Add Instances to an Environment

You can grow your environment by adding additional application, database, or utility instances as needed. This allows you the ability to scale quickly, as needed, based on your unique app and environment.

Note: The Instance Type selection used to be a radio button that forced you to choose only one among "Add Application Instance", "Add Database Replica", and "Add Utility Instance". As of this writing (July 4, 2017) these radio buttons have been changed to checkboxes and it is now possible to add different instance types at the same time. For example, you can add 3 application instances, one or more utility instances, and a database replica at the same time. 

Note: You can only add utility instances to a Solo (single-instance) environment. If you need to convert a Solo environment to a cluster, you will need to rebuild the environment. If this is a production environment and you need assistance in minimising downtime, you can engage our Professional Services Team - please submit a ticket with Engine Yard Support.

To add instances to an environment

  1. On the Environment page, click Add.

    Enviro_Add_Instances.png

  2. Verify that you will not exceed your current limit for additional instances; read the note at the top of the page. 

    In this example, there are 3 existing instances and 17 more possible:

    Enviro_Add_CheckLimit.png

    If you need to increase your limit, click the link to submit a ticket with Engine Yard Support.

  3. (Optional) Select a specific availability zone or allow Engine Yard Cloud to distribute the new instances for you.

    Enviro_Add_AvailZones.png

  4. Select one of the following:

Add application instances

You can add one or more application instances to your environment.

To add application instances

  1. Check the "Add Application Instance" checkbox.

  2. Select the number of application instances you need to add.

  3. Enter the volume size and instance size.

    We recommend a configuration consisting of app instances with the same:

    • Volume size (for example, 15 GB)

    • Type (for example, High CPU Medium)

    • Bitness (for example, 64 bit)

      add-an-instance.png

     

  4. Choose the application snapshot date.

  5. Click Add to Cluster.

    Engine Yard Cloud adds and configures your new application instances in parallel. After the new instances have been added, the entire environment is then reconfigured to recognize the new instances.

    Your app continues to run and serve requests during this parallel configuration. Once the new instances are finished booting, a quick Chef run momentarily halts traffic while updating the load balancer configuration; the new instances are then recognized by HAProxy, Nginx, etc.

Add a database replica (slave) instance

For database integrity reasons, you cannot add multiple database instances at once. See Add a database replica (slave) to an existing environment.

Add utility instances

You can add multiple utility instances at a time. You should give each new utility instance a meaningful name.

To add utility instances

  1. Check the "Add Utility Instance" checkbox.

  2. Name the first utility instance.

  3. Select the appropriate size, snapshot, and volume size for the new utility instance.

     

    add-util.png
  4. Click Add Utility Instance.

    The new instance name and specifications appear in the list.

  5. Repeat steps 1-3 until you are finished specifying the utility instances to add.

  6. Click Add to Cluster.

    Engine Yard Cloud adds and configures your new utility instances in parallel. After the new instances have been added, the entire environment is then reconfigured to recognize the new instances.

    Your app continues to run and serve requests during this parallel configuration. Once the new instances are finished booting, a quick Chef run momentarily halts traffic while updating the load balancer configuration; the new instances are then recognized by HAProxy, Nginx, etc.

More information

For more information about...                                        

See...                                                                 

Adding a database slave                             Add a database replica (slave)                  

If you have feedback or questions about this page, add a comment below. If you need help, submit a ticket with Engine Yard Support.

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