Add AWS Services to the Catalog

The display name for this service in the Service Catalog (maximum 100 characters).

This name is used as the label for the Service section of the Request New Service form. Choose a distinctive Service Name to help requesters fill out the form.

Optional; up to 1000 characters.

Along with the Name field, the Description field is used in Service Catalog searches, so adding a description can help users find service catalog entries.

Choose an icon from those available, or click Manage Icons to add an icon.
For more information, see Manage icons for the service catalog.

Optional: Customize the display name for this component in the Service Catalog (maximum 100 characters).

This name is used as the label for the Component section of the Request New Service form. Choose a distinctive component name to help requesters fill out the form.

Optional: Customize the description for this component in the Service Catalog (maximum 1000 characters). A user sees the component description when viewing service details and when completing a service request form.

Specify the name for deployed instances of this component.

Select Use default naming format to use the default naming convention, or specify a customized deployed name.

Click Configure global text replacement rules to shorten your component names. See also Set up text replacement rules for service names.

Some Marketplace AMIs have costs in addition to instance type costs. Enter an amount to represent the estimated additional annual cost of this Marketplace AMI. This field allows you to display an accurate service cost to requesters. Use the View AMI details on AWS Marketplace hyperlink to get pricing information for this AMI. The value you enter will be set for the Additional Costs custom attribute for VMs deployed from this service.

The AWS cost calculator provides an hourly cost, while Commander requires an annual cost.

The preconfigured annual cost is displayed. You can change it in the Manage component types for the service catalog.

If you have set up one or more component-level completion workflows, you can select one from the drop-down menu.

Completion workflows allow you to specify actions to be carried out after deployment.

You can click Add Workflow to create a new workflow.

You can click Edit Workflow to edit the workflow that's currently selected in the drop-down list. Note that when you edit the workflow using this link, you're editing the workflow for all of the components or services it's assigned to.

While it's possible to create completion workflows for all component types, they are especially recommended for all custom components. If no completion workflow is assigned, a custom component moves immediately to the Completed state once approved. A completion workflow allows for provisioning steps to be carried out before the component moves to Completed. The completion workflow for a database instance, for example, could include a script to create the database.

Completion workflows don't act on a stack's resources (that is, its child VMs, load balancers and databases). Completion workflows act only on the stack component itself.

Enter user data to customize this VM during provisioning. For more information, see AWS User Data Syntax and Supported Variables.

Optional: Enter an AWS IAM role for this component. The maximum number of characters is 255.

Important: Commander doesn't validate IAM role names, so ensure that role names entered in Commander match those in AWS. IAM role names are not case-sensitive.

Using variable substitution, you can assign the IAM role based on information from the request process. Both custom attributes and Input Text Fields are supported as variables. For example, on the Attributes tab of the blueprint, you can create a custom attribute called IAM Role. On the Form tab of the blueprint, you can add the IAM Role custom attribute form element. Then, back on the Infrastructure tab, click  in the IAM Role field, and then select the IAM Role custom attribute: #{target.settings.customAttribute['IAM Role']}.

You can assign an IAM role to the deployment destination rather than the catalog blueprint, if you deploy the same template (AMI) to multiple deployment destinations, or if you have a large number of catalog entries. If an IAM role is configured in both the deployment destination and the blueprint, the blueprint takes precedence.

Administrators can override the IAM role during manual deployment.

To enable memory usage monitoring, enable the option Send guest OS memory usage statistics to Amazon CloudWatch.

Memory usage monitoring requires the VM to have credentials with full access to CloudWatch. You can enter a role in the IAM Role field for this purpose.

For more information, see Monitor Memory Metrics for EC2 Linux Instances and Monitor Memory Metrics for EC2 Windows Instances.

Enter an estimated annual cost and select the currency for the entire stack. For more information, see How Commander calculates costs for CloudFormation templates and stacks.

You can click Open AWS Cost Calculator to allow AWS to calculate the cost of the template. The cost calculator requires values for all parameters. In the Open AWS Cost Calculator dialog, make sure all parameters have literal (non-variable) values and click Open Cost Calculator.

The AWS cost calculator provides a monthly cost, while Commander requires an annual cost.

Set the default instance type for this specific component. Only instance types compatible with the source AMI's instance type are available for selection.  

Click Details to view more properties for the selected instance type.

Specify whether this instance type will be EBS optimized by default, if the selected instance type supports it.

EBS optimization enables additional, dedicated throughput between Amazon EC2 and Amazon EBS, and therefore improved performance for Amazon EBS volumes. Additional charges from AWS apply if you enable this option.

Assign a key pair to the instance. A key pair can be used to open an SSH session to a Linux or Solaris instance from Commander and the Service Portal. See Enable Key Pair SSH Connections to Amazon EC2 VMs to learn how to set this up.

You can choose one of the following key pair assignments for the instance:

• an existing key pair from the region
• Let System Decide: With this option, Commander automatically chooses the key pair to assign to the VM. It will choose one of the following, in the order of precedence listed below:
• a key pair that matches a key pair credential associated with the requester
• a key pair that matches a key pair credential associated with the requester's organization
• a key pair assigned to the deployment destination

Set the default storage requirements for this specific component.

The following are not supported:

• deleting the base disk
• decreasing the capacity of the base disk
• changing the encryption setting for existing disks
• adding network adapters

To add a disk, click  Add Disk. To delete a disk, click .

For each disk, you can specify the following:

Device Name: Specify the name that the block device driver for the instance will assign when mounting the volume. The name recommended by Amazon is provided; edit this value if required. See Block Device Mapping  in the AWS documentation for more information.

Capacity: Specify the disk capacity, in GB.

Volume Type: Select one of the following types from the drop-down menu. Hover over the  icon for details on each type. Fore more information, see Amazon EBS Volume Types  in the AWS documentation.

• General Purpose (SSD): General purpose Solid-State Drive volume that balances price and performance for a wide variety of transactional workloads. Recommended for system boot volumes, virtual desktops, low-latency interactive apps, development and test environments.
• Provisioned IOPS (SSD): Highest-performance SSD volume designed for mission-critical applications. Best for critical business applications that require sustained IOPS performance, or more than 10,000 IOPS or 160 MiB/s of throughput per volume, such as large database workloads and EBS-optimized instances. The ratio of IOPS provisioned and the volume size requested can be a maximum of 50.
• Magnetic: Previous-generation Hard Disk Drive volumes for workloads where data is infrequently accessed. Not recommended for new applications.
• Throughput Optimized (HDD): Low-cost Hard Disk Drive volume designed for frequently accessed, throughput-intensive workloads. Best for streaming workloads requiring consistent, fast throughput at a low price, such as big data, data warehouses, and log processing. The minimum disk size for this type is 500 GB. It can't be a boot volume.
• Cold (HDD): Lowest-cost Hard Disk Drive volume designed for less frequently accessed workloads. Best for throughput-oriented storage for large amounts of data that's infrequently accessed. The minimum disk size for this type is 500 GB. It can't be a boot volume.

IOPS: If you select the Provisioned IOPS (SSD) volume type, you must specify the number of I/O operations per second (IOPS) this volume will support. Specify a number between 100 and 10,000. A maximum ratio of 50:1 is permitted between IOPS and volume size; for example, a volume with 3000 IOPS must be at least 60 GB in size. The minimum disk size for this storage type is 4 GB.

Encryption: Specify whether to encrypt the disk. Note that not all instance types support disk encryption; see Amazon EBS Encryption  in the AWS documentation for the list of supported instance types.

Delete on Termination: By default, this disk will be deleted when the VM to which it's attached is terminated. If you want to preserve this disk so that it can be attached to a different VM when this VM is terminated, disable this option.

The new disk is created in the same availability zone as the instance it's attached to.

You can enable the Locked option to stop Service Portal users from modifying a hard disk in a service request.

Adds heading text to the form.

Adds explanatory text to the form.

Allows the requester to enter a value, such as a note or a password.

Important: If users will be entering a password on the request form, enable Hide User Input. When Hide User Input is enabled:

• Asterisks (*) are displayed for this field value in the Request Details dialog, emails, and landing pages.
• The password is stored, encrypted, in the Commander database.
• The plain-text password can be accessed through the approval workflow variable #{request.services[x].components[x].settings.inputField['field name']}. For example, if you set the Display Label for the Input Text Field to "Password", you would access the password in an approval workflow script with the variable #{request.services[1].components[1].settings.inputField['Password']}.
• If a request containing a password is copied, the password is blanked out.

Allows the requester to select options from lists that are updated in real time from an external source. If the lists can depend on other form elements, the selection of one form element can dictate the available choices for another list. For more information, see Add Dynamic Lists to Forms.

Allows the requester to upload files during the service request process. Uploaded files are added to the VM's local directory as configured in the completion workflow using the Copy Uploaded File workflow step. This allows for more flexibility when scripting unattended installations and additional VM configurations. The file upload functionality can be used with Chef or Puppet for enhanced VM deployment and orchestration. For more information about integrating with Chef or Puppet, see Integrate Chef with Commander or Integrate Puppet with Commander.

Allows the requester to specify the instance type for the VM.

Select the instance types that users requesting this service will be able to choose from. Only instance types compatible with the source AMI's instance type are available for selection. In addition, if existing disks are encrypted, only instance types with encryption support are available for selection.

Note that if you have configured automated deployment, the instance types you select must be available in the target region.

If the selected instance type supports it, this form element allows the requester to configure the instance type as EBS Optimized.

Allows the requester to specify storage requirements for a VM component.

The Storage-AWS form element works together with the Destination form element on the Service form. If you add the Destination element to the Service form and enable the Limit Selections option, the storage tiers and network zones configured for the selected deployment destination are shown on the form, rather than those you configured for the Storage-AWS element and the Network element. The Limit Selections option ensures that users don't select a storage tier or network zone that's unavailable on the target destination. For more information, see Service Request Form Elements.

Selectable Disk Types:

• General Purpose (SSD) - Recommended for system boot volumes, virtual desktops, small- to medium-sized databases and development/test environments.
• Provisioned IOPS (SSD) - Recommended for critical business applications that require sustained performance above 3000 IOPS (number of I/O operations per second), and for large database workloads. Best for EBS optimized instances. Consistently performs at the IOPS level you specify. When requesters select this option, they must specify a value for IOPS.
• Magnetic - Recommended for cold workloads where data is infrequently accessed and scenarios where the lowest storage cost is important.
• Throughput Optimized (HDD): Low-cost Hard Disk Drive volume designed for frequently accessed, throughput-intensive workloads. Best for streaming workloads requiring consistent, fast throughput at a low price, such as big data, data warehouses, and log processing. The minimum disk size for this type is 500 GB.  Can't be a boot volume.
• Cold (HDD): Lowest-cost Hard Disk Drive volume designed for less frequently accessed workloads. Best for throughput-oriented storage for large amounts of data that's infrequently accessed. The minimum disk size for this type is 500 GB. Can't be a boot volume.

Allowed Actions: Specify whether the requester can Add disks, Change disks, and Remove disks.

If you specify that the user can add disks:

• Specify the Maximum Disk Size and Maximum Extra Disks.
• Specify whether new disks will be encrypted by default with the Encryption option.
• Specify whether new disks will be deleted on termination by default with the Delete on Termination option.

If you specify that the user can change disks:

• Specify the Maximum Disk Size.
• Specify whether new disks will be encrypted by default with the Encryption option.
• Specify whether new disks will be deleted on termination by default with the Delete on Termination option.

Allows the requester to change or add network adapters for a VM component by choosing a network zone. The number of network adapters shown on the form matches the number of NICs on the source template.

When this element is on the form:

• Automatically deployed VMs can only be assigned to networks in the listed network zones, so you must assign network zones.
• If multiple destinations are available to a user, with different networks configured for each destination, you must also add the Destination form element to the Service form. If a requester wants to select a network zone that's not available on the default destination, they need to be able to select another destination. For more information, see Service Request Form Elements.

Selectable Zones: Choose one or more network zones that users may select.

Allows the requester to assign a key pair to the instance. A key pair can be used to open an SSH session to a Linux or Solaris instance from Commander and the Service Portal. See Enable Key Pair SSH Connections to Amazon EC2 VMs to learn how to set this up.

This form element allows requesters with a Commander role to choose:

• a key pair from the target region
• Let System Decide: With this option, Commander automatically chooses the key pair to assign to the VM. It will choose one of the following, in the order of precedence listed below:
• a key pair that matches a key pair credential associated with the requester
• a key pair that matches a key pair credential associated with the requester's organization
• a key pair assigned to the deployment destination

This form element allows requesters with a Service Portal role to choose:

• a key pair associated with their user name
• a key pair associated with their organization
• Let System Decide: With this option, Commander automatically chooses the key pair to assign to the VM. It will choose one of the following, in the order of precedence listed below:
• a key pair that matches a key pair credential associated with the requester
• a key pair that matches a key pair credential associated with the requester's organization
• a key pair assigned to the deployment destination

Allows the requester to specify the name of the deployed component. The Maximum Length field allows you to change the maximum number of characters (default: 50). See also Order of precedence for deployed service names.

Important: Commander does not validate that the name entered by a requester complies with AWS naming restrictions.

Allows the requester to specify custom attribute values for a component.

If you added custom attributes on the Attributes tab, or if custom attributes were assigned to the source VM template, these attributes appear in the Attributes list.

Click a custom attribute to add it to the form.

If the attribute is a list-type attribute and configured to apply only to forms, you can enable Select Multiple to allow users to select multiple values for this attribute. For more information, see Form custom attributes.

If you add a custom attribute to a component through the Form tab and add the same attribute to the service form (see Create New Service Requests), the value specified on the service form takes precedence.

Allows the requester to specify Puppet classes for a VM component. This form element appears only if a Puppet server is integrated with Commander. If a Puppet environment was selected on the Puppet tab, only classes found in the specified environment can be selected on the form. See Integrate Puppet with Commander for details.

Assign classes to nodes indirectly by assigning groups to nodes, rather than directly assigning classes to nodes. If you use the Configure Puppet workflow step to assign classes and variables to a node, Commander creates a group with the same name as the node and pins the node to the group. A parent group named "Commander" is also created to contain these groups.

Allows the requester to specify Puppet groups for a VM component. This form element appears only if a Puppet server is integrated with Commander. If a Puppet environment was selected on the Puppet tab, only groups found in the specified environment can be selected on the form. See Integrate Puppet with Commander for details.

Allows the requester to configure a Chef run-list for a VM component. This form element appears only if a Chef server is integrated with Commander. See Integrate Chef with Commander for details.

The Chef Run-List form element can't co-exist with either the Chef Recipes or the Chef Roles form element.

Allows the requester to specify Chef recipes for a VM component. This form element appears only if a Chef server is integrated with Commander. See Integrate Chef with Commander for details.

The Chef Run-List form element can't co-exist with either the Chef Recipes or the Chef Roles form element.

Some components in a multi-tier service may require other components to be started and running before they can start.

Within each group, components are sorted in alphabetical order. Components are deployed serially, not in parallel.

An administrator can override this deployment order by manually deploying components in a different order.