Tap In Management Service deployment options
The Tap In Cloud Management Service is delivered by a Amazon Web Services EC2 instance called the Tap In Management Server. The Management Server is a Linux system Amazon Machine Instance (AMI) with Tap In's software. The Tap In AMI is referred to as a "paid AMI". When this AMI is running, you will be charged Tap In's per-instance-hour price, and the charge will be included in your Amazon AWS invoice. You will be charged only for the time your instance is running, the data storage you use and the amount of data you transfer.
There are several ways to deploy the Tap In service. If you start the Tap In Management Server using Tap In's Account page, you can make the following service modifications:
- You can select a persistent host name for your Management Server with the format “hostname.tapinsystems.net”. Unlike standard AWS instances that have dynamic host names assigned after start up, this name will be assigned to the instance every time it is started.
- Amazon's Elastic Block Storage (EBS) feature will be used on your Management Server if you choose this option. EBS ensures persistent storage of your monitoring configuration data, historical event and performance data, and custom scripts.
- SSL encryption can be used for communications from the Tap In Management Server, its agents and its viewer applications. Browser-based sessions using https are verified using Tap In certificates.
To start your Tap In instances and to perform EBS attach commands, you need to log in to your Account page on the Tap In Web site and then provide your Amazon key credentials (provided by Amazon when you sign up). If you do not want to use Tap In's Account page, you can use your own methods to start your instance. The AWS documentation for starting and using an AMI is described here. However, if you choose this method, the following features are affected:
- To use a persistent host name, you must define the host name on your Account page. You must pass this host name as AWS user-data in the start command with the format “HOST=
”. Note that you must still use the “tapinsystems.net” suffix. - Please note that automatic attachment of EBS is not available; you can do this manually after your instance is started.
- Browser access to Tap In's Web application can use SSL only if you have assigned the Tap In host name as hostname.tapinsystems.net. If you are not using this name, Tap In's certificates will not authenticate. You will still be able to use your browser, but you will be prompted to accept the certificate when you connect your browser to the Tap In Management server. SSL can be used between the Tap In Management Server, QuickView console and agents, except for the Tap In Windows Powershell agent. This agent relies on authentication with Tap In certificates for SSL communications.
Unless you have policies against sharing your Amazon AWS credentials, we recommend using your Account page on the Tap In Web site to start your AMIs. This is the quickest way to get started and productive with the Tap In Cloud Management Service. If you need to customize the Tap In AMI to meet special deployment requirements, please contact us at support@tapinsystems.com.
