What is the easiest way to upgrade from a 50-license AWS Marketplace server to 100-license?

jepstein

Hi,

Ideally this would be as simple as Stopping my 50-instance license and bringing it back up with a large Instance Type.

But I haven't found any documentation on this subject.

What if anything do I need to back-up and subsequently restore? Do I need to stop my current instance and then "purchase" a new 100-license instance on the AWS Marketplace?

Would it be substantially easier just to purchase an additional 50-user license (actually 30 would be sufficient for me) directly from OpenVPN? If so, how do I install that license on my current instance? The current instance type is c3.xlarge which might or might not be adequate.

Thanks ...

jepstein

https://openvpn.net/index.php/access-server/section-faq-openvpn-as/amazon-web-services/539-can-i-upgrade-or-downgrade-my-service.html

says

FAQ Amazon Web Services
Can I upgrade or downgrade my service?

You can upgrade or downgrade your TIERED Access Server plan at any time as your requirements change and your bill will be pro-rated accordingly with all charges consolidated through Amazon billing.

but it doesn't say how to achieve that.

The Johan

So the way this works is that these tiered instances are billed hourly. So at any time you can stop such an instance, and set up a new one with another amount of licensed connections. You can migrate data from one to another using a backup/restore procedure.

There is no direct way to just change the amount.

See also the official documentation website, specifically this FAQ item:
https://docs.openvpn.net/faqs/frequently-asked-questions-licensing/#I_have_a_license_already_how_to_increase_the_amount

chinesescouser

Sounds like the same process to downgrade correct?

The Johan

Exactly the same, yes.

jmunoz

I'm sure this is something simple but it's passing me over.. the instructions to backup the current instance state "use the command with root privileges". Normally I would use the su command but being and EC2 it uses the auth key to login. the su command asks for a password which there isn't. How do we run the command string to make the backup as root in these AWS instances?

mfasen

You can use "sudo" in front of the command to execute the command as root, it won't ask for a password then.

jmunoz

using the instructions on https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/migrating-an-access-server-installation/
it gives this command to make the backups

cd /usr/local/openvpn_as/etc/db
[ -e config.db ]&&../../bin/sqlite3 config.db .dump>../../config.db.bak
[ -e certs.db ]&&../../bin/sqlite3 certs.db .dump>../../certs.db.bak
[ -e userprop.db ]&&../../bin/sqlite3 userprop.db .dump>../../userprop.db.bak
[ -e log.db ]&&../../bin/sqlite3 log.db .dump>../../log.db.bak
[ -e config_local.db ]&&../../bin/sqlite3 config_local.db .dump>../../config_local.db.bak
[ -e cluster.db ]&&../../bin/sqlite3 cluster.db .dump>../../cluster.db.bak
[ -e clusterdb.db ]&&../../bin/sqlite3 clusterdb.db .dump>../../clusterdb.db.bak
[ -e notification.db ]&&../../bin/sqlite3 notification.db .dump>../../notification.db.bak
cp ../as.conf ../../as.conf.bak

so I'm able to change the directory without root privileges but I can't do the dumps

openvpnas@ip-10-231-8-181:/usr/local/openvpn_as/etc/db$ [ -e config.db ]&&../../bin/sqlite3 config.db .dump>../../config.db.bak
-bash: ../../config.db.bak: Permission denied

even if I add sudo to the beginning I still get a permission denied.

openvpnas@ip-10-231-8-181:/usr/local/openvpn_as/etc/db$ sudo [ -e config.db ]&&../../bin/sqlite3 config.db .dump>../../config.db.bak
-bash: ../../config.db.bak: Permission denied