Semantic Repository for RDF(S) and OWL

OWLIM-SE on Amazon EC2

User Guide

Table of Contents

Introduction

The process of using OWLIM on the AWS cloud involves the following steps:

1. Buying the OWLIM product on AWS
2. Starting an EC2 instance with the OWLIM AMI
3. Attaching an existing EBS volume to the EC2 instance
4. Logging into the EC2 instance via SSH
5. Mounting the EBS volume on the filesystem of the OWLIM instance
6. If necessary, configuring OWLIM
7. Starting the OWLIM process

Step No.1 needs to be performed only once and afterwards customers may start/stop OWLIM on AWS whenever needed. After an EC2 instance with OWLIM installed is activated and the OWLIM process is started the customer may access the OWLIM server via the public IP address of the particular EC2 instance as a standard SPARQL endpoint, RESTful service (SPARQL graph store protocol) or the JMX monitoring and control port (if set up).

Prerequisites

In order to use OWLIM on AWS you need the following:

1. A valid AWS account (including a valid SSH key pair).
2. An existing EBS https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/ volume with an ext3 filesystem on it
   1. OWLIM will store data on the EBS volume (and not on the local/ephemeral storage of the EC2 instance) so that the data is preserved between EC2 instance restarts. EBS volumes can vary between 1GB and 1TB in size.
   2. Note that the EBS volume has to be in the same AWS availability zone http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-regions-availability-zones.html as the EC2 instance that will run OWLIM.
   3. Also note that the EBS volume must be in "available" state, i.e. not already attached to another EC2 instance.
   4. The filesystem on the EBS volume should be accessible (read/write) from the tomcat Linux user account.
3. EC2 security group http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-network-security.html in the same region as the EC2 instance and configured as follows Alternatively, the security group can be created and configured at instance launching time:
   1. Port 22 open to the IPs which will be administering the EC2 instance
   2. Port 8080 open to the IPs which need to access OWLIM (upload data, SPARQL queries, Workbench, etc)
4. An EC2 key pair http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-network-security.html in the same availability region, used for user authentication on the EC2 instance Alternatively, the key pair can be created at EC2 instance launching time.

Pricing and Billing Details

Using OWLIM on the AWS cloud involves the following charges (Table 1):

• One time setup fee
• On-demand charge for each hour of use

Additionally AWS will charge you for:

• EC2 instance hours, depending on the type of instance used and the region
• Data transfer in/out of the AWS datacenters
• EBS usage

Note that currently OWLIM is available only on the following EC2 instance types https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/ :

• M2 2XL (34GB RAM, 4 virtual cores, 64 bit, Not EBS optimised)
• M2 4XL (68GB RAM, 8 virtual cores, 64 bit, EBS optimized 1,000 Mbps)

Table 1 - a summary of the usage costs for OWLIM on various EC2 instances

At any time you can check the current costs for using OWLIM on the AWS cloud from the AWS Management Console at https://portal.aws.amazon.com/gp/aws/user/charges/index.html

Buying the OWLIM Product on AWS

Follow the steps:
1. Go to https://www.ontotext.com/owlim/owlim-in-the-cloud

Figure 1 OWLIM on AWS start page

2. Follow the "Start Using OWLIM" link which will redirect you to the Amazon DevPay site where you can buy the OWLIM product on AWS

3. Review the pricing options for the various AWS regions and EC2 instance types

Figure 2 OWLIM product description on AWS

Figure 3 OWLIM product description on AWS (2)

Section Pricing & Billing Details provides details on the various costs for using OWLIM on the AWS Cloud. The charges displayed on the page will include:

• The one-time charge
• Data transfer charges between and out of the AWS data centers. This charge includes only the price for data transfer as set by Amazon.
• The charge per hour for using OWLIM on AWS (called "Box Usage"). This charge includes the price for OWLIM and the EC2 instance running it (as set by Amazon)

4. Click on the "Place your order" button in the upper right corner of the screen.

5. After that you will be redirected back to a confirmation page on the Ontotext website, showing the AMI IDs of the OWLIM images deployed on the various AWS regions.

Figure 4 OWLIM Confirmation page

6. You can now launch an AMI running OWLIM on the AWS cloud

EC2 Instance Launching, Setup and OWLIM Startup

Follow the steps:
1. Select the AWS region https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/globalinfrastructure/regional-product-services/ where you want to launch the EC2 instance with OWLIM.

Note that currently OWLIM is available on the following AWS regions:

• US East (Northern Virginia)
• US West (Oregon)
• US West (Northern California)
• EU (Ireland)

2. Locate the OWLIM AMI

The OWLIM AMIs can be directly accessed via the links on the confirmation page displayed after the purchase:

• US East (Northern Virginia)
  • AMI ID: ami-349c0f5d
  • Direct link: https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home?region=us-east-1#launchAmi=ami-349c0f5d
• US West (Oregon)
  • AMI ID: ami-aa3fb59a
  • Direct link: https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home?region=us-west-2#launchAmi=ami-aa3fb59a
• US West (Northern California)
  • AMI ID: ami-ec3a18a9
  • Direct link: https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home?region=us-west-1#launchAmi=ami-ec3a18a9
• EU (Ireland)
  • AMI ID: ami-4a6d653e
  • Direct link: https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home?region=eu-west-1#launchAmi=ami-4a6d653e

The links to the OWLIM AMIs will activate the Instance Wizard on AWS (Figure 5)

Figure 5 Instance Request Wizard (US West / Oregon region)

3. Choose the preferred EC2 instance type and Availability Zone within the region

Figure 6 Instance Type and Availability Zone

Note that OWLIM is currently available only on the following EC2 instance types https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/ :

• M2 2XL (34GB RAM, 4 virtual cores, 64 bit, Not EBS optimised)
• M2 4XL (68GB RAM, 8 virtual cores, 64 bit, EBS optimized 1000Mbps)

4. If necessary, specify additional EC2 instance parameters

For example, CloudWatch https:/aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/ monitoring can be enabled for the EC2 instance.

Figure 7 Additional EC2 instance settings

5. Optionally, add tags to the EC2 instance to locate it faster

Figure 8 EC2 instance tags

6. Specify the key pair for connecting to the instance

The public/private key pair allows you to securely connect to the instance via SSH and manage it after it is launched. You can use an existing key pair, or create a new one.

Figure 9 Secure key pairs

NOTE that you need to either use an existing key pair, or create a new one. DO NOT choose the "Proceed without a Key Pair" option.
7. Specify a Security Group (or create a new one)

The security group http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-network-security.html should have at least the following network ports open:

• Port 22 open to the IPs which will be administering the EC2 instance
• Port 8080 open to the IPs which need to access OWLIM (upload data, SPARQL queries, Workbench, etc)

Figure 10 Firewall / Security Group settings

8. Launch the AMI

Review the various AMI settings, in particular:

• Availability zone selected
• Instance type
• EBS optimization settings
• The key pair to be used for secure connection to the instance
• The security group selected

A confirmation dialog will be displayed after the instance is launched:

You can check the status of the AWS instance from the AWS Management Console. The instance will be in "pending" state initially and in "running" state when ready to use.

Figure 11 Pending EC2 instance

The detail page about the running EC2 instance will provide a summary of important information such as:

• The key pair that can be used to securely access and administer the instance
• The public DNS and IP of the instance which can be accessed by end users and applications

Figure 12 Running EC2 instance

9. Attach an existing EBS volume to the running EC2 instance

Note that the EBS volume has to be in the same AWS availability zone as the EC2 instance that will run OWLIM.
Also note that the EBS volume must be in "available" state, e.g. not already attached to another EC2 instance

After the EBS volume is successfully attached to the instance its state will be changed to "in use":

10. SSH to the running EC2 instance

You can use the AWS Management Console (Instance Management > Connect > Connect from your browser using the Java SSH client). You will need to specify the private key corresponding to the key pair associated with the EC2 instance and ec2-user as the user account.

Figure 13 Connect to an EC2 instance via SSH

11. Mount the EBS volume to the local filesystem of the running EC2 instance

Execute the attach_data_vol.sh script located in your home directory /home/ec2_user. The script will mount the EBS volume onto the EC2 file system at /data_mount/owlim_data .

Figure 14 Mounting the EBS volume to the filesystem

12. Start the OWLIM server process.

Execute: sudo service tomcat6 start

Figure 15 Starting OWLIM

13. OWLIM is now accessible by the IPs configured in your AWS security group at:

• EC2-isnatnce-public-DNS:8080/openrdf-sesame
• EC2-isnatnce-public-DNS:8080/openrdf-workbench

Figure 16 Accessing the Sesame Workbench on the EC2 instance running OWLIM

OWLIM Shutdown and EC2 Instance Termination

Follow the steps:
1. Shutdown the OWLIM process.

Figure 17 OWLIM shutdown

2. Terminate the EC2 instance from the AWS Management Console.

Figure 18 EC2 instance termination

After that the EC2 instance should appear with a "terminated" state on the AWS console.