Launch an instance from an AMI of WGSA

1| Sign in to your AWS account at http://aws.amazon.com/.

2| Click EC2.

3| Click AMIs.

4| Change AMI search option to “Public images”.

5| Search for “WGSA”. Choose a WGSA AMI and click “Launch”. Full list of WGAS AMIs can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/jpopgen/WGSA.

6| Choose an instance type that have enough memory. We recommend choosing instance types that are “Memory optimized”. How large memory is needed depends on the number of variants to be annotated. For a large re-sequencing project with millions of variants (in one variant file), 30GiB memory may be required. For tens of millions of variants (in one variant file), 60GiB memory may be required. Click “Next: Configure Instance Details”.

7| (Optional) Configure instance details. If annotation speed is a concern, users can split the variants into parts, create multiple variant files and launch multiple instances one for annotating each variant file. Choose “EBS-optimized instance” may help accelerate the annotation with extra charges from AWS. If cost is a concern, users may want to choose “Request Spot Instances” to take advantage of lower pricing (Warning: the instance may be terminated pre-maturely before running through the full pipeline due to the nature of spot instances; certain “hacking” of the pipeline shell script are needed to continue the process.) After making the changes (if needed), click “Review and Launch”.

8| Review and click “Launch”. (Warning: AWS will begin to charge your instance after the launch).

9| Specify key pair. You need a key pair to access your instance. If you do not have an existing key pair, choose “Create a new key pair” and enter a name for it, e.g. “WGSAtest”. Then click “Download Key Pair” and save the file (with a pem extension). Finally, click “Launch Instances”.