Just tried Amazon EC2 and it is pretty cool. For the free windows instance, it is only 1 Gig of ram. Any idea how to reduce to memory requirements of TWS so that it fits nicely?
It was 600Mbytes using TWS 64bit, but I changed TWS 32 bit and that took only 400Mbytes. System takes 200Mbytes, and so there is room for python and other stuff.
I use Windows 2012 Server which is the default free option under windows. I see what happen. The T2 EC2 line gives CPU credits. You get a baseline performance, but can exceed it by spending credits, or gain credits when you are idle. I ran out of credits. But if I leave the machine idle all night, I would get more credits at the start of the trading day. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/low-cost-burstable-ec2-instances/ The linux is cheaper than windows, but I think I have to use windows. I really like this service. I might just buy a more powerful one rather than stay on the free. Or I might upgrade to the powerful one on busy trading days at 09:30 and downgrade at 16:00.
To answer your second question, I thought of buying say the t2.micro for 3 years for $150 under linux and installing windows, instead of paying $200 for 3 years. I am not sure if that violates the terms of service, or if it is physically possible -- and definitely, you need a licensed copy of windows. I calculate that my electric bill is possibly higher than $50 a year to run a t2.micro 24/7.
Well so the reason I am asking is because some versions of windows will take more RAM than others. I looked up what the OS is on EC2 and it looks like it is installing 2008 R2. That is fine. I suggest you make sure that it is not installing SQL Server etc. Assuming you are running a bare bones OS install, W2k08 will use about ~500 MB which gives your "application(s)" ~500MB to use. Imo, unless you are running several applications at one, this should suffice for IB TWS.