This section reviews the entire EC2 launch template and identifies which fields should and should not be changed in order for the EC2 launch template to work with Elastic Disaster Recovery. Editing or changing any fields that are marked as "do not edit" or "do not change" can cause Elastic Disaster Recovery to not function.
• Launch template name - This name is automatically generated when the template is first created upon Agent installation. The name cannot be changed.
• Template version description - You can give the template any description you wish.
• AMI - Customers do not typically choose a specific AMI to include in the launch template. If you edit the launch template to use an existing AMI, the contents of the AMI will not be used by Elastic Disaster Recovery. If the AMI is not configured properly (licensing, flags, etc), then this may prevent the Drill or Recovery instance launched from booting correctly or from being properly licensed.
• Instance type - You can select any instance type you want. The launch template will show the instance type suggested by Elastic Disaster Recovery.
EC2 Launch Template
• Key pair (login) - Do NOT alter this field. Do not include a key pair with the launch template.
• Networking platform - Ensure that you select Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). EC2-Classic is NOT supported.
• Security groups - Do NOT add Security group here. This field should remain blank. You can add security groups later under Network interface.
EC2 Launch Template
• Storage (volumes) - This section will show all of the disks that you chose to replicate from your source server upon AWS Replication Agent installation. Each disk is composed of the following fields:
• Volume type - Shows the default volume type (EBS). This cannot be changed.
• Device name - Do NOT change or edit this field. The device name shown here corresponds to the disk name on the source server. This field allows you to identify which disk is which.
• Snapshot - Do NOT change or edit this field. Snapshots should not be included in the launch template.
• Size - Do NOT change or edit this field.
• Volume type - You can select any volume type you want to use. Elastic Disaster Recovery automatically sets Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) as the default. We recommend not changing the volume type for Drill instances, as the io1 volume ensures that tests are performed as quickly as possible. You may want to change the volume type for recovery in order to save costs. Ensure that you read the caveats in the EBS documentation.
• IOPS - Set the number of I/O operations per second that the volume can support. You can select any number as long as it matches the guidelines. For Provisioned IOPS SSD volumes, you can provision up to 50 IOPS per GiB for io1, and 500 IOPS per GiB for io2. For General Purpose SSD volumes, baseline performance is 3 IOPS per GiB, with a minimum of 100 IOPS and a maximum of 16000 IOPS. General purpose SSD volumes under 1000 GiB can burst up to 3000 IOPS.
• Delete on termination - Do NOT change or edit this field. This should not be included in the launch template.
• Encrypted - Do NOT change or edit this field. This should not be included in the launch template.
• Key - Do NOT change or edit this field. This should not be included in the launch template.
• Add volume - Do NOT use this functionality. You cannot add volumes to the source server through the launch template.
EC2 Launch Template
• Remove (volume) - Do NOT use this functionality. You cannot remove volumes from the source server through the launch template. If you do, DRS will automatically create a volume using the default volume settings.
• Resource tags - You can add up to 50 tags. These will be transferred to your Drill and Recovery instances. Note that these tags may interfere with other tags that have already been added to the source server. Launch template tags always take precedence over tags set in the DRS Console or tags manually added to the server.
EC2 Launch Template
• Network interfaces - The network interface is created by default based on your Replication Settings Template. The network interface section is composed of the following fields:
• Device index - Do NOT change or edit this field. The value should always be "0".
• Network interface - Use this option only if you want use a pre-existing ENI (Elastic Network Interface). The Launch Template will overwrite certain ENI settings. Use this if you want to add an Elastic IP. You will have to attach the Elastic IP to the ENI.
• Description - Add an optional description for the network interface (if chosen).
• Subnet - Choose the subnet. This is the subnet within which the network interface is located and the Drill or Recovery instance will be launched. Elastic Disaster Recovery selects the default VPC subnet by default (if one exists).
• Auto-assign public IP - Choose whether you want the public IP to be auto-assigned.
• Primary IP - Use this field if you wish to utilize a Private IP. The Private IP you set in the Copy private IP field in the Launch Settings will be copied to this field.
• Secondary IP - Define a secondary IP, if needed.
• IPv6 IPs - Define IPv6 IPs, if needed.
• Security groups - Choose a security group. If no security group is chosen, then the default VPC
EC2 Launch Template
• Delete on termination - We suggest choosing "Yes". Choosing "No" will make this network interface a permanent ENI, which will accrue additional costs if not connected to a running instance.
• Elastic Fabric Adapter - Do NOT change or edit this field.
• Network card index - Do NOT change or edit this field.
• Add network interface - Note that the EC2 launch template only supports two network interfaces.
If you require more than two network interfaces, you will need to define them after the Drill or Recovery instance has been launched. This can be done through a postboot script.
EC2 Launch Template
EC2 Launch Template
• Advanced details - In this section, we will focus on the fields you should NOT change or edit in order to Elastic Disaster Recovery to function properly. Do NOT change or edit any of the following fields:
• RAM disk ID
• Kernel
• Nitro Enclave
• Metadata accessible