Prerequisites

bioAF is platform agnostic: it runs on your own Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project or your own Amazon Web Services (AWS) account. Before you start either the scripted installer or the manual install, complete the prerequisites for the cloud you’re deploying to.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

bioAF runs on your own Google Cloud Platform project. You’ll need the three things below.

1. A Google account

You’ll sign in to Google Cloud with a regular Google account. If you don’t already have one, create a Google account.

2. A Google Cloud project

Google Cloud organizes resources into projects. bioAF is deployed into one project that you own.

  1. Go to cloud.google.com and click Get started for free (or sign in if you already have an account). New accounts get a free trial credit.
  2. In the GCP Console, open the project dropdown at the top → New Project → name it (e.g., bioaf-prod) and click Create.

Write down the Project ID (e.g., bioaf-prod-123456), both install paths will ask for it.

3. A billing account

Google requires a billing account with a payment method on file before it will provision infrastructure. If you don’t already have one:

Link the billing account to the project you created in step 2.

i Why do I need a credit card for free software?
bioAF is free and open source. But it runs on Google's servers, which aren't free. You pay Google directly for the compute, storage, and database resources bioAF uses. Google requires a payment method on file before they'll provision any infrastructure. See What to Expect on Your GCP Bill for a breakdown of typical costs.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

bioAF also runs on your own AWS account. The AWS installer provisions an EC2 VM with a scoped IAM instance profile, so no long-lived keys are stored on your laptop. You’ll need the two things below.

1. An AWS account

You’ll deploy into an AWS account that you own. If you don’t already have one, create an AWS account. New accounts include a free tier and require a payment method on file before AWS will provision infrastructure.

2. AWS CLI credentials

The scripted installer uses the AWS CLI v2 to provision resources. It can install the CLI for you, but you’ll need credentials configured (an access key with permissions to create EC2, IAM, security group, and S3 resources, typically via aws configure or an SSO profile). The installer verifies them with aws sts get-caller-identity before doing anything.

i What region should I use?
The AWS installer defaults to your configured region and otherwise prompts you. Pick a region close to your team and your data. You can pass --region to the installer to override it.

Once your cloud is ready, head back to the install path you picked: