[miken24]

I hired a programmer to design a business web site and he quit after about 90% of the site complete. I created the domain name and suppied him with godaddy. When he left he said he also used Amazon ec2. I did a full backup of our godaddy files to a zip and have that but I am clueless about what Amazon ec2 was or is used for. My question is, do I need to backup anything in Amazon ec2? I can access the ec2 system but I am lost at what if anything I need to do. I am afraid that he will delete stuff or is everything I need on godaddy?

Thanks
Mike

Edited by miken24, 27 June 2015 - 03:23 PM.

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Hey there Miken24 and welcome to Geeks to Go,

 

I'm very sorry to hear how unprofessional your web developer was... It is quite odd that he used EC2, and GoDaddy separately. But it is possible that he decided to do the front-end on GoDaddy and back-end on EC2. The best way of identifying if you require backing up anything from EC2 is knowing your website capabilities, did your website serve a functional purpose by providing a "service" to your users. Maybe he created a web application/service that made use of EC2.

 

Although I think a more accurate way of determining whether or not you requiring backing up EC2 is by stopping your EC2  server "instance" and testing your site from GoDaddy again. There's one thing you want to watch out for when stopping your instance. Make sure that you change shutdown behavior (Instructions below). First things first before doing anything on EC2 is navigating to your site (Going to your domain name) and testing your current site functionality and taking note of exactly what areas of your site work and the type of functionality each section of your site provides. (This will be used to determine if your site makes use of EC2 after you stop the "Instance"; if your site functionality stops working after the EC2 server has been shutdown). So after you've taken note on what works currently, follow the steps below:

 

- Login to "AWS Management Console".

- Under the "Compute" heading (Should be near top left) click "EC2".

- That should take you to the "EC2 Dashboard" where you can then click "Instances" in the left side menu strip.

- Right-click on your "instance".

- Mouse-over "Instance Settings".

- Click "Change Shutdown Behavior".

- When the dialog box shows, change the "Shutdown behavior" to "Stop". (Make sure it is NOT on "Terminate")

- Click "Apply".

 

- You can then right-click the "instance" again.

- Mouse-over "Instance State".

- And click the "Stop" option.

- In the main list under the column "Instance State" you should see something regarding "Shutting down" or "Stopping".

- Give the "Instance" sometime to completely shutdown and stop.

 

Once you have stopped the EC2 instance, you are going to want to go back to your site using your purchased domain name ("http://yourdomainnamehere.com")[Whereof-course you put in your domain name]. Then you need to test your site functionality and make sure it's all still working fine. If your site's functionality is still intact and seems to be operating like normal then it's probably safe to say you don't need backup anything on EC2.

 

Although you should NOTE: Your web developer could have developed something on EC2 that was not yet implemented on your site.

 

This brings us to the ultimate conclusion that it is possible that you are able to determine whether or not your require backups yourself, but the only "99%" method would be to "get back in contact with your web developer" and ask him why he used EC2 and if you require backing up anything from there.

 

I hope my advice helps and you mange to get all your wasted time back. Let us know if you get everything sorted out.

 

Peace Out

[Spike]

Hey there Miken24 and welcome to Geeks to Go,

 

I'm very sorry to hear how unprofessional your web developer was... It is quite odd that he used EC2, and GoDaddy separately. But it is possible that he decided to do the front-end on GoDaddy and back-end on EC2. The best way of identifying if you require backing up anything from EC2 is knowing your website capabilities, did your website serve a functional purpose by providing a "service" to your users. Maybe he created a web application/service that made use of EC2.

 

Although I think a more accurate way of determining whether or not you requiring backing up EC2 is by stopping your EC2  server "instance" and testing your site from GoDaddy again. There's one thing you want to watch out for when stopping your instance. Make sure that you change shutdown behavior (Instructions below). First things first before doing anything on EC2 is navigating to your site (Going to your domain name) and testing your current site functionality and taking note of exactly what areas of your site work and the type of functionality each section of your site provides. (This will be used to determine if your site makes use of EC2 after you stop the "Instance"; if your site functionality stops working after the EC2 server has been shutdown). So after you've taken note on what works currently, follow the steps below:

 

- Login to "AWS Management Console".

- Under the "Compute" heading (Should be near top left) click "EC2".

- That should take you to the "EC2 Dashboard" where you can then click "Instances" in the left side menu strip.

- Right-click on your "instance".

- Mouse-over "Instance Settings".

- Click "Change Shutdown Behavior".

- When the dialog box shows, change the "Shutdown behavior" to "Stop". (Make sure it is NOT on "Terminate")

- Click "Apply".

 

- You can then right-click the "instance" again.

- Mouse-over "Instance State".

- And click the "Stop" option.

- In the main list under the column "Instance State" you should see something regarding "Shutting down" or "Stopping".

- Give the "Instance" sometime to completely shutdown and stop.

 

Once you have stopped the EC2 instance, you are going to want to go back to your site using your purchased domain name ("http://yourdomainnamehere.com")[Whereof-course you put in your domain name]. Then you need to test your site functionality and make sure it's all still working fine. If your site's functionality is still intact and seems to be operating like normal then it's probably safe to say you don't need backup anything on EC2.

 

Although you should NOTE: Your web developer could have developed something on EC2 that was not yet implemented on your site.

 

This brings us to the ultimate conclusion that it is possible that you are able to determine whether or not your require backups yourself, but the only "99%" method would be to "get back in contact with your web developer" and ask him why he used EC2 and if you require backing up anything from there.

 

I hope my advice helps and you mange to get all your wasted time back. Let us know if you get everything sorted out.

 

Peace Out

[miken24]

Spike, thank you VERY much for the great info. I will try your suggestions.

Miken24