Couchbase on Amazon Marketplace showed how to setup a single Couchbase node using EC2 Console. But typically you provision these nodes en masse, and more commonly
create a cluster of them. Couchbase clusters are homogenous, scales horizontally and thus ensure that database does not become a bottleneck for your high performing application.

This blog will show how to create, scale, and rebalance a Couchbase cluster using AWS Command Line Interface (CLI).

Install AWS CLI

Install the AWS CLI provide complete details, but here is what worked on my machine:

Configure the CLI:

Enter your access key id and secret access key. These can be obtained as explained in Getting Your Access Key Id and Secret Access Key.

Create AWS Security Group

If you provisioned a server earlier using Amazon 1-click then a security group by the name Couchbase Server Community Edition-4-0-0-AutogenByAWSMP- is
created for you. This security group has all the ports authorized required for creating a Couchbase cluster and can be used for creating the instance. Alternatively, you can create a new security group and explicitly authorize ports.

Create a security group:

Authorize ports in the security group:

Create an AWS Key Pair

Read more about creating key pair. Create a key pair:

Note the key name as that will be used later.

Create Couchbase Nodes on Amazon

Create two instances using the newly created security group as:

Note, the number of instances are specified using --count 2. AMI ID can be obtained using EC2 console: https://us-west-1.console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/v2/home?region=us-west-1#Images:visibility=public-images;search=couchbase;sort=desc:name.
Or create two instances using the pre-created security group as:

This will show the output as:

Status of the instances can be checked as:

And shows the output as:

Here the status is shown as initializing. It takes a few minutes for the instances to be provisioned. Instances that have passed all the checks can be verified as:

At first, it shows the result as:

But once all the instances pass the check, then the results look like:

Here the status is shown as passed.

Configure Couchbase Nodes

Each Couchbase node needs to be provisioned with the following details:

  • Memory
  • Services (index, data and query)
  • Auth credentials (username: Administrator, password: password)
  • Loads travel-sample bucket

This can be done using the script:

This is available at: https://github.com/arun-gupta/couchbase-amazon/blob/master/configure-instance.sh. It can be invoked as:

And shows the output as:

This is invoking Couchbase REST API to configure each Couchbase node. Now that each Couchbase node is configured, lets access them. Find public
IP address of the instances:

It shows the output as:

Pick one of the IP addresses and access it at :8091 to see the output:
couchbase-aws-cli-1
Each Couchbase
node is configured with username as Administrator and password as password. Entering the credentials shows Couchbase Web Console:
couchbase-aws-cli-2
Click on
Server Nodes to see that only a single node is in the cluster:
couchbase-aws-cli-3

Create and Rebalance Couchbase Cluster

All Couchbase server nodes are created equal. This allows the Couchbase cluster to truly scale horizontally to meet your growing application demands. Independently running Couchbase nodes can be added to a cluster by invoking the server-add CLI command. This is typically a two step process. The first step is to add one or more nodes. The second step is to rebalance the cluster where data on the existing nodes is rebalanced across the updated cluster.

In our case, a Couchbase node is running on each AMI. Lets pick IP address of any one Couchbase node and add IP address of the other node. This can be done using the script:

This script is available at https://github.com/arun-gupta/couchbase-amazon/blob/master/create-cluster.sh and can be invoked as:

And shows the output as:

Couchbase Web Console is updated to show:
couchbase-aws-cli-4

Finally, rebalance the cluster using the script:

This shows the output as:

Couchbase Web Console is now updated:
couchbase-aws-cli-5

Once the cluster is up and running, try out Hello Couchbase Example.

Terminate Couchbase Nodes

Finally, killing the cluster is fairly straight forward:

This blog showed how to spin up, scale and rebalance a Couchbase cluster using AWS CLI. All scripts are available at https://github.com/arun-gupta/couchbase-amazon.

Further references …

Author

Posted by Arun Gupta, VP, Developer Advocacy, Couchbase

Arun Gupta is the vice president of developer advocacy at Couchbase. He has built and led developer communities for 10+ years at Sun, Oracle, and Red Hat. He has deep expertise in leading cross-functional teams to develop and execute strategy, planning and execution of content, marketing campaigns, and programs. Prior to that he led engineering teams at Sun and is a founding member of the Java EE team. Gupta has authored more than 2,000 blog posts on technology. He has extensive speaking experience in more than 40 countries on myriad topics and is a JavaOne Rock Star for three years in a row. Gupta also founded the Devoxx4Kids chapter in the US and continues to promote technology education among children. An author of several books on technology, an avid runner, a globe trotter, a Java Champion, a JUG leader, NetBeans Dream Team member, and a Docker Captain, he is easily accessible at @arungupta.

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