In this webinar, we review the steps necessary to design, set up, and deploy IT cloud infrastructure for running a multi-server, Microsoft SharePoint Server farm on AWS. In this webinar we will also cover how to architect for high availability and provision the relevant AWS services and resources to run SharePoint Server workloads at scale on the AWS Cloud. You will find out where to access available content and tools, such as AWS CloudFormation templates and the Advanced Implementation Guide that will help you quickly implement and customize a scalable, enterprise-class SharePoint Server farm on AWS. This webinar is designed for a technical audience. After the presentation, you will have an opportunity to participate in a live Q&A discussion, where you may write in questions to AWS team members.

1. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013
on the AWS Cloud
Whitepaper by: Mike Pfeiffer
Presented by: Matt Tavis

2. Introduction
This Quick Start Reference Deployment includes architectural considerations and
configurations used to build a Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 environment on
the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. We discuss how to build and configure the
necessary AWS services, such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)
and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) to deploy a highly available
SharePoint farm across separate AWS Availability Zones.
We also provide links to automated AWS CloudFormation templates that you can
leverage for your implementation or launch directly into your AWS account.
This presentation gives an overview of the process to create the example solution. It does not outline each step. For the detailed overview,
please consult the whitepaper available here: http://aws.amazon.com/quickstart

3. Microsoft Platform on AWS
• Partnership to support running Windows
Server-based workloads on AWS
• Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) with
Windows Server and SQL Server today
that were jointly developed by Microsoft
and AWS
• SharePoint Server and other Microsoft
server products can be licensed to run on
AWS
Two licensing models:
• Windows Server
• SQL Server Standard
Pay-as-you-go –
AMI pricing
includes software
• SQL Server Enterprise
• SharePoint Server
• Other qualifying Microsoft Windows Server
products*
BYOL – use
existing licenses on
AWS
*General info on AWS and License Mobility for a variety of MS server products:
http://aws.amazon.com/windows/mslicensemobility/
Detail on AWS and License Mobility with SQL Server:
http://aws.amazon.com/windows/mslicensemobility/sql/
Microsoft “License Mobility through Software Assurance” gives Microsoft Volume Licensing
customers the flexibility to deploy Windows Server applications with active Software
Assurance (SA) on Amazon Web Services.

4. Summary – What We Will Cover
Architecture Scenarios
Server Role Architecture
Quick Start Deployment Steps
Post Configuration Steps

5. Architecture Scenarios
Server Role Architecture
Quick Start Deployment Steps
Post Configuration Steps

6. Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC)
Recommended Amazon VPC configuration for
Windows based Architecture requires:
• Critical workloads placed in a minimum of 2 Availability Zones
• Internal application and non-internet facing servers placed in
private subnets
• RD Gateway deployed in public subnets in each Availability Zone
Base-level Amazon VPC design deployed to
support SharePoint Server 2013 infrastructure is
shown in diagram
Amazon VPC lets you provision a private, isolated section of the AWS cloud where you
can launch AWS services and other resources in a virtual network that you define.

7. Remote Administration
• RD Gateway uses the Remote Desktop Protocol
(RDP) over HTTPS to establish a secure,
encrypted connection
• Remote Desktop Gateway architecture and
configuration steps are already installed by the
CloudFormation templates
• Connect your instances using a standard RDP
TCP Port 3389 connection
Deploying Remote Desktop Gateway in each Availability Zone will allow for highly
available and secure remote access.

8. Active Directory Domain Services
There are two ways to use AD DS in the AWS Cloud:
• Cloud only - as shown in the figure
• Hybrid - takes advantage of your existing AD DS environment
Base-level Amazon VPC design shown in diagram is
deployed to support SharePoint Server 2013
infrastructure
To provide user authentication and authorization, the Microsoft SharePoint servers in this
reference architecture use Active Directory Domain Services. You should place at least
one Domain Controller in a private subnet in each Availability Zone for redundancy and
high availability.

9. Architecture Scenarios
Server Role Architecture
Quick Start Deployment Steps
Post Configuration Steps

10. Server Role Architecture
There are a number of ways to design the topology of your SharePoint farm depending on your
requirements. Microsoft provides guidance for two separate architectural approaches for SharePoint
2013:
1. Traditional topologies
2. Streamlined topologies

11. Server Role Architecture
Common architectures are:
Two Tiered Three Tiered
Traditional topologies use approaches to building your architecture with web servers,
application servers, and database servers.

12. Server Role Architecture
Tiers in a SharePoint 2013 farm built with a traditional topology:
Web Tier Application Tier Database Tier

13. Server Role Architecture
Common architectures are:
• Front End Servers
• Batch-Processing servers
• Database Servers
• Distributed cache
• Request management
• Specialized workloads
• Search
With Streamlined topologies services and other components are distributed to
maximize server resources.

14. Server Role Architecture
Office Web Apps Server
• Allows users to view and edit Office documents
in SharePoint libraries on various devices
• Can also be used by other enterprise
products for rendering Office
documents through a browser
• Post configuration steps are required and
provided later

15. Server Role Architecture
Intranet SharePoint Server Farm on AWS
• Load balancer will be accessible only from
the internal network
• Create a VPN tunnel to enable internal
network connectivity
• Direct Connect service allows you to
create a direct network connection
from your data center into the AWS cloud
• Elastic Load Balancing will also provide high
availability in the event of a server failure
• AWS CloudFormation template allows you to
choose how to implement Elastic Load
Balancing

16. Server Role Architecture
A Microsoft SharePoint Server farm on AWS
should implement strict security controls and
features including:
• Security Groups
• Network Access Control Lists
• Secure Website Publishing

17. Server Role Architecture
EC2 Instance Types:
• Minimum requirement values
• Quick Start uses instances that give you additional capacity over minimum requirements
• Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes are used as the boot volume for each
instance

18. Server Role Architecture
Customize your Topology at Template Launch by choosing how many SharePoint servers
to deploy into your environment.
• Two SharePoint servers per Availability Zone
provide the minimum number of servers for
high availability.
• Three SharePoint servers per Availability Zone
will give you a third set of servers for dedicated
services.
• Four SharePoint servers per Availability Zone
provide enough infrastructure for a large farm in
a Streamlined topology.

19. Architecture Scenarios
Server Role Architecture
Quick Start Deployment Steps
Post Configuration Steps
19

20. Quick Start Deployment Steps
1. Launch Microsoft WSFC and SQL Server AlwaysOn Quick Start
Launch Stack.
2. Prepare a media volume snapshot
3. Launch the SharePoint Server 2013 Stack
Launch Stack

21. Template Customization
Template helps you deploy the SharePoint 2013 servers in the
AWS architecture
• Allows for customization of
30 defined parameters
• You can modify these or
use them as a guide for
creating your own
set of parameters
Launch Stack
21
Template takes about 3
hours to complete
Template will cost about
$25 of AWS Service
hours

22. Architecture Scenarios
Server Role Architecture
Quick Start Deployment Steps
Post Configuration Steps
22

23. Post Configuration Tasks
1. Navigate to SharePoint Central Administration (http://sp1:18473/) to configure your SharePoint farm
services.
2. If you’ve included Office Web Apps servers in your template launch, you will need to configure them
to work with your SharePoint farm.
3. To provide high availability and automatic failover for your Microsoft SQL Server databases, you can
create AlwaysOn Availability Groups and add database replicas to the second SQL Server node.
After you have completed the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 deployment outlined in the
previous section, follow these steps to complete the configuration of your SharePoint server
farm.

24. Additional Resources
Web Pages
Microsoft on AWS
http://aws.amazon.com/microsoft/
Windows on AWS (includes pricing)
http://aws.amazon.com/windows/
Reference Deployment Quickstart
http://aws.amazon.com/quickstart/
quickstart@amazon.com
AWS Windows and .NET Developer Center (with sdk)
http://aws.amazon.com/net/
Amazon EC2 Windows Guide
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/
Microsoft Licensing
http://aws.amazon.com/windows/mslicensemobility/
Covers Exchange, SharePoint, SQL, Lync, SCOM, and Dynamics.
See page for specific details, including which versions are covered.
Whitepapers
Implementing Active Directory Domain Services on AWS
Implementing Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering and SQL
Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups in the AWS Cloud
Remote Desktop Gateway Reference Architecture
Exchange on AWS Implementation & Planning Guide
Secure Microsoft Applications on AWS
more at http://aws.amazon.com/microsoft/whitepapers
Contact Us
https://aws.amazon.com/microsoft/contact-us/
If you have either business or technical questions about running
Microsoft software on AWS, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

25. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 on the AWS
Cloud
Thank You
25