Whether creating a standalone or multinode cluster, you will need a login node. Choose the platform you want to use and go through the instructions.
AWS Marketplace
Find the Flight Solo image here or by searching the marketplace for "Flight Solo".
The image, along with this documentation is open-source, and freely available to use. However if more help is needed, the developers of Flight Solo offer paid additional support.
Click "Continue to Subscribe"
Read the terms and conditions, then click "Continue to Configuration"
Configure region, software version (if unsure use the latest), and fulfillment option (if unsure use the default). Then click "Continue to Launch". Make sure the region is the same for all nodes to be used in a cluster.
Click on "Usage Instructions" to see some instructions on how to get started, and a link to this documentation.
Select the "Launch from Website" action.
Choose an instance type to use.
Choose VPC settings. Remember what VPC was used to create this instance, as it should also be used for any associated compute nodes.
Choose a subnet. Remember what subnet was used to create this instance, as it should also be used for any associated compute nodes.
A security group is needed to associate with all nodes on the cluster. It is recommended to use a security group with rules limiting traffic through:
HTTP
HTTPS
SSH
Port 8888
Ports 5900 - 5903
All traffic from within the security group should be allowed. (This rule can only be added after creation)
If you already have a security group which does this, use it here and make sure to use it again for the compute nodes. Otherwise, a security group can be made from the launch page, or through the security groups page
The seller's settings (shown below) can be used as a reference for creating a security group.
Describing exactly how to create a security group is out of scope for this documentation, but covered by the AWS documentation.
However, here is an example security group that might be used for a Flight Solo cluster:
After a security group has been made, click "Select existing security group" select it from the drop down menu.
Choose what key pair to use. It is good practice for this to be the same on all nodes in a cluster.
2. Click "Launch" to go to the EC2 instance setup page.
Set the number of instances to 1, and name of instance to something descriptive.
Confirm that the region(top right, next to username) is correct.
In the "Application and OS Images" section choose the "My AMIs" tab and select your imported solo AMI.
In the "Instance type" section, choose the required instance size.
In the "Keypair" section, select a keypair to use. It is good practice to use the same keypair for the login and compute nodes.
In the "Network settings" sections, click the "Edit" button to set the network and subnet. Remember what these are, as they should be the same for any associated compute nodes.
Another thing needed is a security group to associate with all nodes on the cluster. It is recommended to use a security group with rules limiting traffic through:
HTTP
HTTPS
SSH
Port 8888
Ports 5900 - 5903
All traffic from within the security group should be allowed. (This rule can only be added after creation)
If you already have a security group which does this, use it here and make sure to use it again for the compute nodes. Otherwise, a security group can be made from the launch page, or through the security groups page
Describing exactly how to create a security group is out of scope for this documentation, but covered by the AWS documentation.
However, here is an example security group that might be used for a Flight Solo cluster:
After a security group has been made, click "Choose Existing" select it from the drop down menu.
In the "Configure Storage" section, allocate as much memory as needed. 8GB is the minimum required for Flight Solo, so it is likely the compute nodes will not need much more than that, as the login node hosts most data.
Finally, click "Launch Instance".
Openstack
Before setting up a cluster on Openstack, there are several required prerequisites:
A flight solo image imported to openstack
The following set up on Openstack:
Your own keypair
A network
A router
A security group that allows traffic through ports 22, 80, 8888, 443 and 5900-5903
Click "Launch Instance", and the instance creation window will pop up.
Fill in the instance name, and leave the number of instances as 1, then click next.
Choose the desired image to use by clicking the up arrow at the end of its row. It will be displayed in the "Allocated" section when selected.
Choose the desired instance size by clicking the up arrow at the end of its row. It will be displayed in the "Allocated" section when selected.
Choose a network in the same way as an image or instance size. Note that all nodes in a cluster must be on the same network.
Choose a security group in the same way as an image or instance size. Note that all nodes in a cluster must be in the same security group.
Choose the keypair in the same way as an image or instance size.
When all options have been selected, press the "Launch Instance" button to launch. If the button is greyed out, then a mandatory setting has not been configured.
Go to the "Instances" page in the "Compute" section. The created node should be there and be finishing or have finished creation.
Click on the down arrow at the end of the instance row. This will bring up a drop down menu.
Select "Associate Floating IP", this will make the ip management window pop up.
Associate a floating IP, either by using an existing one or allocating a new one.
#To use an existing floating IP:
Open the IP Address drop down menu.
Select one of the IP Addresses.
Click "Associate" to finish associating an IP.
#To allocate a new floating IP:
Click the "+" next to the dropdown arrow to open the allocation menu.
Click "Allocate IP".
If all available IPs have already been allocated, use an existing one instead.
Select "Azure virtual machine", which will load this page:
On the Basics page:
Set Subscription to your subscription type.
Set Resource Group to your desired resource group (where the vm will be kept after creation).
Set Virtual machine name to any suitable name.
Set Image to the imported Flight Solo Image.
It may be necessary to open the dropdown and/or see all images in order to find the imported image.
Scroll down to see more options
Set Size to your choice of size.
Set Authentication type to SSH public key
Set Username to any suitable username.
Set SSH public key source to the most suitable option, but remember what key was used if creating compute nodes later.
Fill in the Key pair name/Stored key/Use existing key as appropriate to the chosen public key source.
Allow traffic to selected ports, and select SSH(22), HTTP(80) and HTTPS(443) as the allowed ports.
Set the most appropriate license type.
Continuing on to the next page, Disks, all necessary details should already be filled out, so this page can be skipped (unless you know what you want to change). However, it is recommended to select Delete with VM.
Go on to the networking tab and fill out the necessary options.
Set Virtual Network or create a new one by pressing "Create new" and setting a name. Remember what this is for if you create compute nodes.
Set Subnet to one of the options in the dropdown menu, if it isn't already set. Remember what this is for if you create compute nodes.
Set Public IP to an existing public IP or create a new one by pressing "Create new" and setting a name.
Set NIC network security group to "Advanced", and press "Create new" to create a new security group.
Click on "Add an inbound rule" to open the inbound rule creator
Create rules to allow HTTP, HTTPS and SSH traffic from your IP address to the security group.
When complete, press "OK" at the bottom left of the screen to return to image creation.
The Management, Monitoring, Advanced, and Tags tabs have more options that aren't necessary for setup. Skip to the final tab Review + create
Azure will take some time to review your settings. If there are no issues click "Create" to finish creation.
