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Launching an application server stack is the next step in deploying a SharePoint web site in the Amazon Web Services cloud.
You should have already launched the network, Active Directory and database stacks
and created an Amazon Machine Image of a customized SharePoint application server, as shown in the previous video in this series.
This video shows you how to launch the SharePoint application server stack
based on the customized SharePoint application server AMI, using a CloudFormation sample template.
The template is a text file with a dot-j-s-o-n file extension, written in JavaScript Object Notation or JaSON.
The AWS CloudFormation service uses the information in it to create a stack of resources.
Launching this stack creates an application tier on top of the previously deployed networking, Active Directory and database infrastructure,
and joins the application server to the domain.
The details of all these procedures are spelled out in the companion document.
Before launching the stack, you should have already manually customized the most recently published AMI of
Windows Server 2008 R2 English 64-Bit Base, to enable it for CloudFormation.
This AMI must include the SharePoint installation files
and the PowerShell scripts module for SharePoint in the correct configuration.
Record the ID of this new SharePoint application server AMI displayed in the EC2 management console, to use in the following steps.
Also look up and record the following IDs from the Virtual Private Cloud console for input into the template:
VPC ID, Application Server Security Group ID, Domain Member Security Group ID, and Application Server Subnet ID.
Launch the application stack with Sample Template 3 by mousing over the Launch Stack button in the companion document and
and clicking the US East (Northern Virginia) Region.
This opens the Create Stack Wizard and loads Sample Template 3.
The application server will host SharePoint Central Administration and SharePoint services.
You have to provide your own license key or get a trial PID key from Microsoft for a trial or test installation.
On the Select Template page, give the stack a name. This example uses “APP”.
In the Provide a Template URL box, Template_3_APP_Server.json for the region you chose should already be displayed.
Click Continue.
On the Specify Parameters page, enter the IDs that you looked up in the VPC console.
You can change the defaults for most of the other parameters to match your organizational standards.
Check the box labeled “I acknowledge that this template may create IAM resources”.
Click Continue.
For this example, you can skip the Add Tags page and click Continue.
On the Review page, make sure all the information is correct.
If you need to change anything, click the Edit Stack, Edit Parameters or Edit Notification links.
Then click Continue.
This launches the stack creation process.
Click Close.
In CloudFormation Manager, you can follow the progress of stack creation by clicking the Events tab.
You can update the page periodically by clicking the Refresh button.
When the stack status is CREATE_COMPLETE, click the Outputs tab of the CloudFormation console.
The application server NetBIOS name is displayed in the Value column.
Record this NetBIOS name and use it to connect to your application server instance via your Remote Desktop Gateway instance
using Remote Desktop Protocol, to verify that the configuration is correct or to perform other tasks.
You have now deployed an application server in the application tier, on top of
the existing Virtual Private Cloud, network, Active Directory and database infrastructure.
To customize this installation, you can download the CloudFormation template and modify it to meet your requirements.
The Advanced Implementation Guide tells you how.
The next step in deploying a SharePoint web site in the Amazon Web Services cloud is to launch the web front end stack.