# AWS Launch Wizard

Cloud service · AWS. Updated 2026-11-12. Page: https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-launch-wizard

> AWS Launch Wizard is a service that provides a guided interface to simplify the deployment of applications, databases, and SAP systems on the Amazon Web Services cloud platform, by automating the sizing, configuration, and resource provisioning based on best practices.

## 9 key features of AWS Launch Wizard

AWS Launch Wizard simplifies deployments through a guided interface, incorporates AWS best practices, provides cost estimates, offers application-specific templates, and automates resource provisioning.

1. **Simplified Deployment**: AWS Launch Wizard offers a guided user interface that simplifies the deployment of applications, significantly reducing the complexity of provisioning and configuring AWS resources.
2. **Best Practices Integration**: Incorporating AWS best practices, the Launch Wizard helps ensure that applications are deployed in a way that enhances reliability, security, and efficiency.
3. **Cost Estimation**: Before deployment, AWS Launch Wizard provides detailed cost estimates, enabling users to understand and manage their expenses effectively.
4. **Application-Specific Templates**: Offers ready-to-use templates for deploying applications such as SAP, SQL Server, and Active Directory, tailored to meet specific needs.
5. **Automated Resource Provisioning**: Automates the provisioning of AWS resources like Amazon EC2 instances, Amazon EBS volumes, and networking configurations, streamlining the deployment process.
6. **Remote Desktop Gateway Deployment**: Launch Wizard supports deploying Remote Desktop Gateway applications and provisions the necessary AWS resources from your application requirements.
7. **Deployment Notifications**: You can provide an Amazon SNS topic to receive notifications and alerts about deployment status.
8. **Application Resource Groups**: For Remote Desktop Gateway deployments, Launch Wizard creates a Resource Group containing the application's AWS resources, making them discoverable together and automatically filtering them when Systems Manager is accessed through Launch Wizard.
9. **Early Resource-Limit Validation**: For Remote Desktop Gateway deployments, Launch Wizard performs early account-level resource-limit validation for VPCs, internet gateways, and the number of AWS CloudFormation stacks.

## Where AWS Launch Wizard is used

AWS Launch Wizard streamlines the deployment of SAP environments, establishes SQL Server HA/DR setups, simplifies Active Directory deployments, and accelerates the launch of application stacks, leveraging AWS best practices for optimal configuration and scalability.

1. **Deploying SAP on AWS**: AWS Launch Wizard simplifies the process of deploying SAP environments on AWS by guiding you through a few simple steps to configure and deploy SAP HANA or NetWeaver environments according to AWS best practices. It sizes your environment based on your business needs and automatically provisions and configures the necessary AWS resources.
2. **Setting Up SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery**: Utilize AWS Launch Wizard to effortlessly establish a highly available (HA) or disaster recovery (DR) environment for SQL Server on AWS. The wizard assists in automating the deployment of SQL Server based on business requirements, including the setup of Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) and SQL Server Always On Availability Groups for ensuring maximum availability and data protection.
3. **Deploying Active Directory (AD) on AWS**: AWS Launch Wizard offers a straightforward method for setting up highly available Active Directory (AD) environments on AWS. Whether you are extending your on-premises AD to AWS or creating a new AD domain in AWS, the wizard streamlines the process, ensuring that all AWS best practices are followed for security and scalability.
4. **Launching an Application Stack**: For developers and IT teams, AWS Launch Wizard accelerates the deployment of application stacks by automating the setup of secure, scalable, and highly available AWS environments. It guides users through selecting the right infrastructure components, configuring application settings, and deploying the application stack swiftly, allowing teams to focus on application development rather than infrastructure management.

## How AWS Launch Wizard is priced

AWS Launch Wizard operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing model, charging users only for the AWS resources utilized by their applications, with no upfront costs or additional fees for the Launch Wizard service itself.

- **Pay-as-you-go**: AWS Launch Wizard is free. You pay only for the AWS resources provisioned to run your application, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon EBS, and Amazon VPC resources.

## Services AWS Launch Wizard works with

- **[Amazon EC2](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-ec2)**: Launches and manages compute instances to run the applications defined by the user, providing scalable and resizable virtual servers.
- **[Amazon RDS](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-rds)**: Automates the setup, operation, and scaling of a relational database in the cloud, ensuring that databases are easily and efficiently configured.
- **[AWS CloudFormation](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-cloudformation)**: Creates and manages infrastructure as code, allowing the automated provisioning of AWS resources specified in a template.
- **[AWS Systems Manager](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-systems-manager)**: Offers operational data and automation features, such as parameter store and state manager, to keep systems in a consistent state.
- **[Amazon VPC](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-vpc)**: Provides networking capabilities to define virtual networks for resources allocation that is secured and easily manageable.
- **[AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-identity-and-access-management-(iam))**: Manages access and permissions for AWS services and resources, ensuring that users follow the principle of least privilege.
- **[Amazon CloudWatch](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-cloudwatch)**: Monitors AWS resources and applications, providing visibility into resource utilization, application performance, and operational health.
- **[Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-elastic-block-store-(amazon-ebs))**: AWS Launch Wizard sizes and provisions EBS volumes for the applications it deploys on EC2. For SQL Server, it selects storage configurations based on your performance and capacity requirements.
- **[Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-elastic-file-system-(amazon-efs))**: AWS Launch Wizard can provision and configure EFS file systems for shared directories in SAP deployments, making application files available to multiple SAP instances.
- **[Amazon EventBridge](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-eventbridge)**: AWS Launch Wizard API activity recorded by CloudTrail can be matched by EventBridge rules. You can use these rules to trigger notifications or automation when a deployment is created or deleted.
- **[Amazon FSx](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-fsx-(for-all-types))**: AWS Launch Wizard supports FSx for Windows File Server as shared storage for SQL Server Always On Failover Cluster Instances. For SAP deployments, it can configure FSx for NetApp ONTAP storage.
- **[Amazon Route 53](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-route-53)**: AWS Launch Wizard uses Route 53 private DNS for supported SAP deployments, configuring DNS records so application components can resolve the hostnames of deployed systems.
- **[Amazon S3](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-s3)**: AWS Launch Wizard stores reusable deployment artifacts, including CloudFormation templates and application configuration scripts, in S3. SAP deployments can also use installation media supplied through S3.
- **[Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/amazon-simple-notification-service-(amazon-sns))**: AWS Launch Wizard can publish deployment status notifications and alerts to an SNS topic you specify, allowing subscribers to receive updates about deployment progress and failures.
- **[AWS CloudTrail](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-cloudtrail)**: AWS Launch Wizard API calls are recorded in CloudTrail, providing an audit trail of deployment requests and other service operations, including the calling identity and request time.
- **[AWS Directory Service](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-directory-service)**: AWS Launch Wizard supports joining SQL Server deployments to an existing AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory. This lets deployed Windows instances use the directory for domain membership and authentication.
- **[AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-key-management-service-(aws-kms))**: AWS Launch Wizard supports KMS encryption for EBS storage in its deployments. You can select an appropriate KMS key when configuring encrypted application volumes.
- **[AWS Resource Groups and Tag Editor](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-resource-groups-and-tag-editor)**: AWS Launch Wizard creates a resource group containing the AWS resources provisioned for an application. The group makes it easier to find those resources and manage them together through Systems Manager.
- **[AWS Secrets Manager](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-secrets-manager)**: AWS Launch Wizard uses Secrets Manager to securely store credentials used in self-managed Active Directory deployments rather than placing passwords directly in deployment configuration.
- **[AWS Service Catalog](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/aws-service-catalog)**: AWS Launch Wizard creates Service Catalog products from successful SAP deployments, with reusable CloudFormation templates and configuration scripts. These products let organizations repeat deployments through a governed portfolio.
- **[Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)](https://blowstack.com/tools/cloud-services-hub/elastic-load-balancing-(elb))**: AWS Launch Wizard can provision and configure load balancing for supported SAP deployment patterns, directing application traffic to the deployed SAP components.

## What is AWS Launch Wizard

AWS Launch Wizard offers a guided and simplified interface for deploying application infrastructures in the cloud, catering particularly to applications like SAP, Microsoft SQL Server, and high availability Microsoft Active Directory. This service is designed to streamline the process of setting up these complex environments, which traditionally require a deep understanding of AWS services and the best practices for deploying and scaling them securely and efficiently.

The AWS Launch Wizard stands out by providing users with a seamless experience that begins with a few basic questions about their deployment preferences. It covers the scale of deployment, region specifications, instance types, and networking requirements, among other parameters. By integrating this information, the AWS Launch Wizard intelligently recommends a set of resources that best align with the user's specific needs.

What makes it especially attractive is its ability to estimate the cost of the deployment in real-time, giving users a clear picture of their expected expenses even before they commit to launching the resources. This cost estimation feature is a significant relief for businesses that need to adhere to strict budgets while deploying or scaling their applications. Once the user approves the proposed configuration and cost, AWS Launch Wizard proceeds to automate the deployment process. It meticulously sets up the entire infrastructure required for the application, including the creation of Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs), EC2 instances, and necessary security groups, ensuring that the deployment follows AWS best practices for security and performance. This automation not only minimizes the potential for human error but also significantly reduces the time and effort typically associated with manual setups.

For Remote Desktop Gateway deployments, cost estimates are intended for general comparisons and use On-Demand costs; actual costs may be lower.

For enterprises that rely heavily on applications like SAP and Microsoft SQL Server, the AWS Launch Wizard presents an invaluable tool. Its support for high availability configurations means that these critical applications can run with reduced risk of downtime, offering businesses continuity and reliability in their operations.

For Windows deployments, Launch Wizard also supports deployment on Dedicated Hosts.

The SQL Server guide specifies a default maximum of 50 active applications, with status in progress or completed, for any given application type, and three parallel in-progress deployments per account. Contact Support to request an increase to the active-application limit.

Additionally, by handling the complexity of setting up these environments, AWS Launch Wizard allows IT teams to focus more on strategic activities rather than getting bogged down with infrastructure provisioning tasks.

In essence, AWS Launch Wizard democratizes access to advanced AWS capabilities, making it feasible for organizations of any size to deploy sophisticated application infrastructures without needing in-depth cloud expertise. Its guided approach, combined with automated deployment processes, ensures that businesses can leverage the cloud more effectively, securely, and economically.