= Deploying a BOINC server on the Amazon Elastic Computing Cloud =

=== Why use a Cloud? === #why

Hosting a BOINC server on a cloud is useful for the following reasons:
 * It's cheaper for small to medium projects to rent time on a cloud versus paying for hardware, bandwidth, and electric power on one's own.
 * It's easier and faster to use an existing OS image with the BOINC server already installed than to compile and configure it on one's own.

=== Quick Start === #start

This Quick Start guide assumes you already have some experience (and accounts) with Amazon's EC2 and S3. If not, see the detailed starting instructions.

1. Download the server bundle.

2. Assuming you've extracted the archive to /tmp, upload the bundle to Amazon's S3:

{{{ec2-upload-bundle -b boinc-debian-etch -m /tmp/boinc-debian-etch.manifest.xml -a $ACCESS_KEY -s $SECRET_KEY}}}

where $ACCESS_KEY and $SECRET_KEY are your environment variables set to the corresponding keys.

3. Register the uploaded image:

{{{ec2-register boinc-debian-etch/boinc-debian-etch.manifest.xml}}}

This should output an Amazon instance id (ami-XXX).

4. Start an instance of the boinc server:

{{{ec2-run-instances ami-XXX}}} 
 
And voila, assuming you've opened port 80, you should now have a running BOINC server.

=== Detailed Start === #detailed

1. [http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/04/05/how-to-getting-started-with-amazon-ec2 Create and setup account with Amazon's EC2 and S3.] 

2. [http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=368 Install Amazon's AMI tools.]