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Steps to install Adobe AEM (CQ) 5.6 on Amazon AWS

Here are the quick steps to install the Adobe AEM 5.6 (aka CQ 5.6) authoring instance on Amazon linux instance.

Connect to AWS server

Connect to the server using Putty or similar software and navigate to the directory where you want to install your AEM instance. If the CQ jar and license properties file are not already available on the server, upload the files now.

Install Java 1.7

AEM 5.6.x required Java 1.7. Verify if the machine has the right version of Java

$java -version

If Java 1.7 is not available, you can install it using the following command

sudo yum install java-1.7.0-openjdk

Once the Java is install, configure it as a default version of Java for your instance:

sudo alternatives --config java

This will show all the version of Java on your instance, so choose Java 1.7.

Install the CQ jar file

Use the following command to install CQ Jar file:

$java -XX:MaxPermSize=512m -Xmx2048M -jar cq-author-4502.jar

Update the start script so it preserves the memory setting when you restart CQ next time

$vi /crx-quickstart/bin/start

Change the CQ_JVM_OPTS variable value to:

CQ_JVM_OPTS='-server -Xmx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=512M'

Press ‘Esc’ and than type :wq to save the file.

Start CQ

Once the start script is updated, start the CQ server

$sudo ./start.sh

Keep an eye on the standard output while CQ is starting up. You can tail the output using:

$tail -f /crx-quickstart/logs/stdout.log

Check the error logs: /crx-quickstart/logs/error.log

It will take few minutes for CQ to come up.You can access the authoring console using http://localhost:4502/

Update: Make sure that you have updated the security group to allow inbound traffic to port 4502 else you will not be able to access CQ Administration console.

If you have any questions, add them to the comments and I will respond as soon as I can.

Praveen Modi

Praveen works at Razorfish which is one of the largest digital advertising agency in the world. His mantra for life is "You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream". He lives in sunny Austin, TX with his beautiful wife Nidhi and son Aariv.

9 Comments

  1. anand

    Hi

    Followed your steps and completed installation on was ec2. Trying to access author using http://publicDNS:4502 returns a 404. I aalso allowed port 4502 in iptables. I am using amazon Linux free edition.

    Could you pl let me know what should be the author URL and where should I look for errors? CQ logs are clean.

    Anand

  2. Anand,

    Try $curl http://localhost:4502/ on the server ans see if you receive a response. If you get a response than check if you have allowed port 4502 in the security groups for the EC2 instance.

    You can also try $sudo lsof -i to see if CQ is using port 4502. Let me know if you still need help.

    Cheers,
    Praveen

  3. Anand

    Hi Praveen

    Thanks for your response. You were right I had enabled only port 22 and 80 and trying to access AEM author on 4502. Once I enabled 4502, AEM login page came up. Appreciate your help.

    Anand

  4. Praveen Modi

    Anand – glad that the issue is resolved.

    I have also updated the article as other people might run into same issue.

    Cheers,
    Praveen

  5. Jura Khrapunov

    Adobe is NOT recommending using OpenJDK: http://cloud-ops.tumblr.com/post/92825533687/how-to-remove-openjdk-from-a-rhel-instance, it is better to go for the standard Oracle JDK instead

  6. shamya

    Hi praveen,
    Hope you are doing well.It’s pleasure meeting you since i have went through your documents,pretty much impressed you are the master.
    I would be glad if you could tell me how to install cq 6.1 using shells scripts.
    Could you please explain how to clone from one publisher to other publishers and one dispatcher to other two dispatchers in same environment using command line.
    Thanks in advance

  7. shivam

    Hi,
    Thanks for such a nice and useful explanation, one thing need to ask like i have an AEM 5.6 setup in my local machine & license key, is it ok if i upload these jar’s and license key on amazon cloud to make a website by using AEM is not there any issue regarding the commercial usgae of Adobe AEM on AWS?

    Thanks in Advance!

  8. Praveen Modi

    @Shivam- generally all public facing and production websites requires a valid license. You can use it on local, dev, QA etc for free if you have valid license file.

  9. Ashper

    Hi, Thanks for the step-by-step instruction. At this point, i can run the app one EC2 Linux instance but once I close my terminal, AEM stops running. Is there any way to run it indefinitely through?

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