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I want to place a server program written in Java on the cloud. It would accept TCP socket connections from clients (clients are android phones using 3G), do some computations, save stuff to a MySQL database (also on EC2), and send stuff back to the clients over the TCP connections. It may even be necessary to create several instances of the server (i.e. a process group).

Is this easy to do? I think I can make a AMI, but I'm not sure how to upload Java files, compile and run them, and create a MySQL database etc

Any help would be much appreciated.

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    Pretend the EC2 instance is a real server, as that's exactly how you interact with it. When you learn to upload files, compile them and run them, don't search "how to compile on EC2" -- the fact that you rent your 'server' from EC2 is irrelevant. Commented Feb 1, 2011 at 22:45
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    The server I'm refering to is just an application that listens for incoming connections on a port, and spawns a thread that does some work (so I'm not sure where Tomcat comes into the equation). Also, I'm not sure how a client would connect over a socket: you need an IP address and a port, so do you get an IP address for an AMI like you'd get on a VM on a local machine? Please excuse my ignorance. Thanks for the answers, by the way! Commented Feb 1, 2011 at 22:53
  • When you create your instance at Amazon you get an IP address for your server out in the cloud. You use that IP to log into the box to administer Commented Feb 1, 2011 at 22:57

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Take a look at using Amazon Elastic Beanstalk. Beanstalk is Amazon's PaaS offering and it will alleviate a lot of the system administration burden. Here's a quick description from their docs:

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is an even easier way for you to quickly deploy and manage applications in the AWS cloud. You simply upload your application, and Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.

Also, if you're interested in using MySQL then you should look at Amazon RDS. Again, this will alleviate the system administration burden for your database tier. Here's a quick description from their docs:

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a web service that makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost-efficient and resizable capacity while managing time-consuming database administration tasks, freeing you up to focus on your applications and business.

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Cloudcat is also available and offers both Tomcat and MySQL pre-configured running on EC2 with a supported management console for uploading, deploying applications and monitoring your instances.
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Is this easy to do? I think I can make a AMI, ...

I think the answer depends on how comfortable you are with system administration in general. Creating a AMI to run in EC2 is really pretty much the same as creating a physical server or a VM image. You'll need to install an operating system, and then install tools, libraries and programs you need (like mysql, the jdk, ssh, etc).

You can save yourself a little work by using one of Amazon's pre-built AMI's http://aws.amazon.com/amis/. But, ultimately, you'll be responsible for all system administration of the server. If you've never built a server from the ground up, you have a pretty big learning curve ahead of you. It's not insurmountable, but just be warned that the devil is in the details; there's a ton of stuff you'll need to learn ;-)

... but I'm not sure how to upload Java files, compile and run them, ...

Once the server is setup and running in EC2, compiling them and running java files is just the same as compiling and running on your local. Normally, you probably want to compile and package your java app into a jar or war and then transfer that up to your EC2 server. If you install linux os on your EC2 server, you can use scp or a FTP client to transfer your files over sftp to move the files from your local up to the server. Once the latest files are up on your server, you can ssh to the server and start your app.

... and create a MySQL database etc ...

Installing mysql is going to be specific to the OS you choose to install on your server. For example, you can install mysql easily on Ubuntu with a command like: 

sudo aptitude install mysql

Again, there will be more system-admin-type stuff to learn here specific to mysql databases.

So, it's definitely doable. An experienced sys admin could build a AMI instance pretty easily/quickly. If this is your first experience with system administration, I'd suggest finding an old Desktop you have lying around and try installing Ubuntu and all the required libraries and tools you need (mysql, jdk, ssh, etc..). Get your java program working on the old desktop and then it should be pretty easy to create an AMI from that. Then you can run your custom AMI on EC2 and will be set up.

If you don't have a spare desktop lying around, you can use one of the Virtual Machine products like VMWare Player or Sun's VirtualBox and build a server instance on one of those.

If you want to avoid the hassle of managing the entire install of the Operating system, you might want to look at services like slicehost and/or linode instead of EC2. They give you ssh access to a pre-installed server. And it's as easy as clicking a button to install programs like mysql, etc.

Hope this answer is relevant and helpful, good luck. - Dave

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So, I think I can create an AMI with all the software on it: - Java: no problem - MySQL: not sure, should be ok to do this via the terminal remotely. - My Java code (i.e. my server process(es)), along with a Database Wrapper Java class used by the server processes to access the database (one database, maybe more than one server process accessing it).
Very cool. Yeah, its definitely possible to install and configure mysql remotely via a terminal. Which AMI are you starting with (which os)?
Thanks for your answer, Dave. Not sure what OS, probably Linux. Think we'll need an AMI with the Java server and DB, and replicate this AMI twice for fault-tolerence. The two server processes will form a process group, and messages will be multicast to this group from clients (Android phones) over 3G. It's a bit wooly at this stage, but it's something like that - complicated!
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If you can use Tomcat as your server - you might want to try Amazon Web Services Elastic Beanstalk It will greatly simplify your task by providing an easy instance of Tomcat to deploy.

EDIT: AWS has a full section on how to develop using Java here: http://aws.amazon.com/java/

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How comfortable are you with remote administering a server and solving problems most people have never heard of? That's what you're talking about.

You'll create your EC2 instance, log into it and configure it like you would any other server you're working with. You can download JDKs to it, dbs etc. You might consider using a tool like Chef to help you. You'll use ftp and scp to copy files to the server.

You're probably going to want your Java server on one box and have it talk to a separate db server since you say you may want multiple servers.

Once the server is working the way you like it you can create an image of it to use to launch multiple instances, then configure a load balancer to point at your servers.

If you can create a MySql db on your local box you can create it in the cloud. If not?....

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  1. Running Applications needs app. s/w to run them.

  2. Apps such as Cyber Duck helps to upload files via SFTP.

  3. I am successful in doing the same problem addressed.. Trust me, YOU CAN DO IT. All u need is interfaces for server services such as MySQL (use WorkBench to connect using key pair), terminal access (using PUTTY/SSH via MAC) and well you are good to go

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I think to get started is to use a a whole unit packed into one archive.

Think of it as you have your Java files compiled, a embedded http server say tomcat. Now all of this packed in a jar ready to be deployed on Amazon's EC2. Use this link for more on embedded servers and relevant code.

As far as database is concerned, you can use Amazon's RDS. You can configure mysql on RDS and obtain a link to it for connection. Amazon RDS would help you to get started with database.

Now that you have everything ready to start and work with application. Now is the time to deploy on Amazon AMI

Perform Following steps to deploy you app on Amazon EC2:

  1. Create a server instance on Amazon EC2 refer EC2 getting started.
  2. Receive Private key file i.e. .pem(receive from Step 1), this file would help you to login to your server instance and perform SFTP.
  3. Use Putty or similar SSH client to login to your EC2 server instance created on Step-1 using .pem file and server's public DNS, refer Accessing Instance for SSH login.
  4. Transfer the archived files packed into jar to server using SFTP client, WinnSCP being one such client, refer SFTP for more on it.
  5. Run application. Note in case of jar file you can simply fire java -jar TomcatApp.jar.

If everything is configured properly you would be to access the app using EC2 instance's public DNS or public IP, which would be of the form:
http://<public_dns_address>:<port number>/servlet

Hope it helps you to get started and provide you an overall view.

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