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Setting Up LightTag-on-AWS

How to install a self hosted instance of LightTag on your own AWS account

Written by Tal Perry. Updated over a week ago

This guide will walk you through installing and configuring LightTag-on-AWS instance,  the self hosted version of LightTag. You're using LightTag-on-AWS because you need full control over the security of your data. This guide will first demonstrate basic configuration steps. Securing you LightTag instance is discussed here

Installation

Briefly, the steps for getting set up are as follows: Once you've subscribed to LightTag-on-AWS we'll share an AWS AMI with your AWS account and provide an activation code. You'll then spin up an EC2 instance with that AMI, enter the activation code and register an administrative user. At that point, you'll have a functioning LightTag-on-AWS instance. Next, you'll secure your instance by adding SSL (https) and restricting access to the instance. Optionally, you can add DNS, so that your team can access your LightTag instance from a  convenient URL ( for example https://labeling.your-company.com) 

Before You Start

Please make sure you have the following before you get started:

  1. You've subscribed to LightTag-on-AWS.

  2. You have access to the LightTag-on-AWS AMI in the AWS Region you specified when you placed your order

  3. You've received an activation code from LightTag

  4. You are the account owner, or know their email address.

Launching LightTag on AWS

Go to the AWS EC2 Console. Make sure you are in the correct region

Click the Launch Instance button

You'll be asked to choose an AMI. Press the My AMIs button

Select the Shared With Me checkbox, then select the LightTag-on-AWS AMI

Select an instance type. We recommend starting with a t3.small or t3.medium instance. You can change this at any time. After selecting an instance, press the "Next:Configure Instance Details" button. Don't press the blue "Review and Launch" button.

In the Configure Instance Details page, make sure your instance has a public IP (we'll secure this later). If required, change the tenancy settings of your instance. 


Scroll down in the Instance Details Page. Enable termination protection and T2/T3 optimized instances. Then click add storage

In the storage view, make sure your instance has at least 20GB of storage allocated. Please ensure that "delete on termination" is disabled.

Continue to the "Add Tags" page and optionally tag your instance, then continue to the "Configure Security Group" page.
In the security group page

  1. Select Create new Security Group

  2. Give your security group a descriptive name

  3. Restrict the source ip for the ssh rule to 54.209.152.240/0. (LightTag can ssh into your instance on request to provide support. If you'd like to disable this, remove the ssh rule completely. Note: You can not ssh into the instance

  4. Add an HTTP rule on port 80. If you'd like to restrict access based on IP. We'll modify this in the "securing LightTag" section

Click the Review and Launch button, then Launch your instance

You'll be prompted to select a key-pair. LightTag's AMI overrides this selection, so choose an available option and continue.

Go back to the EC2 Console and find the instance you just launched. Give it a descriptive name and copy the IP address.

Confirm Your Installation

Open a new tab and paste in the IP address you copied in the last step. You should be taken to LightTag's Login screen

At this stage your instance is not registered and no Log In credentials are yet valid. Before we register, let's confirm that the installation succeeded, enter a random user and password at the login screen and sign-in.

You'll be greeted with a dialog calling to activate your account. 

Activating Your Instance

At this point you have an operational LightTag-on-AWS instance that needs to be activated. The instance is still not secure, and we recommend securing it before continuing with activation and usage. For the sake of coherence, this guide continues with the activation step now and covers security after.

Click on the Activate Account button and you'll be taken to the Activation Screen. Enter the license key you received from LightTag and click Activate. 

If there is an error you will be presented with an error message within the activation box.

Upon success, a notification will appear at the bottom of the screen. LightTag will then send an email to the email address of the account owner. The UI will not specify which email the invitation was sent to, so please have the account owners email available. 


You'll receive an email with a signup link 

Follow the link and register your first user

And that's it.