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Sitecore XP 9.3 on the AWS Cloud

Quick Start Reference Deployment

May 2020

Dylan Owen and Tony Bulding, AWS Quick Start team

Visit our GitHub repository for source files and to post feedback,

report bugs, or submit feature ideas for this Quick Start.

Contents

Overview .................................................................................................................................... 2

Sitecore XP 9.3 on AWS ......................................................................................................... 3

Cost and licenses .................................................................................................................... 3

Architecture ............................................................................................................................... 4

Planning the deployment .......................................................................................................... 6

Specialized knowledge ........................................................................................................... 6

AWS account .......................................................................................................................... 7

Technical requirements ......................................................................................................... 7

Prepare for the Sitecore deployment .....................................................................................8

Deployment options ...............................................................................................................8

Deployment steps ...................................................................................................................... 9

Step 1. Sign in to your AWS account ...................................................................................... 9

Step 2. Launch the Quick Start .............................................................................................. 9

Step 3. Post-deployment steps ............................................................................................. 22

Step 4. Test the deployment ................................................................................................ 22

Best practices for using Sitecore XP 9.3 on AWS ................................................................... 22

Other useful information ........................................................................................................ 23

https://fwd.aws/vxPqD

Amazon Web Services – Sitecore XP 9.3 on the AWS Cloud May 2020

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Personalized content on Sitecore roles ................................................................................ 23

Parameter Store ................................................................................................................... 23

Secrets Manager ................................................................................................................... 23

Sitecore certificates .............................................................................................................. 23

Sitecore Internet Information Service configurations ........................................................ 24

Redis for session management ............................................................................................ 24

FAQ .......................................................................................................................................... 24

Send us feedback ..................................................................................................................... 25

Additional resources ............................................................................................................... 26

Document revisions ................................................................................................................. 26

This Quick Start was created by the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Quick Start team.

Quick Starts are automated reference deployments that use AWS CloudFormation

templates to deploy key technologies on AWS, following AWS best practices.

Overview

The Sitecore Experience Platform (XP) is a content management system (CMS) for web

content that automates marketing to deliver a personalized user experience. This Quick

Start is intended for organizations that want to deploy a multirole Sitecore XP 9.3

architecture on the AWS Cloud.

This Quick Start provides step-by-step instructions to deploy 12 roles that compose the

complete Sitecore XP platform. All of the roles are deployed into individual Auto Scaling

groups to ensure recoverability when an instance fails. Database services are provided by

SQL Server through Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), and caching is

managed by Redis on Amazon ElastiCache.

To control access, this deployment uses AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) and AWS Secrets

Manager. Other services used by this Quick Start include Amazon Simple Storage Service

(Amazon S3), AWS Systems Manager, Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Lambda, and Amazon

Route 53.

http://aws.amazon.com/quickstart/


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Sitecore XP 9.3 on AWS

The Sitecore XP workloads are deployed on multiple Amazon EC2 instances for improved

performance. The content-delivery and content-management roles can be scaled for high

availability. Other Sitecore roles have restrictions on active/active roles and are designed

for active/passive standby. Due to this, other Sitecore roles belong to their own Auto

Scaling groups as single instances. Should an instance become unavailable, it’s replaced by

a new instance and configured with a Sitecore role of the same type.

Website content can be deployed to the content-delivery and content-management roles

using your choice of deployment software. User data for private and shared sessions is

configured on the content-delivery instances to be stored within Redis in Amazon

ElastiCache.

Please know that we may share who uses AWS Quick Starts with the AWS Partner Network

(APN) Partner that collaborated with AWS on the content of the Quick Start.

Cost and licenses

You are responsible for the cost of the AWS services used while running this Quick Start

reference deployment. There is no additional cost for using the Quick Start.

The AWS CloudFormation template for this Quick Start includes configuration parameters

that you can customize. Some of these settings, such as instance type, affect the cost of

deployment. For cost estimates, see the pricing pages for each AWS service you use. Prices

are subject to change.

Tip: After you deploy the Quick Start, we recommend that you enable the AWS Cost

and Usage Report. This report delivers billing metrics to an S3 bucket in your

account. It provides cost estimates based on usage throughout each month and

finalizes the data at the end of the month. For more information about the report,

see the AWS documentation.

This Quick Start requires a Sitecore XP 9.3 license. To use the Quick Start in your

production environment, sign up for a developer trial license. For a full license, contact a

Sitecore sales representative or Sitecore partner. Before you launch the Quick Start, place

the license key in the deployment’s associated S3 bucket, and specify its location. For more

information, see the Prepare for the Sitecore deployment section.

If you don’t have a license, the Quick Start deployment will not complete successfully.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/billing-reports-gettingstarted-turnonreports.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/billing-reports-gettingstarted-turnonreports.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/billing-reports-costusage.html

https://www.sitecore.com/knowledge-center/getting-started/developer-trial


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Architecture

Deploying this Quick Start for a new virtual private cloud (VPC) with default parameters

builds the following Sitecore XP 9.3 environment in the AWS Cloud.

Figure 1: Quick Start architecture of services for Sitecore XP 9.3 on AWS


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Figure 2: Quick Start architecture of resources for Sitecore XP 9.3 on AWS

As shown in figures 1 and 2, the Quick Start sets up the following:

A highly available architecture that spans two Availability Zones.*

A virtual private cloud (VPC) configured with public and private subnets, according to

AWS best practices, to provide you with your own virtual network on AWS.*

A Microsoft remote desktop gateway (RDGW) in an Auto Scaling group to allow

inbound remote desktop access to Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)

instances in the public and private subnets.*

In the public subnets:

– Managed network address translation (NAT) gateways to allow outbound

internet access for resources in the private subnets.*

– An internet-facing Application Load Balancer (ALB) for routing traffic to the

instances for content delivery, content management, and identity server.

In the private subnets:

– Sitecore roles deployed on a single Amazon EC2 instance that’s contained within

an Auto Scaling group.

– An internal ALB for the reporting and processing roles.


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– Network Load Balancers (NLBs) for Transport Layer Security (TLS) pass-through

for the remaining Sitecore instances.

– Each EC2 instance is deployed into its own Auto Scaling group.

– Amazon Route 53 private hosted zone for internal Domain Name System (DNS)

lookups within the VPC.

– Amazon ElastiCache for Redis.

An EC2 Amazon Machine Image (AMI), which is used in the initial deployment of all

Sitecore roles and in subsequent Auto Scaling events.

AWS Systems Manager to store parameter data and the AMI automation build

document.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) artifacts bucket for storing static data.

Amazon RDS SQL Server to provide database services.

Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring deployed services.

AWS Secrets Manager for access control.

AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) for access control.

A Lambda function to convert and import the certificate into ACM.

* The template that deploys the Quick Start into an existing VPC skips the components

marked by asterisks and prompts you for your existing VPC configuration.

Planning the deployment

Specialized knowledge

This Quick Start assumes familiarity with PowerShell, Apache Solr, and Sitecore XP roles

and configurations. It also requires a moderate level of familiarity with AWS services. If

you’re new to AWS, visit the Getting Started Resource Center and the AWS Training and

Certification website. These sites provide materials for learning how to design, deploy, and

operate your infrastructure and applications on the AWS Cloud.

In some scenarios you may want to deploy Sitecore into an existing VPC, which has a self-

managed DNS rather than a Route 53–connected hosted zone. When deploying this Quick

Start into an existing VPC, set VPCPrivateDNS to true. Then create DNS Canonical Name

Record (CNAME) entries in your self-managed DNS. For more information, see Step 3.

Post-deployment steps.

https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started/

https://aws.amazon.com/training/

https://aws.amazon.com/training/


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AWS account

If you don’t already have an AWS account, create one at https://aws.amazon.com by

following the on-screen instructions. Part of the sign-up process involves receiving a phone

call and entering a PIN using the phone keypad.

Your AWS account is automatically signed up for all AWS services. You are charged only for

the services you use.

Technical requirements

Before you launch the Quick Start, your account must be configured as specified in the

following table. Otherwise, deployment might fail.

Resources If necessary, request service quota increases for the following resources. You might do

this if an existing deployment uses these resources and you risk exceeding the default

quotas. The Service Quotas console displays your usage and quotas for some aspects of

some services. For more information, see the AWS documentation.

Resource This deployment uses

VPCs 1

Elastic IP addresses 1

IAM roles 8

Auto Scaling groups 14

Application Load

Balancers 2

Network Load

Balancers 7

m5a.xlarge instances 15

t2.large instances 1

Regions This deployment includes AWS Secrets Manager, which isn’t currently supported in all

AWS Regions. For a current list of supported Regions, see Service endpoints and quotas

in the AWS documentation.

Key pair Ensure that at least one Amazon EC2 key pair exists in your AWS account in the Region

where you plan to deploy the Quick Start. Make note of the key pair name. You need it

during deployment. To create a key pair, follow the instructions in the AWS

documentation.

For testing or proof-of-concept purposes, we recommend creating a new key pair

instead of using one that’s already being used by a production instance.

https://aws.amazon.com/

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws_service_limits.html

https://console.aws.amazon.com/servicequotas/home?region=us-east-1#!/

https://console.aws.amazon.com/servicequotas/home?region=us-east-1#!/

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/servicequotas/latest/userguide/intro.html

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws-service-information.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-key-pairs.html




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IAM permissions Before launching the Quick Start, you must log in to the AWS Management Console

with IAM permissions for the resources and actions the templates deploy. The

AdministratorAccess managed policy within IAM provides sufficient permissions,

although your organization may choose to use a custom policy with more restrictions.

Prepare for the Sitecore deployment

This Quick Start requires that you sign up with Sitecore to obtain the Sitecore XP 9.3

resource files.

1. Obtain a temporary Sitecore license or contact your Sitecore sales representative or

Sitecore partner for a full Sitecore license.

2. Upload the license file to an S3 bucket into a prefix called “license.”

3. Download the Sitecore XP 9.3 XP1 scaled installation files.

4. Extract the contents of the .zip file, but don’t extract any of the resulting .zip files. Using

the same S3 bucket as the license file, upload these extracted files into a prefix called

“resources.”

5. Create a certificate in Amazon Certificate Manager (ACM) for your Sitecore deployment

in the Region where you deploy the Quick Start. This certificate must be created as a

wildcard certificate for your Sitecore domain (for example, *.example.com).

This Quick Start can optionally deploy a server for Apache Solr search. This Solr

deployment, however, is a development server and not recommended for production use. It

is therefore suggested that you provide a URL to your production Apache Solr search server

or cluster when deploying this Quick Start.

Deployment options

This Quick Start provides two deployment options:

Deploy Sitecore XP 9.3 into a new VPC (end-to-end deployment). This option

builds a new AWS environment consisting of the VPC, subnets, NAT gateways, security

groups, bastion hosts, and other infrastructure components. It then deploys Sitecore XP

9.3 into this new VPC.

Deploy Sitecore XP 9.3 into an existing VPC. This option provisions Sitecore XP

9.3 in your existing AWS infrastructure.

The Quick Start provides separate templates for these options. It also lets you configure

Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) blocks, instance types, and Sitecore XP 9.3

settings, as discussed later in this guide.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/access_policies_job-functions.html

https://dev.sitecore.net/

https://www.sitecore.com/knowledge-center/getting-started/developer-trial

https://dev.sitecore.net/Downloads/Sitecore_Experience_Platform/93/Sitecore_Experience_Platform_93_Initial_Release.aspx


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Deployment steps

Step 1. Sign in to your AWS account

1. Sign in to your AWS account at https://aws.amazon.com with an IAM user role that has

the necessary permissions. For details, see Planning the deployment, earlier in this

guide.

2. Ensure that your AWS account is configured correctly, as discussed in the Technical

requirements section.

Step 2. Launch the Quick Start

Note: You are responsible for the cost of the AWS services used while running this

Quick Start reference deployment. There is no additional cost for using this Quick

Start. For full details, see the pricing pages for each AWS service used by this Quick

Start. Prices are subject to change.

1. Sign in to your AWS account, and choose one of the following options to launch the

AWS CloudFormation template. For help with choosing an option, see Deployment

options, earlier in this guide.

Deploy Sitecore XP 9.3 into a

new VPC on AWS

Deploy Sitecore XP 9.3 into an

existing VPC on AWS

Important: If you deploy Sitecore XP 9.3 into an existing VPC, ensure that your

VPC has two private subnets in different Availability Zones for the workload

instances and that the subnets aren’t shared. This Quick Start doesn’t support shared

subnets. These subnets require NAT gateways in their route tables to allow the

instances to download packages and software without exposing them to the internet.

Also, ensure that the domain name option in the Dynamic Host Configuration

Protocol (DHCP) is configured according to the Amazon VPC documentation.

Provide your VPC settings when you launch the Quick Start.

• new VPC

• workloadDeploy • workload onlyDeploy

https://aws.amazon.com/

https://fwd.aws/YyDqd


https://fwd.aws/zM3bM


https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/vpc-sharing.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/vpc-sharing.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/vpc-nat-gateway.html

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/VPC_DHCP_Options.html




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Each deployment takes about 1–1.5 hours to complete.

2. Check the AWS Region that’s displayed in the upper-right corner of the navigation bar,

and change it if necessary. This is where the network infrastructure for Sitecore XP 9.3

is built. The template is launched in the US East (Ohio) Region by default.

Note: This deployment includes Amazon EFS, which isn’t currently supported in all

AWS Regions. For a current list of supported Regions, see endpoints and quotas.

3. On the Create stack page, keep the default setting for the template URL, and then

choose Next.

4. On the Specify stack details page, change the stack name if needed. Review the

parameters for the template. Provide values for the parameters that require input. For

all other parameters, review the default settings and customize them as necessary.

In the following tables, parameters are listed by category and described separately for

the two deployment options:

– Parameters for deploying Sitecore XP 9.3 into a new VPC

– Parameters for deploying Sitecore XP 9.3 into an existing VPC

When you finish reviewing and customizing the parameters, choose Next.

OPTION 1: PARAMETERS FOR DEPLOYING SITECORE XP 9.3 INTO A NEW VPC

View template

VPC network configuration:

Parameter label

(name) Default Description

VPC CIDR

(VPCCIDR)

10.0.0.0/16 CIDR block for the VPC.

Private subnet 1A

CIDR

(PrivateSubnet1ACIDR)

10.0.0.0/19 CIDR block for private subnet 1 located in Availability Zone 1.

Private subnet 2A

CIDR

(PrivateSubnet2ACIDR)

10.0.32.0/19 CIDR block for private subnet 2 located in Availability Zone 2.

Public subnet 1 CIDR

(PublicSubnet1CIDR)

10.0.128.0/20 CIDR block for the public (DMZ) subnet 1 located in

Availability Zone 1.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/elasticfilesystem.html

https://fwd.aws/Yaw4Y


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Parameter label


Public subnet 2 CIDR

(PublicSubnet2CIDR)

10.0.144.0/20 CIDR block for the public (DMZ) subnet 2 located in

Availability Zone 2.

Availability Zones

(AvailabilityZones)

Requires input List of Availability Zones to use for the subnets in the VPC.

RDGW configuration:

Parameter label


RD Gateway

administrator

(AdminUser)

StackAdmin Administrator name for the new Remote Desktop Gateway

(RD Gateway).

RD Gateway

administrator

password

(AdminPassword)

Requires input Administrator password. It must be at least 8 alphanumeric

characters containing letters, numbers, and symbols.

RD Gateway DNS

(DomainDNSName)

example.com Fully qualified domain name (FQDN), e.g., “example.com.”

Number of RD

Gateway hosts

(NumberOfRDGWHosts)

1 Enter the number of RD Gateway hosts to create.

RD Gateway instance

type

(RDGWInstanceType)

t2.large Amazon EC2 instance type for the first RD Gateway instance.

Allowed RD Gateway

external access CIDR

(RDGWCIDR)

Requires input Allowed CIDR block for external access to the RD Gateways.

Key pair name for RD

Gateway

(KeyPairName)

Requires input Key pairs allow you to securely connect to your instance after

it launches.

Sitecore networking configuration:

Parameter label


Content delivery

FQDN

(CDDNSName)

Requires input Fully qualified domain name for the content delivery role

(e.g., home.example.com).

Content management

FQDN

(CMDNSName)

Requires input Fully qualified domain name for the content management

role.


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Parameter label


Identity server FQDN

(ISDNSName)

Requires input Fully qualified domain name for the identity server role.

Internal DNS suffix

(IntDNS)

Optional Internal DNS name. If left blank, one is generated for you.

External ACM ARN

(ExternalCertificate

ARN)

Optional Provide the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the wildcard

certificate created in ACM. If one is not provided, a wildcard

certificate is created. If you provide an ARN, you do not need

to provide details for ExternalCertFQDN or

ExternalR53ZoneID.

External certificate

domain name

(ExternalCertFQDN)

Optional External domain name for the Sitecore deployment (e.g.,

example.com). This is created in ACM as a wildcard certificate

(e.g., *.example.com) if no value is provided for

ExternalCertificateARN.

External Route 53

zone ID

(ExternalR53Zone

ID)

Optional Provide the Route 53–hosted zone ID for ExternalCertFQDN

if you require certificate validation to be done via DNS. If no

Route 53–hosted zone ID is provided, validation is done via

email.

Sitecore configuration:

Parameter label


Minimum content

delivery instances

(CDMinSize)

1 Minimum number of content delivery instances available.

Maximum content

delivery instances

(CDMaxSize)

3 Maximum number of content delivery instances available.

Desired content

delivery instances

(CDDesiredCapacity)

2 Desired number of content delivery instances available.

Content delivery

(CDInstanceType)

m5a.xlarge Content delivery instance type.

Content delivery

scaling metric

(CDScalingMetric)

ASGAverageCPU

Utilization

Metric used to determine scaling of the content delivery role.

Content delivery

scaling metric value

(CDScalingMetric

Value)

70 Value required for the scaling metric (for

ASGAverageNetworkIn, this value is in bytes).


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Parameter label


Minimum content

management

instances

(CMMinSize)

1 Minimum number of content management instances

available.

Maximum content

management

instances

(CMMaxSize)

2 Maximum number of content management instances

available.

Content management,

identity, reference

data

(CmIdRdInstanceType)

m5a.xlarge Instance type, applied to the roles of content management,

identity, and reference data.

Content management

scaling metric

(CMScalingMetric)

ASGAverageCPU

Utilization

Metric used to determine scaling of the content management

role.

Content management


(CMScalingMetric

Value)



Collection, collection–

search instance type

(CollCSInstanceType)

m5a.xlarge Instance type, applied to the roles of collection, collection

search.

Marketing

automation, cortex

processing,

processing

(MaCpPrcInstanceType)

m5a.xlarge Instance type, applied to the roles of marketing automation,

cortex processing, and processing.

Marketing automation

reporting, cortex

reporting, reporting

(MarCrRepInstance

Type)

m5a.xlarge Instance type, applied to the roles of marketing automation

reporting, cortex reporting, and reporting.

EC2 key pair for

Sitecore instances

(SitecoreKeyPair)

Requires input EC2 key pair to use for the Sitecore instances.

Sitecore installation

prefix

(SitecorePrefix)

Requires input Prefix to be used for the Sitecore installation. This is limited to

8 characters.

Sitecore resources S3

bucket

(SitecoreS3Bucket)

Requires input S3 bucket name where the Sitecore 9.3 resources are located

(installation files, license file, etc.). This deployment puts

objects into this bucket.


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Parameter label



files prefix

(SCResourcesPrefix)

resources/ Prefix in the S3 bucket for the Sitecore installation files (e.g.,

resources/).

Sitecore license file

prefix

(SCLicensePrefix)

license/ Prefix in the S3 bucket for the license .zip file (e.g., license/).

Solr server/cluster

URL

(SOLRUrl)

Optional URL of your Solr server/cluster. If no URL is provided, a

development Solr instance is created. Note: This development

Solr instance should not be used within a production

environment.

Solr cores prefix

(SOLRCorePrefix)

Requires input If you provided a Solr URL, this is the prefix of your pre-

configured Solr cores. If no Solr URL provided, this is the

prefix used for the Solr cores on the development Solr

instance.

Sitecore environment

type

(EnvironmentType)

Production Type of Sitecore deployment.

Sitecore log level

(SCLogLevel)

Information Sitecore deployment configured log level.

SQL Server configuration:

Parameter label


Database instance

class

(DBInstanceClass)

db.r4.2xlarge Name of the compute and memory capacity class of the

database instance.

Database auto minor

version upgrade

(DBAutoMinorVersion

Upgrade)

true If set to true, minor engine upgrades are applied to the

database instance. If set to false, minor engine upgrades are

not applied to the database instance.

MSSQL database

engine edition

(SQLEngineEdition)

sqlserver-se MSSQL database engine edition.

MSSQL database

engine version

(SQLEngineVersion)

14.00.3223.3.v1 MSSQL database engine version.

MSSQL always on

(SQLAlwaysOn)

Optional Set to true if you want SQL to be always on (high availability)

for the deployment. Beware that this only applies when

SQLEngineEdition is set to sqlserver-ee (Enterprise


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Parameter label


Edition) as the MSSQL database engine edition. If set to

false, SQL will be deployed to one Availability Zone.

Data volume size

(VolumeSize)

500 Volume size (GB) for the SQL data, logs, and TempDb

volumes.

Data volume type

(VolumeType)

gp2 Volume type for the SQL data, logs, and TempDb volumes.

Data volume IOPS

(VolumeIops)

1000 Provisioned IOPS for the SQL data, logs, and TempDb

volumes. This parameter only applies when VolumeType is set

to io1.

ElastiCache Redis configuration:

Parameter label


Redis cache node type

(CacheNodeType)

cache.m4.large Instance type the nodes are launched under.

Redis port

(RedisPort)

6379 Port number for Redis ElastiCache.

AWS Quick Start configuration:

Note: Unless you are customizing the Quick Start templates for your own

deployment projects, we recommend keeping the default values for the following

three parameters. Changing them automatically updates code references to point to a

new Quick Start location. For more information, see the Quick Start Contributor’s

Guide.

Parameter label


Quick Start S3 bucket

name

(QSS3BucketName)

aws-quickstart S3 bucket name for the Quick Start assets. Quick Start bucket

name can include numbers, lowercase letters, uppercase

letters, and hyphens (-). It cannot start or end with a

hyphen (-).


Region

(QSS3BucketRegion)

us-east-1 AWS Region where the Quick Start S3 bucket

(QSS3BucketName) is hosted. When using your own bucket,

you must specify this value.

Quick Start S3 key

prefix

(QSS3KeyPrefix)

quickstart-sitecore-

xp/

S3 key prefix for the Quick Start assets. Quick Start key prefix

can include numbers, lowercase letters, uppercase letters,

hyphens (-), and forward slash (/).

https://aws-quickstart.github.io/index.html



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OPTION 2: PARAMETERS FOR DEPLOYING SITECORE XP 9.3 INTO AN EXISTING VPC

View template

Network configuration:

Parameter label


VPC CIDR

(VPCCIDR)

10.0.0.0/16 CIDR block for the VPC.

VPC ID

(VPCID)

Requires input ID of the VPC (e.g., vpc-0343606e).

Private subnet 1A ID

(PrivateSubnet1A)

Requires input ID of the private subnet 1 in Availability Zone 1 (e.g., subnet-

a0246dcd).

Private subnet 2A ID

(PrivateSubnet2A)

Requires input ID of the private subnet 2 in Availability Zone 2 (e.g., subnet-

a0246dcd).

Public subnet 1 ID

(PublicSubnet1)

Requires input Public subnet in Availability Zone 1.

Public subnet 2 ID

(PublicSubnet2)

Requires input Public subnet in Availability Zone 2.

Sitecore networking configuration:

Parameter label


Content delivery

FQDN

(CDDNSName)

Requires input Fully qualified domain name for the content delivery role.

(e.g., home.example.com).

Content management

FQDN

(CMDNSName)

Requires input Fully qualified domain name for the content management

role.

Identity server FQDN

(ISDNSName)

Requires input Fully qualified domain name for the identity server role.

Internal DNS suffix

(IntDNS)

Optional Internal DNS name. If left blank, one is generated for you. If

you have a private Route 53–hosted zone or private DNS

connected to your VPC, please provide the DNS suffix of the

hosted zone.

Internal Route 53–

hosted zone ID

(IntVPCR53Zone)

Optional If you already have a private Route 53–hosted zone connected

to your VPC, please provide the Route 53–hosted zone ID.

Private (non-Route

53) DNS

(VPCPrivateDNS)

false Set to true if you have your own provided DNS servers for

your VPC. Should you have your own DNS servers, you must

create Canonical Name Record (CNAME) entries for the

https://fwd.aws/YK5QR


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Parameter label


Sitecore roles. Please see the deployment guide for details. Set

to false if you have a private Route 53–hosted zone connected

to your VPC.

External ACM ARN

(ExternalCertificate

ARN)

Optional Provide the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the wildcard

certificate created in ACM. If one is not provided, a wildcard

certificate is created. If you provide an ARN, you do not need

to provide details for ExternalCertFQDN or

ExternalR53ZoneID.

External certificate

domain name

(ExternalCertFQDN)

Optional External domain name for the Sitecore deployment (e.g.,

example.com). This is created in ACM as a wildcard certificate

(e.g., *.example.com) if no value is provided for

ExternalCertificateARN.

External Route 53

zone ID

(ExternalR53ZoneID)

Optional If you require certificate validation via DNS, provide the

Route 53–hosted zone ID for ExternalCertFQDN. If no Route

53–hosted zone ID is provided, validation is done via email.

Sitecore configuration:

Parameter label


Minimum content

delivery instances

(CDMinSize)

1 Minimum number of content delivery instances available.

Maximum content

delivery instances

(CDMaxSize)

3 Maximum number of content delivery instances available.

Desired content

delivery instances

(CDDesiredCapacity)

2 Desired number of content delivery instances available.

Content delivery

(CDInstanceType)

m5a.xlarge Content delivery instance type.

Content delivery

scaling metric

(CDScalingMetric)

ASGAverage

CPUUtilization

Metric used to determine scaling of the content delivery role.

Content delivery


(CDScalingMetric

Value)



Minimum content

management

instances

(CMMinSize)

1 Minimum number of content management instances

available.


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Parameter label


Maximum content

management

instances

(CMMaxSize)

2 Maximum number of content management instances

available.

Content management,

identity, reference

data

(CmIdRdInstanceType)

m5a.xlarge Instance type, applied to the roles of content management,

identity, and reference data.

Content management

scaling metric

(CMScalingMetric)

ASGAverageCPU

Utilization

Metric used to determine scaling of the content management

role.

Content management


(CMScalingMetric

Value)



Collection, collection

search

(CollCSInstance

Type)

m5a.xlarge Instance type, applied to the roles of collection and collection

search.

Marketing

automation, cortex

processing,

processing

(MaCpPrcInstanceType)

m5a.xlarge Instance type, applied to the roles of marketing automation,

cortex processing, and processing.

Marketing automation

reporting, cortex

reporting, reporting

(MarCrRepInstance

Type)

m5a.xlarge Instance type, applied to the roles of marketing automation

reporting, cortex reporting, and reporting.

EC2 key pair for

Sitecore instances

(SitecoreKeyPair)

Requires input EC2 key pair to use for the Sitecore instances.


prefix

(SitecorePrefix)

Requires input Prefix to be used for the Sitecore installation. This is limited to

8 characters.

Sitecore resources S3

bucket

(SitecoreS3Bucket)

Requires input S3 bucket name where the Sitecore 9.3 resources are located

(installation files, license file, etc.). This deployment puts

objects into this bucket.


files prefix

(SCResourcesPrefix)

resources/ Prefix in the S3 bucket for the Sitecore install files (e.g.,

resources/).


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Parameter label


Sitecore license file

prefix

(SCLicensePrefix)

license/ Prefix in the S3 bucket for the license.zip file (e.g., license/).

Solr server/cluster

URL

(SOLRUrl)

Optional URL of your Solr server/cluster. If no URL is provided a

development Solr instance is created for this Sitecore

deployment. Note: This development Solr instance should not

be used within a production environment.

Prefix of the Solr

cores

(SOLRCorePrefix)

Requires input If you provided a Solr URL, this is the prefix of your pre-

configured Solr cores. If no Solr URL provided, this is the

prefix used for the Solr cores on the development Solr

instance.

Sitecore environment

type

(EnvironmentType)

Production Type of Sitecore deployment.

Sitecore log level

(SCLogLevel)

Information Sitecore deployment configured log level.

SQL Server configuration:

Parameter label (name) Default Description

Database instance class

(DBInstanceClass)

db.r4.2xlarge Name of the compute and memory capacity class of the

database instance.

Database auto minor

version upgrade

(DBAutoMinorVersion

Upgrade)

false If set to true, minor engine upgrades are applied to the

database instance. If set to false, minor engine upgrades are

not applied to the database instance.

MSSQL database

engine edition

(SQLEngineEdition)

sqlserver-se MSSQL database engine edition.

MSSQL database

engine version

(SQLEngineVersion)

14.00.3223.3.v1 MSSQL database engine version.

MSSQL always on

(SQLAlwaysOn)

Optional Set to true if you want SQL to be always on (high

availability) for the deployment. Beware that this only

applies if SQLEngineEdition is set to sqlserver-ee as the

MSSQL database engine edition. If set to false, SQL is

deployed to one Availability Zone.

Data volume size

(VolumeSize)

500 Volume size (GB) for the SQL data, logs, and TempDb

volumes.

Data volume type

(VolumeType)

gp2 Volume type for the SQL data, logs and, TempDb volumes.


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Parameter label (name) Default Description

Data volume IOPS

(VolumeIops)

1000 Provisioned IOPS for the SQL data, logs, and TempDb

volumes. This parameter only applies when VolumeType is

set to io1.

Retention period

(BackupRetentionPeriod)

7 Number of days for which automated backups are retained.

To enable backups, set this parameter to a positive number.

To disable automated backups, set this parameter to zero.

Redis ElastiCache configuration:

Parameter label


Redis cache node type

(CacheNodeType)

cache.m4.large Instance type the nodes are launched under.

Redis port

(RedisPort)

6379 Port number to be used for Redis ElastiCache.

AWS Quick Start configuration:

Note: Unless you are customizing the Quick Start templates for your own

deployment projects, we recommend keeping the default values for the following two

parameters. Changing them automatically updates code references to point to a new

Quick Start location. For more information, see the Quick Start Contributor’s Guide.

Parameter label



name

(QSS3BucketName)

aws-quickstart If you decide to customize the Quick Start for your own use,

this is the S3 bucket you created for your Quick Start assets.

The bucket name can contain numbers, lowercase letters,

uppercase letters, and hyphens (-), but should not start or end

with a hyphen (-).


Region (QSS3BucketRegion)

us-east-1 AWS Region where the Quick Start S3 bucket

(QSS3BucketName) is hosted. When using your own bucket,

you must specify this value.

Quick Start S3 key

prefix

(QSS3KeyPrefix)

quickstart-sitecore-

xp/

S3 key name prefix used to simulate a folder for your copy of

Quick Start assets. You must use this if you want to customize

the Quick Start for your own use. This prefix can include

numbers, lowercase letters, uppercase letters, hyphens (-), and

forward slashes (/).

5. On the options page, you can specify tags (key-value pairs) for resources in your stack

and set advanced options. When you’re done, choose Next.


https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/UsingMetadata.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-properties-resource-tags.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/cfn-console-add-tags.html


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6. On the Review page, review and confirm the template settings. Under Capabilities,

select the two check boxes to acknowledge that the template creates IAM resources and

might require the capability to auto-expand macros.

7. Choose Create stack to deploy the stack.

8. Monitor the status of the stack. When the status is CREATE_COMPLETE, the

Sitecore XP 9.3 cluster is ready.

9. Use the URLs displayed in the Outputs tab for the stack to view the create resources.

Figure 3: Sitecore XP 9.3 outputs after successful deployment


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Step 3. Post-deployment steps

Once the Quick Start deployment completes successfully, create DNS entries in your

internet-facing DNS for the content delivery, content management, and identity servers.

These CNAME entries correspond to the names provided in the initial parameters for the

deployment and point to the listed ExternalALBDNS value in the outputs for SitecoreStack.

If you deploy this Quick Start into an existing VPC using your self-managed DNS, you must

create DNS CNAME entries for the Sitecore roles. The required CNAME host name and

corresponding load balancer DNS can be found in the outputs of RolesStack and SitecoreStack,

respectively. When it’s updated, log in to the instance that hosts the marketing automation

role, and start the Sitecore marketing automation windows service.

Step 4. Test the deployment

Use a web browser to find the DNS name you provided for the content delivery role.

To log in to Sitecore, retrieve the administrator password by opening AWS Secrets Manager

from within the Region where you deployed this Quick Start. Search for “sitecoreadmin” to

find the password value.

When you have the password, use a web browser to find the DNS name for either the

content delivery role or content management role. Append /sitecore/admin to the DNS

name. This displays the login screen where you can log in and configure your Sitecore

environment.

Best practices for using Sitecore XP 9.3 on AWS

Use AWS CloudFormation for ongoing management.

We recommend using the AWS CloudFormation console to manage updates and deletions

for the resources that this Quick Start creates. Use the Amazon EC2 console, AWS

command line interface (CLI), or application programming interface (API) to change or

delete resources created by this Quick Start. Otherwise, future AWS CloudFormation

operations on the stack may behave unexpectedly.

All Sitecore instances are in the private subnet, so there is no access to them from the

internet. Both Amazon RDS and Amazon ElastiCache are accessible only from within the

VPC and not from the internet. All traffic is routed to the Sitecore instances via the

deployed load balancers.


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Other useful information

Personalized content on Sitecore roles

Once the deployment of the Sitecore Quick Start is complete, you have a default installation

of Sitecore XP 9.3 in your AWS account. Your custom Sitecore site must then be deployed to

the Sitecore roles. Any media for your site (for example, pictures and videos) should be

stored within an S3 bucket and referenced within the website’s code. Storing local media

content through Sitecore roles should be avoided because it can increase the load on your

content instances. It may also affect Auto Scaling because it takes time to transfer media to

a new instance.

Parameter Store

All Sitecore role installations are done via the Sitecore Installation Framework (SIF). Using

SIF allows parameters to be passed to the Sitecore role installation when the instance starts

for the first time. All of these parameters are stored within AWS Systems Manager

Parameter Store. If any of the values within Parameter Store are updated, the instances can

be deleted so that when the instance starts up, the Sitecore installation uses the updated

parameter values. For example, this could be used to update the Solr URL or Solr Core

prefix for the Sitecore roles.

Secrets Manager

All Sitecore passwords are generated via AWS Secrets Manager. They are referenced when

the databases are created and the Sitecore roles are installed.

Sitecore certificates

Because Sitecore requires Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) communication between roles, an

internal self-signed certificate is generated. This certificate is imported into the certificate

store on the Sitecore AMI and then exported and stored in the S3 bucket provided in the

deployment parameters. The certificate is then converted and imported into ACM via a

Lambda function and used on the internal Application Load Balancer for the HTTPS

listener. All other internal Sitecore roles sit behind their own Network Load Balancers

because they require TLS pass-through.

The certificate is valid for five years from the date of installation. Should a new certificate be

needed for the Sitecore deployment, one can be generated by running the sc-new-

certs.ps1 script, which can be found in the C:\quickstart\scripts folder. When it’s

generated, the certificate must be converted, imported into ACM, and updated on the

internal Application Load Balancer listener.


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Sitecore Internet Information Service configurations

Because Sitecore is a database- and personalization-driven CMS, the Sitecore Internet

Information Service (IIS) must be configured for preloaded content, and the application

pool must always be running. When you install a Sitecore role, the corresponding

application pool is set to AlwaysRunning and the website is set to preload content.

Redis for session management

While the content delivery role installs, the Sitecore configuration files update for both

private- and shared-session management. If these files are overwritten by custom content,

they must be updated with the correct Redis details.

The URL for Redis can be found in the CloudFormation outputs, or in the SSM Parameter

Store.

FAQ

Q. I encountered a CREATE_FAILED error when I launched the Quick Start.

A. If AWS CloudFormation fails to create the stack, we recommend that you relaunch the

template with Rollback on failure set to Disabled. (This setting is under Advanced in

the AWS CloudFormation console, Options page.) With this setting, the stack’s state is

retained, and the instance is left running so you can troubleshoot the issue. (For Windows,

look at the log files in %ProgramFiles%\Amazon\EC2ConfigService and C:\cfn\log.)

Important: When you set Rollback on failure to Disabled, you continue to

incur AWS charges for the stack. Please ensure to delete the stack when you finish

troubleshooting.

For additional information, see Troubleshooting AWS CloudFormation on the AWS

website.

Q. I encountered a size limitation error when I deployed the AWS CloudFormation

templates.

A. We recommend that you launch the Quick Start templates from the links in this guide or

from another S3 bucket. If you deploy the templates from a local copy on your computer or

from a non-S3 location, you might encounter template size limitations. For more

information about AWS CloudFormation quotas, see the AWS documentation.

Q. When browsing the content-delivery website, I get a 504 error.

https://doc.sitecore.com/developers/93/platform-administration-and-architecture/en/walkthrough--configuring-a-shared-session-state-database-using-the-redis-provider.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/troubleshooting.html

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/cloudformation-limits.html


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A. This issue is experienced if the content-delivery or content-management server takes

more than 60 seconds to respond to an Application Load Balancer request. Ensure that the

Sitecore role has the IIS Application Pool configured to remain running. Based on the

complexity of your website, responses from the database and other roles can also affect

response time. Ensure that the database and instances are sized correctly for your

environment.

Using browser caching or a content delivery network can also assist the caching of common

content and therefore reduce the load on the Sitecore environment.

Q. When I try to log in to the Sitecore administrator interface, I get an incorrect

password error.

A. Despite installation logs that show the password was correctly configured, there are

known issues where the specified Sitecore administrator password in AWS Secrets Manager

is not successfully applied. To log in, you must reset the password in the Sitecore Core

database.

Q. How do I update SSL certificates when they expire?

A. Please see the Other useful information section for guidance about updating internal

Sitecore certificates.

Q. Where are the deployment logs?

A. All resources and logs for deployments are found either in Amazon CloudWatch Logs or

in the instances themselves under C:\resources\logs\.

Q. How do I apply a new license?

A. When a Sitecore license expires, manually update it for each instance by copying your

Sitecore license.xml file to the /site/wwwroot/App_Data directory. But, if an Auto Scaling

group creates a new instance, it attempts to retrieve the Sitecore license from the S3 bucket

and prefix provided in the initial deployment. Therefore, it’s necessary to replace the

existing license by uploading a new Sitecore license into the S3 bucket and prefix.

Send us feedback

To post feedback, submit feature ideas, or report bugs, use the Issues section of the

GitHub repository for this Quick Start. If you’d like to submit code, please review the Quick

Start Contributor’s Guide.

https://fwd.aws/vxPqD

https://aws-quickstart.github.io/

https://aws-quickstart.github.io/


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Additional resources

AWS resources

Getting Started with AWS

AWS General Reference

AWS Glossary

AWS services

AWS CloudFormation

Amazon EBS

Amazon EC2

IAM

Amazon VPC

Sitecore XP 9.3 documentation

Developer and platform administration documentation

Other Quick Start reference deployments

AWS Quick Start home page

Document revisions

Date Change In sections

May 2020 Initial publication —

https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started/

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/glos-chap.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AmazonEBS.html

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ec2/

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iam/

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/

https://doc.sitecore.com/developers/93/index.html

https://aws.amazon.com/quickstart/


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© 2020, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates, and <partner organization>. All rights

reserved.

Notices

This document is provided for informational purposes only. It represents AWS’s current product offerings

and practices as of the date of issue of this document, which are subject to change without notice. Customers

are responsible for making their own independent assessment of the information in this document and any

use of AWS’s products or services, each of which is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, whether

express or implied. This document does not create any warranties, representations, contractual

commitments, conditions or assurances from AWS, its affiliates, suppliers or licensors. The responsibilities

and liabilities of AWS to its customers are controlled by AWS agreements, and this document is not part of,

nor does it modify, any agreement between AWS and its customers.

The software included with this paper is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"). You

may not use this file except in compliance with the License. A copy of the License is located at

http://aws.amazon.com/apache2.0/ or in the "license" file accompanying this file. This code is distributed on

an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.

See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

http://aws.amazon.com/apache2.0/

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