AWS Startup Guide¶

Welcome. Your Aviatrix product experience starts here.

The Aviatrix Controller provides a single pane of glass for all your network connectivity tasks. Once you have a Controller instance launched in a VPC, you can start building a Transit Network, remote user VPN, or multi-cloud peering, etc.

To learn about all the Aviatrix use cases, read the Aviatrix overview.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the first 4 steps. By the end, you’ll be ready for your first use case.

You can also watch a video for this startup guide.

Before you start, you need to have an AWS account. Create a new account or login to an existing IAM account.

Important

We require this AWS IAM account to have permissions to create AWS IAM roles, IAM policies and launch EC2 instances.
The Controller instance must be launched on a public subnet in a VPC.
All AMIs should be launched by CloudFormation template provided by Aviatrix, as described in the next section.

Step 2. Launch the Controller with CloudFormation¶

Now that you have subscribed to an AMI, you are ready to install the Controller instance.

Each Aviatrix AMI in AWS marketplace has a companion CloudFormation template. The template is used to launch the Controller instance. Highlight and copy the CloudFormation Template URL Link Address for the AMI you intend to launch.

Subscribed Controller AMI	CloudFormation Template URL Link Address
Secure Networking Platform PAYG - Metered	https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/aviatrix-cloudformation-templates/aws-cloudformation-aviatrix-metering-controller.json
Secure Networking Platform - Custom	https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/aviatrix-cloudformation-templates/avx-awsmp-5tunnel.template
SSL VPN Server - 10 users	https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/aviatrix-cloudformation-templates/aviatrix-sslvpn-10-users.template
SSL VPN Server - 25 users	https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/aviatrix-cloudformation-templates/aws-cloudformation-aviatrix-sslvpn-25-users.json
SSL VPN Server - 50 users	https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/aviatrix-cloudformation-templates/aviatrix-ssl-vpn-server-50-user.template
SSL VPN Server - 100 users	https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/aviatrix-cloudformation-templates/aws-cloudformation-aviatrix-sslvpn-100-users.json
SSL VPN Server Bundle (10 users + 1 peering)	https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/aviatrix-cloudformation-templates/aws-cloudformation-sslvpnbundle.json
Cloud Interconnect BYOL	https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/aviatrix-cloudformation-templates/avx-awsmp-BYOL.template

2.1. In the AWS console, change to the region where you would like to install the Aviatrix Controller.

2.2. Once in the correct region, go to the CloudFormation service.

2.3. Click Create new stack or Create Stack

2.4. Select Specify an Amazon S3 template and paste the CloudFormation Template URL Link Address for the AMI you selected in the above table.

2.5. Click Next

2.6. Fill in the following fields,

the Stack name,

select a VPC in the drop down menu,

select a public subnet in that VPC (Go to AWS VPC console to make sure the public subnet is indeed in your selected VPC. Read this link if you do not know what public subnet is.)

and a keypair (Read how to create a keypair to create a keypair in AWS EC2 console if this field is blank.)

Note

The Aviatrix Controller must be launched on a public subnet. If this is the first time you launch Aviatrix Controller, select the default setting New for IAM Role Creation. If Aviatrix IAM role has been created before, select aviatrix-role-ec2 for IAM Role Creation. The Aviatrix Controller instance is termination protected.

2.7. Leave the Controller Size at t2.large and keep the IAM role creation at “New” unless you have already created the Aviatrix IAM roles.

2.8. Click Next

2.9. Optionally, add any key/value tags as required

2.10. Optionally, select an IAM Role if your currently logged in user does not have permission to create instances.

2.11. We recommend you to enable stack termination protection during stack creation time to prevent accidental deletion, as shown below, then click Next

Warning

The Controller instance has Termination Protection enabled. If you need to delete the stack, make sure you first disable the Controller instance Termination Protection at the AWS EC2 console.

2.12. Click the checkbox next to “I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation ...” and then click Create.

2.13. Once the stack creation completes (Status change to CREATE_COMPLETE), click on the Outputs tab. The values displayed will be needed when configuring primary access account in Aviatrix.

Step 3. Connect to the Controller¶

Now that Aviatrix Controller instance has been launched, let’s login and go through a few init steps.

3.1. Open a browser window to https://AviatrixControllerEIP, where AviatrixControllerEIP can be found in the Stack Outputs. You can also find the Controller instance EIP by going to AWS EC2 console, click the Controller instance and locate its public IP address.

Tip

You may receive a warning that the connection may not be secure. This is because the certificate is self-signed by the Controller. It is safe to continue to the page.

3.2. Login with the username admin.

For the password field, use the AviatrixControllerPrivateIP. The AviatrixControllerPrivateIP can be found in the Outputs section of the CloudFormation stack. You can also find the Controller instance’s private IP address by going to AWS EC2 console, click the Controller instance and locate its private IP address.

3.3. Enter your email address. This email will be used for alerts as well as password recovery (if needed).

3.4. Next, you will be prompted to change the admin password.

3.5. Click Skip in the next page, unless the Controller instance VPC has an HTTP or HTTPS proxy configured for Internet access.

3.6. Finally, the Controller will upgrade itself to the latest software version after you click on Run. Wait for a few minutes for the process to finish.

Tip

The Controller upgrade takes about 3-5 minutes. Once complete, the login prompt will appear. Use the user admin and your new password to login.

Step 4. Create A Primary Access Account¶

4.1 Select AWS¶

Once logged back in to the Controller, you should be on the Onboarding page or click “Onboarding` on the navigation item. Then click AWS icon.

4.2 (Only apply to BYOL AMI) Enter Your Customer ID¶

Note

This step only applies if you select BYOL AMI. Contact support@aviatrix.com to get a trial license if you do not have one.

Enter the Customer ID in the field and click Save.

4.3 Setup a Primary Access Account¶

The Aviatrix primary access account contains the following information:

The Controller instance’s AWS 12 digit account ID.

Check out this link if you have questions regarding Aviatrix access account.

Fill out the fields as follows: (The AWS Account Number can be found at the Stack Outputs section or get from this link.)

Field Expected Value

Account Name Enter a name that is unique on the Controller. Example name: AWSOpsTeam.

AWS Account Number The Controller instance’s 12 digit AWS account number. It can be found in the Stack Outputs section AccoundId.

IAM role-based Check this box.

Once complete, click the Create button at the bottom of the form.

imageCreateAccount

Next: Start a Use Case¶

Congratulations!

You are now ready to establish connectivities to/from the cloud. Here are some of the things you can do:

Warning

Any resources created by the Controller, such as Aviatrix gateways, route entries, ELB, SQS queues, etc, must be deleted from the Controller console. If you delete them directly on AWS console, the Controller’s view of resources will be incorrect which will lead to features not working properly.

For technical support, email us at support@aviatrix.com

Enjoy!

AWS Startup Guide¶

Step 1. Subscribe to an Aviatrix AMI¶

1.1 Select an AMI¶

1.2 Subscribe to the selected AMI¶

1.2.1 Continue to Subscribe¶

1.2.2 Accept Software Terms¶

1.2.3 Product Support Connection¶