Easiest option for deploying Java Web App on AWS?

Question

I have a very simple web-app running on GAE and we want to move it to AWS. The server needs to use a database (via JPA) and the filesystem (for storing a lucene index of the server contents). We don't expect to have much scalability needs, i.e. we are expecting the service to peak at around a thousand daily users.

There are lots of ways to deploy on AWS. I was wondering what would be the simplest option.

I have heard of Beanstalk, and know that it is a great solution for scalable apps, but would this be a good solution even for simple server needs like ours?

Answer 1

I have also recently moved all our software to run on EC2 (I have opted to use ubuntu). I found that the simplest & best suited for my needs was to write custom scripts that does the deployment. I have looked around at existing solutions , and its all cool , but seems like such a mission to get to work the way I want to to work. So at the end of the day I will have scripts that does SVN checkouts , build my app (using ant) , and deploy it to my app servers.

I know this is not an answer , its just my experience, it will be cool to hear how other guys are handling this. Good luck.

Answer 2

EC2 does give you more control and freedom (e.g. Logging, files e.t.c) , but also you have the responsibility for managing the entire stack. (In your case the OS,Java, Tomcat).

If you are running a Java Application which can be packaged as war Beanstalk is the better choice. The auto scaling features of beanstalk are good and makes you oblivious to the infrastructure. (similar in nature to Google App engine).