Deploy to Amazon EC2: Host a Single Instance of Neo4j on AWS

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This page is no longer supported. To learn more about deploying a single instance of Neo4j on Amazon EC2 platform, visit the Neo4j page on AWS.
Goals
This guide explains how to deploy a single instance of Neo4j on Amazon’s EC2 platform.
Prerequisites
You should know how to run and operate Neo4j locally. Knowledge of remote drivers to access Neo4j from your application helps you connect to your cloud-hosted database.

Before continuing with the guide, make sure you have installed the AWS Command Line Interface. If you are not comfortable using the command line, you can install Neo4j using the AWS web console instead.

Let’s get started!

Create EC2 key pair

First, we need to create an EC2 key pair that we will use to connect to our instance via SSH.

export KEY_NAME="Neo4j-AWSMarketplace-Key"
aws ec2 create-key-pair \
  --key-name $KEY_NAME \
  --query 'KeyMaterial' \
  --output text > $KEY_NAME.pem

If you have an existing key that you would like to use instead, you can set KEY_NAME to the name of that key pair and ignore the 2nd line in the above command that creates one.

Create security group

Now, we will create a security group, which will allow us to control access to our instance. Run the following command to create a new security group:

export GROUP="neo4j-sg"
aws ec2 create-security-group \
  --group-name $GROUP \
  --description "Neo4j security group"

Next, let us open Neo4j’s HTTP, HTTPS, and Bolt ports so we can access the server from our application. We will also open the SSH port so we can remotely access the instance. All of these steps are completed in the below command.

for port in 22 7474 7473 7687; do
  aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-name $GROUP --protocol tcp --port $port --cidr 0.0.0.0/0
done

If you have an existing group that you would like to use instead, set GROUP to the name of that group and ignore the rest of the commands.

Locate the AMI ID you want to launch

To start the instance, we’ll need the ID of an Amazon Machine Image (AMI).

Neo4j publishes many different versions, and the AMI ID depends on which region you want to launch in. AMI IDs are specific to regions, so you need to locate the right ID for your version and region needs. For that reason, in the instructions below we will provide just a placeholder AMI of ami-XYZ.

To get the right AMI ID, you can follow these instructions:

  • Open the AWS EC2 console, and select Images > AMIs on the left-hand nav bar.

  • In the filter, select Public images and search for either "neo4j-enterprise" or "neo4j-community" depending on which version you would like to use.

  • You will know you are using the right one when you see the "Owner" field showing this number: 385155106615

  • Locate the version you want, and use the AMI ID in the script below.

  • As an example: Neo4j Enterprise 3.5.1 is AMI ID ami-009272c7ac939919d in region us-west-2. As new versions are published, they will be mentioned in the Cloud topic on the Neo4j community site.

If you would like to use the CLI to do this same step, the following command locates all image IDs and names for the images Neo4j publishes in us-east-1 region. By changing the region, you can find AMI IDs near you.

aws ec2 describe-images \
   --region us-east-1 \
   --owner 385155106615 \
   --query "Images[*].{ImageId:ImageId,Name:Name}"

Start up the instance

We are now ready to start up a Neo4j instance.

Make sure to substitute ami-XYZ with your chosen AMI ID from the directions above!

aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id ami-XYZ \
  --count 1 \
  --instance-type m3.medium \
  --key-name $KEY_NAME \
  --security-groups $GROUP \
  --query "Instances[*].InstanceId" \
  --region us-east-1

We do not yet have a public DNS name but it should be available after a few seconds.

We can run the following command to find out what it is:

aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --instance-ids [InstanceId] \
  --query "Reservations[*].Instances[*].PublicDnsName" \
  --region us-east-1

Please note that your security group settings may affect whether or not a public DNS name is associated with your instance. If this command does not work for you, check to make sure your security group is properly configured and that it is not associated with a VPC.

Now, let’s navigate to https://[PublicDnsName]:7473 and login with the user name neo4j and password neo4j.

Some methods of launching Neo4j on AWS (such as via the AWS marketplace) automatically set the password of an instance to the instance ID you launched. Other methods (such as when launching enteprise AMIs directly) leave the password as the default neo4j. In either case, we recommend changing the password immediately after you launch.

How do I SSH into the instance?

You can run the following command to SSH into the instance:

ssh -i $KEY_NAME.pem ubuntu@[PublicDnsName]

You might get an error about the permissions on the pem file, so don’t forget to make sure it isn’t accessible by any other users. Permissions for the pem can be locked down similar to those shown below (owner = read+write, group = none, users = none).

chmod 600 $KEY_NAME.pem

How the AWS Virtual Machine Works

Please consult Neo4j Cloud VMs for details on internals of virtual machines, including configure Neo4j inside of the VM and access various files.

Terminating the instance

Once we have finished using the instance, we can run the following command to terminate it:

aws ec2 terminate-instances \
  --instance-ids [InstanceId] \
  --region us-east-1

Questions?

You can ask questions and connect with other people launching Neo4j in the cloud through the cloud topic on the Community Site.