section-4-geoserver.md

0 to 100 on AWS – Building a full stack web mapping application with PostGIS, GeoServer, OpenLayers and ReactJS

FOSS4G SotM Oceania - Afternoon Workshop #1 - 20th November 2018

4. Deploy GeoServer instance

We will now deploy a CloudFormation stack to create an auto-scaling group and load balancer for our GeoServer instances. We will be using a pre-prepared AMI with Tomcat and GeoServer already installed.

1. In the AWS CloudFormation console, select Create Stack.
2. Under Choose a template, select Browse..., navigate to the workshop files and under cloudformation choose the template 5-geoserver.yaml. Select Next.
3. Enter a name for the stack. We suggest foss4g-oceania-workshop-geoserver.
4. Under KeyPair, choose the key pair which you previously created.
5. Leave the rest of the parameters at their defaults and select Next.
6. Leave all settings under Options at their default values and select Next.
7. Under Review, select Create.
8. Monitor the progress of your stack in the CloudFormation console until the stack status reads CREATE_COMPLETE.

The pre-prepared GeoServer AMI was produced using Packer and Ansible.

Packer automates the process of creating an AMI -- it launches a new EC2 instance, connects to it over SSH, runs a "provisioner" to configure the instance, then finally shuts the instance down and creates a new AMI from the instance volume.

Ansible acts as the provisioner for Packer -- it provides a structured format for a repeatable set of tasks. In our case, we use an Ansible playbook to download, install and configure Oracle Java, Apache Tomcat and GeoServer.

If you're interested in learning more about the AMI build, or customising it to create your own AMIs, see the packer and ansible directories within the workshop repository.

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