News

AWS Publishes Quick Start for Using Couchbase NoSQL Database in the Cloud

• By David Ramel
• January 9, 2018

Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS) has published a new Quick Start for using Couchbase, the popular document-oriented NoSQL database, on its cloud computing platform.

The Couchbase Data Platform consists of the open source, distributed, multi-model Couchbase Server (formerly called Membase) optimized for interactive applications and Couchbase Mobile, a full-stack, embedded client offering for phones and other devices.

According to the DB-Engines database ranking site, Couchbase is the No. 3 product in the document store category, ranked behind only MongoDB and Amazon DynamoDB.

Now, those AWS users who don't want to use the cloud giant's homegrown DynamoDB for their document-store needs can now use the new Couchbase on AWS Quick Start as a simplified onramp.

"Designed to power engaging mobile, IoT, and Web applications, the enterprise-class Couchbase Data Platform includes Couchbase Server and Couchbase Mobile," AWS said in a blog post last month. "Couchbase Server is a cloud-native, NoSQL database designed with a distributed architecture for performance, scalability, and availability. It enables developers to build applications by leveraging the power of SQL with the flexibility of JSON. Couchbase Mobile includes a fully integrated embedded database, built-in security, and real-time automated sync with the highly scalable Couchbase Server."

To leverage this functionality, the Quick Start was developed by Couchbase Inc. and ClearScale, along with AWS.

Using Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) from AWS Marketplace and the choice of two subscription models, it shows how to deploy Couchbase as a new project or into existing AWS infrastructure, with automatic deployment handled by the AWS CloudFormation templates, which can be customized.

AWS said the templates -- available on GitHub -- can also be used on their own to get new projects started.

In total, the guidance tool helps AWS users leverage:

• A virtual private cloud (VPC) configured across two or more Availability Zones, with a public subnet in each zone. Two, three, or four Availability Zones can be used in a deployment.*
• An Internet gateway to allow access to the Internet.
• Managed NAT gateways to allow outbound internet access for Couchbase instances.
• An IAM role with fine-grained permissions to manage access to AWS services, and security groups to restrict access to only necessary protocols and ports.
• Auto Scaling groups and launch configurations for Couchbase Server and Couchbase Sync Gateway. By default, the Quick Start deploys four Couchbase Server instances and two Couchbase Sync Gateway instances. These defaults can be changed during deployment for those who want to provision more instances.
• Elastic Load Balancing integrated with Auto Scaling, for load balancing across the servers.

Full details are available in a PDF, titled "Couchbase on the AWS Cloud."