HVR Software on AWS

Partner Solution Deployment Guide

QS

August 2023
Kevin Thompson, Anton Els, HVR Software
Tony Bulding, AWS

Refer to the GitHub repository to view source files, report bugs, submit feature ideas, and post feedback about this Partner Solution. To comment on the documentation, refer to Feedback.

This Partner Solution was created by HVR Software in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Partner Solutions are automated reference deployments that help people deploy popular technologies on AWS according to AWS best practices. If you’re unfamiliar with AWS Partner Solutions, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide.

Overview

This guide covers the information you need to deploy the HVR Software Partner Solution in the AWS Cloud.

This Partner Solution is for organizations that want to use HVR to replicate data between transactional databases and file systems. The architecture supports real-time change data capture (CDC) for databases, analytics, and migrations.

For details on source and target configuration options supported by HVR, refer to the HVR documentation or the HVR Software website.

Costs and licenses

This Partner Solution requires a subscription to the HVR for AWS - Bring Your Own License (BYOL) Amazon Machine Image (AMI) through AWS Marketplace. The HVR hub and agent instances use this AMI. This AMI has the HVR software and database drivers preinstalled and ready to use with your existing license.

You need a valid license key to deploy this stack. To obtain a license, if you don’t already have one, contact the HVR team at info@hvr-software.com or refer to the HVR Software website. Additional pricing, terms, and conditions may apply. For instructions, see the Subscribe to the HVR AMI section in this guide.

You must also create a Secrets Manager secret before you deploy this stack. This secret is the plaintext secret HVR license key. During deployment, you are asked to provide the ARN for this secret, which is located in Secrets Manager. If you deploy the Partner Solution without supplying a license file, the process creates and uses an empty Secrets Manager secret. After you obtain your license, update this secret with the license details.

There is no cost to use this Partner Solution, but you will be billed for any AWS services or resources that this Partner Solution deploys. For more information, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide.

Architecture

Deploying this Partner Solution with default parameters builds the following HVR environment in the AWS Cloud.

Architecture
Figure 1. Partner Solution architecture for HVR on AWS

As shown in Figure 1, this Partner Solution sets up the following:

  • A highly available architecture that spans two Availability Zones.

  • A virtual private cloud (VPC) configured with public and private subnets, according to AWS best practices, to provide you with your own virtual network on AWS.

  • Two Network Load Balancers to direct traffic, one for the public subnets and one for the private subnets. Each Network Load Balancer is located within a security group.

  • In the public subnets:

    • A Linux bastion host in an Auto Scaling group that provides inbound Secure Shell (SSH) access to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances in public and private subnets. The bastion host is based on the HVR BYOL AMI in AWS Marketplace. With this bastion host, you can use the HVR graphical user interface to configure the HVR software components—the HVR hub and agents—in the private subnets.

    • A security group for limiting inbound and outbound traffic. For details, see Restricted port access later in this guide.

  • In the private subnets:

    • A Linux-based HVR hub instance in an Auto Scaling group. This instance, which is based on the HVR BYOL AMI, controls all replication flows.

    • Two Linux-based HVR agent instances in an Auto Scaling group, one instance in each private subnet. These instances, which are based on the HVR BYOL AMI, are close to replication endpoints.

    • A security group for limiting inbound traffic. For details, see Restricted port access later in this guide.

  • An Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) file system attached to the HVR hub instance for high availability. If the HVR hub instance fails, a new one is created and attached to the Amazon EFS file system.

  • (Optional) An Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL–compatible repository database for the HVR hub. This option includes multiple reader instances in one private subnet and one writer in the other private subnet. Alternatively, you can use an existing database. The database does not have to be PostgreSQL. Other supported databases include MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, and Oracle.

  • AWS Secrets Manager for storing secrets, such as passwords used by the Partner Solution. These secrets include database and operating system (EC2) user passwords, the HVR license, public keys, and private keys used for secure communication. The deployment process provides details that enable the HVR components to access and use these secrets.

  • (Optional) Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), which the Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL–compatible environment uses for alarms and event notifications.

Deployment options

This Partner Solution provides the following deployment options:

  • Deploy HVR into a new VPC. This option builds a new AWS environment that consists of the VPC, subnets, NAT gateways, security groups, bastion hosts, and other infrastructure components. It then deploys HVR into this new VPC.

This Partner Solution provides separate templates for these options. It also lets you configure Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) blocks, instance types, and HVR settings.

Predeployment steps

Prepare for the deployment

To help secure communication between the HVR components—the HVR hub and agents—this deployment uses a private key and public certificate pair. The template provides a default pair that you can use. Use the default pair for evaluation only; when you deploy this Partner Solution, generate your own pair. You can create these keys (private key and public key) using either OpenSSL or the HVR the hvrsslgen command. For details, see the HVR documentation.

Before you deploy this Partner Solution, create a Secrets Manager secret. This is a text secret that holds the full HVR license key. During deployment, you are asked to provide the ARN for this secret.

Deployment steps

  1. Sign in to your AWS account, and launch this Partner Solution, as described under Deployment options. The AWS CloudFormation console opens with a prepopulated template.

  2. Choose the correct AWS Region, and then choose Next.

  3. On the Create stack page, keep the default setting for the template URL, and then choose Next.

  4. On the Specify stack details page, change the stack name if needed. Review the parameters for the template. Provide values for the parameters that require input. For all other parameters, review the default settings and customize them as necessary. When you finish reviewing and customizing the parameters, choose Next.

    Unless you’re customizing the Partner Solution templates or are instructed otherwise in this guide’s Predeployment section, don’t change the default settings for the following parameters: QSS3BucketName, QSS3BucketRegion, and QSS3KeyPrefix. Changing the values of these parameters will modify code references that point to the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket name and key prefix. For more information, refer to the AWS Partner Solutions Contributor’s Guide.

  5. On the Configure stack options page, you can specify tags (key-value pairs) for resources in your stack and set advanced options. When you finish, choose Next.

  6. On the Review page, review and confirm the template settings. Under Capabilities, select all of the check boxes to acknowledge that the template creates AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) resources that might require the ability to automatically expand macros.

  7. Choose Create stack. The stack takes about 30 minutes to deploy.

  8. Monitor the stack’s status, and when the status is CREATE_COMPLETE, the HVR Software deployment is ready.

  9. To view the created resources, choose the Outputs tab.

Postdeployment steps

Getting started

When you log in to the bastion host, HVR hub, or HVR agent, you see a message on using the images. Review the message. Also read the readme file located in the HVR Linux user home directory: /home/hvr/hvr-readme.txt.

To start the HVR graphical user interface on the bastion host, connect to the host by using SSH with your supplied key pair. Connect as the HVR Unix user: sudo su - hvr. Then run hvrwebdesktop, and follow the instructions.

Restricted port access

In the public subnets:

  • Inbound ports 22 and 8080 are open for connections to the bastion host.

    • Port 22 is used for SSH access. You need a valid key pair to access the host.

    • Port 8080 can be used to access the HVR web desktop to establish a remote connection to the HVR hub for configuration.

  • Outbound traffic is limited to ports 22, 8080, 4343, and 443.

    • The HVR hub and agents are behind Network Load Balancers using port 4343 for HVR communication.

    • The bastion host can connect to the hub and agents using port 4343 and 22 (SSH). SSH requires the specified key pair.

In the private subnets:

  • Inbound ports are 4343, 22 and 2049.

    • Port 4343 is used for HVR communication.

    • Port 22 is used for SSH access. A valid key pair is required to access the host.

    • Port 2049 is used for Amazon EFS.

  • Outbound traffic is not limited.

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting common Partner Solution issues, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide and Troubleshooting CloudFormation.

Resources

Customer responsibility

After you deploy a Partner Solution, confirm that your resources and services are updated and configured—including any required patches—to meet your security and other needs. For more information, refer to the Shared Responsibility Model.

Feedback

To submit feature ideas and report bugs, use the Issues section of the GitHub repository for this Partner Solution. To submit code, refer to the Partner Solution Contributor’s Guide. To submit feedback on this deployment guide, use the following GitHub links:

Notices

This document is provided for informational purposes only. It represents current AWS product offerings and practices as of the date of issue of this document, which are subject to change without notice. Customers are responsible for making their own independent assessment of the information in this document and any use of AWS products or services, each of which is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, whether expressed or implied. This document does not create any warranties, representations, contractual commitments, conditions, or assurances from AWS, its affiliates, suppliers, or licensors. The responsibilities and liabilities of AWS to its customers are controlled by AWS agreements, and this document is not part of, nor does it modify, any agreement between AWS and its customers.

The software included with this paper is licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. A copy of the License is located at https://aws.amazon.com/apache2.0/ or in the accompanying "license" file. This code is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranties or conditions of any kind, either expressed or implied. Refer to the License for specific language governing permissions and limitations.