Amazon EC2 Instructions

[Scott Sanner]

Hi all,

Again, thank you all for your patience.  Amazon EC2 instructions are finally available:

  http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~ssanner/IPPC_2011/IPPC_2011_Amazon_EC2_Setup.pdf

An EC2 Server is currently running for test connection purposes, parameters (as mentioned in the above document) are:

  SERVER_NAME    ec2-50-16-103-243.compute-1.amazonaws.com

  SERVER_PORT    2300, 2301, 2302, or 2303 (note: dedicated ports for each team are not being used yet)

For example, from your local machine or EC2 instance rddlsim directory you should be able to execute:

  ./run rddl.competition.Client files/test_comp/rddl ec2-50-16-103-243.compute-1.amazonaws.com YourClientName rddl.policy.SPerseusSPUDDPolicy 2300 123456 sysadmin_inst_mdp__1

For the competition, you need to get your client working from an *EC2 large instance* (7.5 GB memory).

NOTES (please read):

- The only instances you can run currently are those in the test_comp.tgz and test_comp.zip archives.  Revised archives with redundant actions removed in the translations will be posted in a day or so.  At the same time I will try to release the other 9 traffic instances.  I will notify the list when these new domain archives are ready.

- If you're using Linux, it should hopefully take 1-2 hours max for you to setup your EC2 node and successfully connect your client to the Server.

- I have not tried out Windows nodes on EC2, but I hope that these nodes are similarly easy to work with and configure in this case.

- I am waiting on Amazon to send me the free EC2 computation credits to distribute to competitors.  In the meantime, you can instantiate a free Amazon Linux micro instance with 613 MB of memory for testing purposes.

- Please use a descriptive client name (e.g., your name or your planner's name) when connecting to the Server.

- The above server is only for brief testing for *everyone* (please do not stay connected to it for longer than a minute)... when you are *ready* to run the test competition, let me know and I will setup a dedicated Server/Port for you to complete the test competition problems.  You can run the test competition *anytime* (max 12 hours start to finish); I would like everyone to complete the EC2 test competition by Mar. 18th.

- Please post your EC2 questions to this email list... it would be great if everyone in the community can help each other out if they know the answer to any posted questions.

Enjoy the EC2, it's really great!

Cheers,

Scott