Deploy CoPilot from your Controller UI (AWS Only)

You can deploy CoPilot from the Aviatrix Controller user interface. However, the recommended deployment method is by using the Launch Aviatrix setup assistant. See the AWS Getting Started Guide for more information.

You can perform the following two types of CoPilot deployment on Controller UI:

Before you begin, make sure you have reviewed all the planning topics.

Launch a Single CoPilot Instance from Controller UI (AWS Only)

You can only deploy a CoPilot Instance from the Controller UI with AWS. This option is not available for other CSPs.

However, the recommended deployment method is by using the Launch Aviatrix setup assistant. See the AWS Getting Started Guide for more information.

This feature is available starting from Aviatrix Controller release 6.7.1185. If you deployed Aviatrix Controller in AWS and you want to deploy Aviatrix CoPilot in AWS in the same region/AZ as the Controller, you can deploy CoPilot directly from the Controller UI by following these instructions.

The instance will be launched in the same AWS region/availability zone as your Controller. If you want to deploy CoPilot in a different AWS region/availability zone or in a different cloud, follow the instructions in Deploy CoPilot from the Marketplace to perform the CoPilot instance launch from your cloud provider marketplace.

Your Controller instance must have the aviatrix-role-ec2 IAM role attached for the deployment to succeed.

Prerequisite Tasks for a Single CoPilot Instance Launch

Obtain the following information before you begin. You will need it for the initial setup of CoPilot after instance launch:

  • The login credentials of your Aviatrix Controller user account.

  • The login credentials for the user account to be used as the CoPilot service account. See CoPilot User Account Administration.

  • The CoPilot customer ID obtained from your Aviatrix Sales representative.

  • Verify that your AWS account has been created in your Controller (you create your AWS account by navigating to Controller UI, from ACCOUNTS > Access Accounts > +ADD NEW).

  • Verify that the IAM role aviatrix-role-ec2 is attached to the Controller instance Access Account. The CoPilot deployment will fail if this role is not attached to your Controller. Make sure The aviatrix-app-policy policy is also added to the aviatrix-role-ec2 role if you need to migrate your CoPilot data in the future.

If you are using private mode, note that CoPilot must have Internet access.

Deploy CoPilot from the Controller UI

To deploy CoPilot from the Controller UI (AWS Only):

  1. If you haven’t already done so, subscribe to a CoPilot offer:

    1. Log in to your account at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. If your company has multiple AWS accounts, be sure to log in to the same AWS account that you registered (onboarded) in your Controller.

    2. Locate the Aviatrix CoPilot software offer you want to subscribe to and click Subscribe.

    3. When prompted, review the subscription pricing information and accept the terms and conditions.

You only need to subscribe, review the subscription pricing information, and accept the terms and conditions in the marketplace before proceeding to the next step. You would not move on to the configuration steps in the marketplace. Note that to use the latest CoPilot add-on features, you must also subscribe to the Aviatrix Secure Networking Platform 2208-Universal Subscription.

  1. Log into Aviatrix Controller UI, and perform one of the following to begin the deployment process:

    • From the onboarding page, click the Aviatrix CoPilot tile.

    • From the action bar, click the app icon and select Deploy CoPilot.

  2. On the Deploy CoPilot dialog, perform the following:

    1. Select Simple Deployment.

    2. (Optional) If you have backed up CoPilot configuration in an old CoPilot instance and want to restore your CoPilot configuration for this new CoPilot deployment, select Restore from CoPilot Backup. Then you will not be able to choose Customize Deployment. See details in CoPilot Configuration Backup and Restore.

    3. (Optional) If desired, click Customize Deployment to enable the editing of the configuration. Otherwise, click Deploy to use the default configurations for the CoPilot instance. By default, the deployment process will deploy the CoPilot instance in the same region and same VPC as your Controller.

    4. (Optional) If desired, in Region, change the region in which to deploy the instance. Deploying the instance in the same region as the Controller is recommended to reduce latency. If you want to deploy the instance in a different region than where the Controller is deployed, choose the desired region from the drop-down box.

    5. (Optional) If desired, in VPC, change the VPC in which to deploy the instance. By default, the deployment process will deploy the instance in the same VPC as your Controller. If you want to deploy the instance in a different VPC than where the Controller is deployed, select the VPC from the VPC drop-down list.

    6. (Optional) In Subnet, specify the subnet (availability zone) in which to deploy the instance.

      Each CoPilot instance must be launched in a subnet that has outbound Internet access. If you are using private mode, you also must select a subnet with outbound Internet access in this step.

    7. (Optional) In VM Size, specify the VM size you want to provision for your instance. The default is a recommended minimum VM size for a single instance. See Minimum Instance (VM) System Requirements for CoPilot for information about instance sizing.

    8. (Optional) In Data Volume (GB), you can accept the default disk volume size or specify the size you want. See CoPilot Disk (Volume) Management.

    9. Click NEXT.

    10. Enter an CoPilot service account username and password. Then click VERIFY.

    11. Click Deploy.

  3. Wait until the deployment progress indicator reads Complete and then click Close.

    During the deployment process, the status dialog shows the details of your CoPilot instance including the instance size, VPC name, region, and associated AWS account number. You can copy the information from the status dialog to take note of it.

  4. Wait for approximately 15 minutes. It takes about fifteen minutes for the CoPilot application to initialize and upgrade.

Launch a CoPilot Cluster from Controller UI (AWS Only)

Launch a cluster of CoPilot instances for a fault-tolerant deployment from the Controller UI (AWS Only). This feature is available starting from Aviatrix Controller release 6.8.

About a CoPilot Fault-Tolerant (Clustered) Deployment

In a CoPilot fault-tolerant (clustered) deployment:

  • 1 cluster instance serves as the user interface and Controller of the other instances — the cluster server instance — and the other cluster instances are used for storing, searching, indexing, and serving cached data —the cluster data instances.

  • In a CoPilot cluster, the data is striped across the data instances so there is no single point of failure should any data instance become unavailable.

  • By default, the Controller UI deploy process will launch the cluster server instance in the same region as the Controller. You can deploy the server instance in a different region than the Controller if needed.

  • All cluster instances, both server instance and data instances, must be deployed in the same region, and it is recommended to deploy each instance in a different availability zone.

  • You must deploy a minimum of 3 data instances. You can deploy up to 9 data instances (for a maximum of 10 nodes in a cluster).

Prerequisite Tasks for Fault-Tolerant (Clustered) Deployment Launch

Before you begin, obtain the following information and perform the tasks indicated.

  • Verify your Controller is version 6.8 or later.

  • Subscribe to a CoPilot offer at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace and accept the terms and conditions (this is described in the first step of the procedure if you haven’t done this yet). Note that to use the latest CoPilot add-on features, you must also subscribe to the Aviatrix license.

  • Verify that your AWS account has been created in your Controller (you create your AWS account by navigating to Controller UI, from ACCOUNTS > Access Accounts > +ADD NEW).

  • Verify that the IAM role aviatrix-role-ec2 is attached to the Controller instance Access Account. The CoPilot deployment will fail if this role is not attached to your Controller. Make sure The aviatrix-app-policy policy is also added to the aviatrix-role-ec2 role if you need to migrate your CoPilot data in the future.

  • Obtain the CoPilot customer ID provided by your Aviatrix Sales representative.

  • Obtain the number of data instances to deploy for your cluster. Work with your Aviatrix Sales representative to determine the minimum data instances you should deploy in the cluster for your specific environment Minimum Instance (VM) System Requirements for CoPilot.

  • Obtain the VM size to be used for data instances in the cluster. Each data instance must use the same VM sizing. The size of the VM you provision for your data instances depends on the scale and the kind of networking infrastructure you have planned according to your business requirements. Work with your Aviatrix Sales representative to determine your VM sizing requirements. For more information, see Minimum Instance (VM) System Requirements for CoPilot.

  • Obtain the size to be used for the data volumes attached to data instances for CoPilot storage. The deployment process will attach a data volume of the size specified to each data instance. Data volume sizes must be the same across all data instances.

  • Note the following points when considering storage size for your cluster data instances:

    • After you deploy the cluster, you will not be able to expand or increase the size of the data volumes attached to the data instances. Expandable storage is still possible for simple deployments (as in prior releases) but not for clustered deployments at this time.

    • If you already have a CoPilot simple deployment (single instance), and you are planning on migrating your data from the simple deployment to the new clustered deployment, the size of the disk volume you specify for each data instance should be the same size or larger than the storage used in your old copilot. See CoPilot Disk (Volume) Management.

Deploy a CoPilot Cluster (Fault-Tolerant Deployment) from the Controller UI

To launch a CoPilot cluster (fault-tolerant deployment) from the Controller UI (AWS Only):

Navigate to the Aviatrix Controller user interface, perform one of the following to begin the deployment process:

  1. Log into Aviatrix Controller UI, and perform one of the following to begin the deployment process:

    • From the onboarding page, click the Aviatrix CoPilot tile.

    • From the action bar, click the app icon and select Deploy CoPilot.

  2. On the Deploy CoPilot dialog, perform the following:

    1. Select Fault Tolerant Deployment.

    2. (Optional) If you have backed up CoPilot configuration in an old CoPilot instance and want to restore your CoPilot configuration for this new CoPilot deployment, select Restore from CoPilot Backup. Then you will not be able to choose Customize Deployment. See details in CoPilot Configuration Backup and Restore.

    3. (Optional)If desired, click Customize Deployment to enable the editing of the configuration. Otherwise, click NEXT to use the default configurations for the CoPilot server. By default, the deployment process will deploy the CoPilot server and data in the same region and same VPC as your Controller to reduce latency.

    4. (Optional) If desired, in Region, change the region in which to deploy the cluster. By default, the deployment process will deploy the cluster server instance and all data instances in the same region as your Controller. Deploying them in the same region as the Controller is recommended to reduce latency.

    5. (Optional) If desired, in VPC, change the VPC in which to deploy the cluster. By default, the deployment process will deploy the cluster server instance and all data instances in the same VPC as your Controller.

    6. (Optional) If desired, in Subnet, specify the subnet (availability zone) in which to deploy the server instance. In the next steps, you can specify to deploy each data instance in a different availability zone. It is recommended to deploy each cluster instance in a different availability zone so the cluster can tolerate an AZ failure.

      Each CoPilot instance must be launched in a subnet that has outbound Internet access. If you are using private mode, you also must select a subnet with outbound Internet access in this step.

    7. (Optional) If desired, in CoPilot Server VM Size, specify the VM size you want to provision for your server instance. The default is a recommended minimum VM size for a server instance. See Minimum Instance (VM) System Requirements for CoPilot for information about instance sizing.

    8. Click NEXT.

  3. For CoPilot Data Instances, perform the following:

    1. Click + ADD INSTANCE for each data instance you will have in the cluster.

      You must deploy at least 3 data instances. You can deploy a maximum of 9 data instances.

    2. In Subnet, for each data instance, specify the subnet (availability zone) in which to deploy the instance. Note: Each CoPilot instance must be launched in a subnet that has outbound Internet access. If you are using private mode, you also must select a subnet with outbound Internet access in this step for each data instance. It is recommended to deploy each data instance in a different availability zone so the cluster can tolerate an AZ failure. For example, if you deployed three data instances in AZs 1a, 1b, and 1c:

      subnet_cidr1~~*us-east-1a*~~
subnet_cidr2~~*us-east-1b*~~
subnet_cidr3~~*us-east-1c*~~

    3. In Size, specify the VM size to be used for all CoPilot data instances in the cluster. Each data instance must use the same VM sizing. The default is a recommended minimum VM size for a data instance. See Minimum Instance (VM) System Requirements for CoPilot for information about instance sizing. You can accept the default or specify a custom instance configuration.

    4. In Disk(GB), specify the size to be used for the data volumes attached to the data instances for CoPilot storage. You can accept the default minimum storage size or choose a custom size. Data volume sizes must be the same across all data instances.

    5. Click NEXT.

    6. Enter your CoPilot service account username and password. Then click VERIFY.

    7. If you do not receive an error, click Deploy.

  4. Wait until the deployment progress indicator reads Complete and then click Close.

    During the deployment process, the status dialog shows the details of your CoPilot instance including the instance size, VPC name, region, and associated AWS account number. You can copy the information from the status dialog to take note of it.

  5. Wait for approximately 15 minutes. It takes about fifteen minutes for the CoPilot application to initialize and upgrade.

Log into CoPilot

  1. From the Controller action bar, click the app icon and select CoPilot.

  2. When prompted, enter the login and password of your Aviatrix Controller user account.

  3. When prompted for a CoPilot Service Account, enter the login credentials of the user account you created previously on the Controller to be the service account.

    CoPilot opens to the Dashboard page.