Cloud Regions

Who is where

Overview

Definitions
Amazon regions
- Set Default Region and URL for CLI
- List regions using CLI
Microsoft Azure cloud regions
Rackspace
More on DevOps

This tutorial, unlike other tutorials which focus on specific vendors, is a multi-vendor comparison of regions.

AWS regions
Azure
Google Cloud Compute (TODO)
Rackspace (TODO)
Digital Ocean
IBM (todo)
etc.

TODO: Provide an interactive comparison.

I want you to feel confident that you’ve mastered this skill. That’s why this takes a hands-on approach where you type in commands and we explain the responses and possible troubleshooting. This is a “deep dive” because all details are presented.

Like a good music DJ, I’ve carefully arranged the presentation of concepts into a sequence for easy learning, so you don’t have to spend as much time as me making sense of the flood of material around this subject.

Sentences that begin with PROTIP are a high point of this website to point out wisdom and advice from experience. NOTE point out observations that many miss. Search for them if you only want “TL;DR” (Too Long Didn’t Read) highlights.

Stuck? Contact me and I or one of my friends will help you.

Definitions

Each region is a separate geographic area.

Amazon regions

Open the Amazon EC2 console at
https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2

Sign-in if you haven’t done so.

Select your default region: from the navigation bar, view the options in the region selector.

Code	Name
us-east-1	US East (N. Virginia)
us-west-1	US West (N. California)
us-west-2	US West (Oregon)
eu-west-1	EU (Ireland)
eu-central-1	EU (Frankfurt)
ap-northeast-1	Asia Pacific (Tokyo)
ap-northeast-2	Asia Pacific (Seoul)
ap-southeast-1 Asia Pacific (Singapore)
ap-southeast-2	Asia Pacific (Sydney)
sa-east-1	South America (São Paulo)

Names in parentheses is what is displayed at the upper-right on various AWS consoles.

NOTE: In addition to the above, Amazon’s has a AWS GovCloud (US) and China (Beijing) which cannot be specified this way.

Availability Zones under each region are listed on the Status by service under each continent at status.aws.amazon.com

Each region within Amazon contains multiple, isolated Availability Zones.

Additional end-point locations via AWS CloudFormation CDN service.

CAUTION: The number and mapping of Availability Zones per region may vary between AWS accounts.

NOTE: Amazon charges for network traffic between availability zones.

Set Default Region and URL for CLI
Open your MacOS profile using a text editor (substitute atom with subl, vim, etc.):

PROTIP: Set an environment variable to your default regional endpoint (for example, https://ec2.us-west-1.amazonaws.com):
```
atom ~/.bash_profile
```
Add to the bottom of the file based on your selection in the step above:

export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-west-2 export EC2_URL=https://us-west-2.console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/v2/home?region=us-west-2

Notice the region is specified twice in EC2_URL.

WARNING: Do not include in EC2_URL the # and what follows, such as “#Instances:sort=instanceId”.
Save the file and run the file to load it into memory:
```
source ~/.bash_profile
```
List regions using CLI
In a Terminal window, view the very latest list of AWS regions:
```
 aws ec2 describe-regions
 aws ec2 describe-availability-zones --region us-west-2
 
```
For examples of AWS CLI commands such as the above, see:
Amazon’s User Guide on Regions and availability zones.
If you get an error message like this:
```
-bash: aws: command not found
```
then install Python 2.7, pip, and the AWS CLI.
If you get an error message such as this:
```
An error occurred (UnauthorizedOperation) when calling the DescribeRegions operation: You are not authorized to perform this operation.
```
then use the AWS configure command to obtain:
- AWS Access Key ID
- AWS Secret Access Key
- Default region name (such as “us-west-2”)
PROTIP: Create Named Profiles in file ~/.aws/credentials and ~/.aws/config (containing region) because you will likely use multiple AWS accounts.

Then, go to IAM to define permissions for each user to access EC2.

Microsoft Azure cloud regions

Not all services are available in all regions.

Regions with locations, rearranged by continent:

Region	Location	API
Canada Central	Toronto	-
Canada East	Quebec City	-
West US	California	Y
Central US	Iowa	Y
East US	Virginia	Y
East US 2	Virginia	Y
North Central US	Illinois	Y
South Central US	Texas	Y
Brazil South	Sao Paolo	Y
North Europe	Ireland	Y
West Europe	Netherlands	Y
Germany Central	Frankfurt	-
Germany Northeast	Magdeburg	-
Japan East	Tokyo, Saitama	Y
Japan West	Osaka	Y
Southeast Asia	Singapore	Y
East Asia	Hong Kong	Y
Australia East	New South Wales	-
Australia Southeast	Victoria	-
Central India	Pune	-
South India	Chennai	-
West India	Mumbai	-
China North	Beijing	-
China East	Shanghai	-

Two regions for the US Government are in Virginia. http://bit.ly/msgovt

See https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/cloud-os/global-datacenters.aspx

Rackspace

Rackspace began operations soon after the announcement of AWS. The company provides value-added on AWS as well as on its own servers East of its Austin, Texas headquarters.

AppScale (@appscalecloud) gives you the freedom to run App Engine applications on any public, private, or hybrid cloud.

More on DevOps

This is one of a series on DevOps:

Wilson Mar

Cloud Regions

Definitions

Amazon regions

Set Default Region and URL for CLI

List regions using CLI

Microsoft Azure cloud regions

Rackspace

More on DevOps

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