Assignment 1

No Due Date

Overview

This assignment will verify you can access Amazon Web Services and Windows Azure and introduce you to their management interfaces.  You will provision the smallest VM in both providers, perform some basic connectivity tests, and verify the charges incurred.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this assignment, students should:

  1. Be able to use cloud management interfaces
  2. Understand the pay-as-you-go billing model

Details

Create Accounts

You should create accounts in both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Windows Azure.  Before you create your accounts, be sure you will definitely taking the class.  Then, send an email to agember@cs.wisc.edu with a subject “Cloud Credits” and your CS username in the body of the message.  Aaron will provide you codes for AWS and Azure, as well as links for redeeming these credits.

You can create your AWS account before you have received your AWS education grant code.  Visit http://aws.amazon.com to create your account.  You will need a phone number (to receive your confirmation code) and a credit/debit card (which will be charged for any usage beyond the free usage tier and education grant).

You should not create your Azure account until you have received your Azure educator pass code.  After you redeem the code online, you will receive an email with details for completing the creation of your account.  Once your account is created, you should sign up for the Windows Azure Free Trial (https://account.windowsazure.com/signup?offer=ms-azr-0018p).  You will need a phone number (to receive your confirmation code) and a credit/debit card (which will be charged for any usage beyond the free trial and education pass).

Provision VMs

Use the AWS management interface to create an EBS-backed micro instance running Ubuntu; place the instance in the default security group.  Consult the AWS documentation (http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/EC2_GetStarted.html) for assistance.  Verify you can connect to the instance using SSH.  

Use the Azure management interface to create an extra-small virtual machine running Ubuntu.  Consult the Azure documentation (http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/windows/how-to-guides/custom-create-a-vm/) for assistance.  Verify you can connect to the instance using SSH.

Connectivity Testing

In the AWS management interface, change your default security group to allow all TCP, UDP, and ICMP traffic.  In the Azure management interface, add an endpoint to your VM to allow TCP traffic on port 5000.

Test the connectivity of each virtual machine (VM) using wget and netcat (type the command `man nc` to learn how to use netcat). You should:

  1. wget google.com from your EC2 VM
  2. wget google.com from your Azure VM
  3. send a message from your local machine to your EC2 VM using netcat
  4. send a message from your local machine to your Azure VM using netcat
  5. send a message from your EC2 VM to your Azure VM using netcat
  6. send a message from your Azure VM to your EC2 VM using netcat

Clean-Up

Use the AWS management interface to terminate your instance.  Use the Azure instance to delete your VM and delete its disk.  Double-check your instances are discarded so you don’t waste your free trial/credits.

Confirm Billing

View your account usage in both AWS and Azure.  (It may take up to a day for the usage to be registered.)  Confirm that you incurred no actual charges.

Deliverables

You do not need to submit anything for this assignment.  It is assumed you will complete this assignment for your own benefit.

Clarifications

  1. It is important that you follow a precise ordering of steps to create your Azure account:
    1) Email Aaron for an Azure grant code.
    2) Enter the code at     http://windowsazurepass.com/?pageMode=AcademicApply
    3) You will receive an email from Azure indicating it will take 2-3 business days to approve your grant code. (This usually takes just a few hours.)
    4) You will receive an email from Azure with a link to create your account. Click on the link and step through the account creation process.
    5) While you are logged in to your account, go to     https://account.windowsazure.com/signup?offer=ms-azr-0018p to sign up for a Windows Azure Free Trial. Step through the trial sign-up process.