Jaspersoft BI for AWS Frequently Asked Questions

• Jaspersoft for AWS Main Page

Jaspersoft BI for AWS FAQ

- What is the difference between Jaspersoft for AWS BYOL and Hourly?

The BYOL (Bring Your Own License) version provides:

• Access to additional features, including Multi-tenancy for larger server sizes, OLAP and ETL
• A premium level of support including options for phone-based support - not available with the hourly AMI, and
• A discounted annual price rate

The BYOL AMI requires an annual subscription that can be purchased from Jaspersoft. The table on our Cloud page provides a good summary of the differences between these options. Please contact us for more information on the BYOL option.

- How do I load my license for BYOL?

You can refer to this wiki article, or watch this video.

- What is the Auto-Connect for RDS and Redshift feature?

Jaspersoft worked with AWS to make it very easy to connect to your Amazon RDS and Redshift data sources. Using the EC2 instance credentials you provide, the auto-connect feature in Jaspersoft for AWS will automatically find and connect to your RDS and Redshift data sources so you don’t have to be a DBA to quickly connect to and start analyzing your data. This is possible because the IAM Role associated with the EC2 instance is allowed to execute the actions "rds:Describe*" and "redshift:Describe*". It pre-populates the Database Name, Driver, and URL. The auto-connect feature only works if you have launched the Jaspersoft instance using our Amazon CloudFormation template. You can learn how to launch the Jaspersoft instance with CloudFormation in this step-by-step guide.

- Does Jaspersoft BI for AWS support multi-tenancy?

Yes. Multi-tenancy is available by the hour for the entry-level server size. Larger server sizes with multi-tenancy are available as an annual subscription. For more details, refer to the Cloud Features table.

- Is this SaaS? Or a hosted service?

No. This is a preconfigured instance that's ready to run, but you will fully own and manage it. Read about what AWS Marketplace is.

- How do I load data from RDS into Redshift?

One good solution is AWS Data Pipeline. It allows you to move transactional data from RDS into a Redshift data warehouse. But there are many factors to consider, so there's no recommendation that covers all use cases.

- Is SSL (https) available?

Yes. Since you own and control the server, it's not possible for Jaspersoft to provide a certificate for you ahead of time. But you may configure SSL on your Jaspersoft BI for AWS instance exactly as you do on other servers. For more information, refer to the JasperReports Server Ultimate Guide, Chapter 8: Application Security.

- How do I deploy reports?

There are two ways to populate JasperReports Server with reports. The easiest is to create ad hoc reports from within JasperReports Server and saving them to the repository. In this case, everything occurs through the web UI. 

For more sophisticated report development, you can get Jaspersoft Studio Professional (JSS Pro) by enrolling for free or paid support at https://www.jaspersoft.com/store/aws-support. JSS Pro is a client software, and the professional license file can then be downloaded from the Jaspersoft web site at https://www.jaspersoft.com/user. You create the reports locally using the JSS Pro client and then use the JasperReports Server repository plugin to upload reports to JasperReports Server running on AWS.

- How do I get Jaspersoft Studio Professional (JSS Pro)?

You can get Jaspersoft Studio Professional by enrolling for free or paid support. The software and professional license file can then be downloaded from the Jaspersoft web site at https://www.jaspersoft.com/user. 

- How do upgrades work?

Jaspersoft recommends that you create a new instance with the lastest Jaspersoft BI for AWS AMI. Export and then import the Jaspersoft repository from the existing instance (e.g., version 5.n) into the newly launched instance (running for example, version 5.n+1). You now have two instances running, which allows you to test the new version before making it live for your users.

Once you are satisified with how the new version runs, you will want to alert your users to a maintenance window, during which you export the current repository from the old instance into the new instance. If you are using elastic IP, you will want to update it. Otherwise, alert the users to the new URL. To save on AWS services costs, don't forget to de-provision the older instance when you are confident that the new server is running to your satisfaction. For additional information, refer to the Jaspersoft Professional AWS User Guide, section 2.3: Upgrading Your Instance.

- Can I connect to on-premises databases?

Yes. The ability to connect to on-premises JDBC data sources is important. It requires configuring a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) which is a type of Virtual Private Network. This can be securely configured so that the BI server can access your local resources, but the rest of the internet cannot access your data. More details are here: http://aws.amazon.com/vpc/.

- Can I connect directly to the Jaspersoft for AWS server file system?

Yes. Sometimes you may need to connect to the server's file system to retrieve log files, upload licenses, edit configuration files, or run commands from a console interface. To learn how, please read this wiki article.

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