Getting Started with AWS AMI

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

Many options are available 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 OmniSci instance. If you do not have one, 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 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 OmniSci Immerse on Your AWS Instance

To connect to OmniSci 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 OmniSci Immerse:

  1. Point your Internet browser to the public DNS on port 8443. For example, for public DNS 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. If you 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 OmniSci Immerse features, see Introduction to OmniSci Immerse.

Importing Your Own Data

Working with your own familiar dataset makes it easier to see the advantages of OmniSci processing speed and data visualization.

To import your own data to OmniSci 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. Click Data Manager, and then click Import Data.
  6. Drag and drop your data file onto the table importer page, or use the directory selector.
  7. Click Import Files.
  8. Verify the column names and datatypes. Edit them if needed.
  9. Enter a Name for your table.
  10. Click Save Table.
  11. Click Connect to Table.
  12. On the New Dashboard page, click Add Chart.
  13. Choose a chart type.
  14. Add dimensions and measures as required.
  15. Click Apply.
  16. Enter a Name for your dashboard.
  17. Click Save.

For more information, see Loading Data.

Accessing Your OmniSci Instance Using SSH

Follow these instructions to connect 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 or ununtu, depending on the version you are using. For example:

    ssh -i MyKey.pem centos@ec2-12-345-678-901.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com

  5. Use the following command to run the mapdql SQL command line utility on OmniSci Core Database. The default user is mapd and the default password is HyperInteractive:

    $MAPD_PATH/bin/mapdql

See mapdql.