Configure the FTP server

In a High Availability (HA) configuration, IP switching occurs between two vThunder instances. The IP switching is enabled when AWS keys are imported on the vThunder instances using the FTP server. You can configure an existing FTP server or create a new one.

 

Create FTP server

To create a new FTP server if an existing FTP server is not available, perform the following steps:

1. From AWS Management Console, navigate to EC2 > Instances > <FTP_server_name>.
2. Click Launch Instances.
   A Launch an instance window is displayed.
3. In the Name and tags section, enter an instance name.
   Here, enter FTPserver as the FTP server instance name.
4. In the Application and OS Images section, select Ubuntu.
5. In the Instance type section, select the required instance type.
6. In the Key pair (login) field, select your SSH key.
7. In the Network settings section, click Edit to edit the following:
   • VPC: your VPC
     Here, enter vpc as the VPC.
   • Subnet: Data subnet
     Here, 10.0.3.0/24 is the data subnet value.
   • Auto-assign public IP: Enable
   • Firewall (security groups): Select existing security group
     
   • Common security groups: your data security group
     Here, vpc-vThunderSecurityGroupData is the security group.
8. Click Launch instance.
   

   NOTE:

   The system may take a few minutes to launch the instance.

   The FTP server instance is displayed in the Instances list with the status as Running.

9. Click Connect.
   A Connect to instance window with EC2 Instance Connect tab is displayed.
10. Click Connect.
    A Terminal window is displayed.

Configure FTP server

To configure a new or existing FTP server, perform the following steps:

1. Run the following command in the Terminal window of the FTP server instance to update all the package information:

   sudo apt update

2. Run the following command to create an Apache Server virtual machine:

   sudo apt install apache2

   While the Apache server is getting installed, you get a prompt to continue further. Enter 'Y' to continue. After the installation is complete, a newline prompt is displayed.

3. Run the following command to open the aws_access_key.txt file:

   sudo vi /var/www/html/aws_access_key.txt

4. Press Esc and enter i to enable edit/insert mode.

5. Locate and open the credentials file from downloaded CFT folder.

6. Copy the updated access key ID and secret access key as per your AWS account and paste in the aws_access_key.txt file. For more information, see Prerequisites.

7. After the changes, press Esc then type :wq to save the changes and exit.

   The AWS access keys are imported.

   NOTE:

   The FTP server should be deleted manually after the AWS access keys are imported to the vThunder instance.