Cloud Evaluation Edition

Commerce Server Evaluation Edition is bundled with SQL 2012 Express on an M1.Medium
Machine type. This allows our customers and partners to develop prototypes, demos, and
evaluations, with the cheapest version of SQL.
WARNING
SQL Express IS NOT a supported production store for commerce server and is prohibited
from production environments. No product support of any kind is available for this image.

Commerce Server Editions Available Through AWS Marketplace

The following table details the Amazon Web Services (AWS)-based Commerce Server offerings.
Commerce

Deployment

AWS

Server Edition

Type

Machine

Performance

Limitations and Restrictions

6000 orders/day

SharePoint is not supported.

@0.3 checkouts/sec

Single-server deployment only.

Type
Cloud Starter

Single server

M1.M

Edition

Single site only.

SQL Standard based DB only.
Single server

M1.L

18000 orders/day

SharePoint is not supported.

@0.9 checkouts/sec

Single-server deployment only.

Single site only.
SQL Standard based DB only

Evaluation Edition

Single server

M1.M

6000 orders/day

SharePoint is not supported.

@0.3 checkouts/sec

Single-server deployment only.

Single site only.
SQL Express based DB only.
Prohibited from production environments,
no support of any kind is available.

BYOL Solutions
Multi-server Enterprise-grade deployments are licensed through our sales team. Contact us and
take advantage of bringing your own license to the AWS environment.
For information on multi-server solutions, refer to the Performance Guide on the Commerce Server
Technical Resources page

System Requirements
Before you install and configure Commerce Server, ensure that your system meets the following
minimum hardware and software requirements.
Area

Software

Amazon Web Services

M1 Medium and Large

M3 Extra Large and Double Extra Large Instances
running a supported platform
6

Creating a Commerce Server AMI

To create a Commerce Server AMI, see the AWS Marketplace. From system start, the
Commerce Server instance is ready to customize with your own code. The MVC application is
already deployed and running on port 8080.

Customizing a Commerce Server AMI

The AMI is preconfigured with a set of site templates and libraries to help you get started with
developing sites for Commerce Server. See http://cstemplates.codeplex.com/ for detailed work
instructions.
To update the schema with your own database content, restore your CS tables over the existing
template data.
WARNING
Do not overwrite azman.msc.

Operating a Commerce Server AMI

Amazon Web Services which has its own published performance, reliability, durability, and
availability goals that must be reviewed and understood. For example, AWS requires long
running VMs to reboot for maintenance on the physical machine. Please note the following
additional limitations specific to Commerce Server AMIs:

SharePoint is not supported.

Single-server deployment only.

Single site only.

SQL Standard based DB only.

AMIs using SQL Express are prohibited from production environments. No product support
of any kind is available for this image.

Maintenance Windows VM Guidance

At provisioning time, the solution will make a best attempt to install any windows updates
necessary to bring the instance up to date. If the solution cannot connect to the windows update
server, there is no guarantee any available updates will be applied. After the initial deployment of
the virtual machine, you must apply windows updates and manage the solution as you would any
other machine.

Renaming a Machine
Changing a machines name (within Windows) after it is deployed is non-trivial and should be
avoided. Use an elastic IP assigned to the machine to allow other machines to easily reference
your Commerce Server instance.
7

AWS Networking Guidance

If you must separate the internal and external availability of APIs exposed on the virtual machine,
you should deploy the VM within an AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). Elastic Compute (EC2)
can launch machines in a VPC. VPC EC2 instances support multiple virtual Network Interface
Cards (NIC) attached to each virtual machine. Each NIC uses an Elastic IP (EIP) address
assigned to it and can be attached to separate subnets within the VPC- each with separate
routing rules for very tight control of what can reach that NIC.
Please refer to the Commerce Server Product Documentation topic Securing the Deployment
for further guidance and detailed work instructions.
The AWS re:INVENT educational conference is available on slideshare.com. Many resources
from AWS explain the benefits of how they approach virtual networking and the tools for building
secure deployments of any solution.

AWS Backup Guidelines:

EC2 volumes are stored in Elastic Block Storage (EBS). You can take snapshots of these EC2
volumes. Take note of the following guidelines:

Take a snapshot when the solution is not performing operations the volume.

The solution contains everything on a single EBS volume. Taking a snapshot in this
configuration requires a service outage as the machine is stopped for the backup.

For uninterrupted operation of the machine, mount a separate volume that contains all the
data that requires backup (SQL backups for instance). At backup time, detach the volume,
run a snapshot, and reattach it, allowing your machine to continue without interruption. This
setup allows you to take advantage of the tools and services native to AWS EBS volumes.

Troubleshooting a Commerce Server AMI

When I log in, the web site is not properly deployed at http://localhost:8080/ Instead, it is showing
an error page.
The web deployment script can conflict with other component installations. The solution is to
manually start the deployment script.
1. Start your AWS machine instance.
2. Log in using the AWS generated password for the localhost\Administrator account.
3. Run Windows Powershell, then invoke the script "c:\approot\Deploy1.ps1"

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