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Preparing AWS

You can leverage the Amazon Web Services ecosystem to run machines on-demand all in one place.

Follow the guide below to link QAssist and your Microsoft Azure instance.

Pre-requisites

AWS Regions

The following resources should be in the same region and VPC

  • A VPC1
    • With a NAT Gateway2
    • With 2 subnets with a NAT Gateway (It can be the same NAT Gateway)
      • Subnet A - Will be used for the bridge
      • Subnet B - Will be used for the on-demand machines
  • A way to run the bridge, we recommend ECS service3
    • If you wish to host it differently, follow the guide here

Setup IAM Access

For QAssist to communicate with Amazon Web Services, you will need to create an IAM Account with an Access Key

Follow the guide here, make a note of the following:

  • Access Key
  • Access Key Secret

You will also need to apply the permissions below to the created user.

IAM Permissions

IAM Permissions

The following permissions are required and need to be applied to the IAM user

ec2:CreateTags
ec2:RunInstances
ec2:DescribeRegions
ec2:DescribeVpcs
ec2:DescribeSubnets
ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups
ec2:DescribeInstanceTypeOfferings
ec2:DescribeInstanceTypes
ec2:GetPasswordData
ec2:DescribeImages
ec2:DescribeInstances
ec2:StartInstances
ec2:RebootInstances
ec2:StopInstances
ec2:TerminateInstances

Setup Bridge

This section only applies if you are using ECS using the recommended settings. Any other services or ways to run the bridge are out of scope of this document.

  1. Create your ECS service, using the recommended settings
  2. Follow this guide to create a bridge on QAssist, with the following settings
    1. URL - This will be the Domain from the Web App for Containers
    2. Make a note of the secret key you receive in your email
  3. Set the following environment variable in the ECS container
    1. Name - Cipher__Key
    2. Value - The secret key you received when creating the bridge
  4. The bridge setup is complete

Setup Provider

  1. In QAssist go to Providers and click Create Provider
    1. Type - AWS
    2. Name - choose a friendly name
    3. Access Key - From IAM User
    4. Access Key Secret - From IAM User
    5. Region - The region where the pre-requisite resources where created
    6. Endpoint (Optional) - The API endpoint to communicate with
  2. Click Add, QAssist will run some checks, which may take a few minutes
  3. QAssist should now be able to communicate with your Amazon Web Services instance

  1. QAssist will only create machines in the VPC configured, Learn more. ↩

  2. A NAT gateway is required for machines to access the internet ↩

  3. ECS is a fast and cost-effective way to get the bridge up and running ↩