Getting Started on AWS AMI

You can use the MapD AWS AMI (Amazon Web Services Amazon Machine Image) to try MapD Core Database and MapD Immerse in the cloud. Perform visual analytics with the included New York Taxi database, or import and explore your own data.

There are many options available to you when deploying an AWS AMI. These instructions skip to the specific tasks you must perform to deploy a sample environment.

The steps below are also described in this quick video overview.

Prerequisite

You need a security key pair when you launch your MapD instance. If you do not have one, you can create one before you continue.

  1. Go to the EC2 Dashboard.
  2. Select Key Pairs under Network & Security.
  3. Click Create Key Pair.
  4. Enter a name for your key pair. For example, MyKey.
  5. Click Create. The key pair PEM file downloads to your local machine. For example, you would find MyKey.pem in your Downloads directory.

Launching Your Instance

  1. Go to the AWS Marketplace page for the Community Edition or Enterprise Edition.
  2. Choose a region from the For Region pop-up.
  3. Click Continue.
  4. Choose an EC2 Instance Type. Note that the prices vary greatly depending on the hardware configuration you choose.
  5. Scroll down the page and select a Key Pair.
  6. Scroll to the top and click Launch with 1-click. A success page tells you that your instance is loading. You can track initialization progress on your EC2 Management Console page.

Using MapD Immerse on Your AWS Instance

To connect to MapD Immerse, you need your Public DNS and Instance ID. You can find these values on the Instances page of your EC2 Dashboard.

To connect to MapD Immerse:

  1. Point your favorite Internet browser to the public DNS on port 8443. For example, if your public DNS were ec2-12-345-678-901.us-west-2.computer.amazonaws.com, you would use the URL https://ec2-12-345-678-901.us-west-2.computer.amazonaws.com:8443.
  2. Depending on the browser you are using, you might receive an error message stating that the connection is not private. Follow the prompts onscreen to click through to the unsecured website. To secure your site, see Tips for Securing Your EC2 Instance.
  3. Enter the USERNAME (mapd) and PASSWORD ( {instance ID} ).
  4. Click Connect.
  5. On the Dashboards page, click NYC Taxis Dec 2015. Explore and filter the chart information on the NYC Taxis Dashboard.

For more information on MapD Immerse features, see Introduction to MapD Immerse.

Importing Your Own Data

Advantages of processing speed and data visualization can be more apparent when you work with your own familiar dataset.

To import your own data to MapD Immerse:

  1. Export your data from your current datastore as a Comma-separated Value (CSV) or Tab-separated Value (TSV) file.
  2. Point your favorite Internet browser to the public DNS on port 8443. For example, if your public DNS is ec2-12-345-678-901.us-west-2.computer.amazonaws.com, use the URL https://ec2-12-345-678-901.us-west-2.computer.amazonaws.com:8443.
  3. Enter the USERNAME (mapd) and PASSWORD ( {instance ID} ).
  4. Click Connect.
  5. On the Dashboards page, click New Dashboard.
  6. On the Connect To Data Source page, click Import Data.
  7. Drag and drop your data file onto the table importer page, or use the directory selector.
  8. Click Import Files.
  9. Verify the column names and datatypes. Edit them if needed.
  10. Enter a Name for your table.
  11. Click Save Table.
  12. Click Connect to Table.
  13. On the New Dashboard page, click Add Chart.
  14. Choose a chart type.
  15. Add dimensions and measures as required.
  16. Click Apply.
  17. Enter a Name for your dashboard.
  18. Click Save.

For more information, see Loading Data.

Accessing Your MapD Instance Using SSH

These instructions walk you through the process of connecting to your instance using SSH from MacOS or Linux. For information on connecting from Windows, see Connecting to Your Linux Instance from Windows Using PuTTY.

  1. Open a terminal window.

  2. Locate your private key file (for example, MyKey.pem). The wizard automatically detects the key you used to launch the instance.

  3. Your key must not be publicly viewable for SSH to work. Use this command to change permissions, if needed:

    chmod 400 MyKey.pem

  4. Connect to your instance using its Public DNS. The default user name is centos. For example:

    ssh -i "MyKey.pem" centos@ec2-12-345-678-910.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

  5. Use the following command to run the mapdql SQL command line utility on MapD Core Database. The default user is mapd. Your instance ID is the password:

    /raidStorage/prod/mapd/bin/mapdql -u mapd -p {instance-id}

See mapdql.