What is AWS and EMR?
AWS stands for Amazon Web Services. It is a secure cloud services platform, offering compute power, database storage, content delivery and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow. Elastic Map Reduce (EMR) is a provisioning of the Hadoop Cluster through AWS.
In order to use Amazon EMR, you will need to either use a starter account (no credit card attached) or create an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account.
IMPORTANT: The options below are for course offerings without classroom account. If your instructor told you the they set up a classroom account, then you will receive an invitation email with instructions. Getting started with this account is covered in a course lab session.
Step I: Signing up for an AWS Educate Account
- Access the AWS Educate Website.
- Click on Join AWS Educate and select Student.
- Select starter account (preferred) or provide your AWS Account ID (not recommended – see below).
- If you used your @wustl.edu email address already, sign-up using @email.wustl.edu!
Step II: Starter Account (preferred)
After submitting the application, you should receive an email with link and instructions to access your starter account. This might take some time. If you cannot create a starter account, go back to Step I and try using your @email.wustl.edu email address to sign up for AWS Educate.
Verify your account:
- Head to https://www.awseducate.com/student/s/ and sign into your AWS Educate Starter account.
- Find the account status information, which looks something like this:
- Find the account status information, which looks something like this:
- Click on AWS Console to sign-in. If you have a pop-up blocker on, you may need to disable it. Additionally, if you already have an AWS account, you will be required to sign out before accessing your starter account.
Step II: Existing Account (not recommended)
1. SETUP:
- If you want to use an existing AWS account,
- Check if it is affiliated with your wustl.edu email address. Do not use your private email address/amazon account!
- To find your account ID, Sign In to the Console and login with your password. You will see something like this:
- Click on your username in the upper right corner, followed by My Account and copy the Account Id under Account Settings.
- After submitting the application, you should receive an email with a credit/promo code.
- Visit: https://console.aws.amazon.com/billing/home#/credits and enter your credit code:
2. Get Started:
Important: Do only use this account if you have credit! To check, ding-in to the AWS console, click on your username near the upper right corner and then click on the second to last item called Credits on the left side. This site should list your available credit. (console.aws.amazon.com/billing/home?#/credits)
If you do not see any credit there, do ***not*** use this account!
- Go to https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ and click get started with Amazon EC2/Try Amazon EC2 for Free.
Step III: Creating a Billing Alarm (Existing Accounts only)
This step is only required if you use your personal account. Not required for starter accounts. Since your personal credit card is attached to the AWS account, you should set a billing alarm to alert you if the limits of the free tier get exceeded.
Follow this AWS User Guide to create a billing alarm.
Now, we are ready to use EMR on AWS.