I picked up an Iphone a few days ago. One of the first apps I downloaded was “Rackspace Cloud”. For those who don’t know, this app allows you to interface with your cloud servers and cloud files containers via your API key provided in your control panel.
The first thing I liked about this app was the simplicity and clean look. As with the menus on the Iphone, it was simple to navigate and quick to get started. When you first run the app, you are greeted with the Rackspace Cloud logo and are prompted for your username and authorization key (API key). Both of these can be found in your Rackspace Cloud control panel. After entering the key, it begins to authenticate:
After entering my key, the app quickly pulled up my cloud server complete with server name, linux distribution, and server size.
For my basic use of cloud servers, I only have 1 server deployed for now. Once you select a particular server, you are shown the following information (similar to the Rackspace Cloud online control panel) :
Normally in the private IP field, you would actually have it populated. I did edit the picture for privacy purposes 
. For those of you wondering about using private IP’s for free bandwidth between cloud servers, be sure to check out my brief post. Notice in the image that it gives you an option to resize your server via Iphone…nice! You can scale up or scale down, depending on the resources you have and how much storage you are consuming. Rebooting the server is also made simple via the same page.
Lastly I would like to mention the cloud files functionality built into this app. At the bottom right corner from within any page of this app, you are able to access your cloud files account. Once selected, you are shown the containers you have, the number of files in each, and the aggregate storage for the containers.
After selecting the container you get a list of files, in addition to the information shown on the previous page.
Now, for my favorite part and something I will personally use most often. This application also allows the ability to select an individual file and either email the file as attachment or email the link to the file. In order to email the file or link, the container housing the file would need to be published to the CDN in your Rackspace Cloud control panel. A third option on this screen that is missing in the screenshot below, is the ability to preview the file. In order for the file to allow for a preview, the Iphone must support the file format. A couple supported formats would include (but not limited too) JPG and PDF.
One feature that I would like too see in the future is the ability to publish a container to the CDN. It would also be nice to upload images to cloud files straight from the Iphone. At first I thought this second part was asking a bit much, but after reading here, it appears that we could see this last feature in a 1.2 release. Overall, props to Michael Mayo for a great compliment to the Rackspace Cloud toolbox.
Archive for category Cloud Servers
There have been several questions recently on whether Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic will be offered with cloud servers. As of today, it sure is, and here’s proof below. Enough said
This posting is a follow up to my last post on backups. Several customers and prospects have been asking about backups on cloud servers. More specifically, if you can turn the server off and restore at a later time from backup. Currently if you backup a cloud server, the snapshot(s) for that server will only be kept for as long as you have the server. Since you cannot “suspend” or turn a server off, you can only delete. With that in mind, there are two states to a cloud server, running/available and deleted/unavailable. See below for some Q/A:
Q: I want to keep my server running for only 2 weeks then go on vacation and not have to pay for it. Can I turn the server off and restore later from a backup?
A: If you delete the server, all backups for that server are deleted along with it. Remember, it can only be deleted, not simply switched off.
Q: What else can I do?
A: You do you have an option for this with a few limitations. If you have a large server you can always resize the server down too the minimum, which is 256MB of RAM. You can keep that until you are ready for more resources. While not free, the minimum server is only $10.95 per month. The only limitation here is that you cannot resize too a plan that has less storage than you are using. For example the minimum plan offer 10GB of storage, you cannot resize from a larger plan if you are actually utilizing more than 10GB of storage.
Q: Is there a work-around for this limitation?
A: You can use cloud files for your static files and reference the files via API. You can also reference the files by publishing the cloud files container to the CDN and using the applicable URL. This second part is not recommended for those in fear of “hotlinking” to the files you have stored. For example, if your URL was given out, anyone could access the file with the link. If you wanted to lock down the file stored in cloud files, you would have to do so via your own development using the Cloud Files developer’s guide. If you are in fact able to store the majority of your files on cloud files, then it would make it more likely for you too resize from a large cloud server plan to a smaller one.
Q; What about databases, can i offload databases on cloud files?
A: Currently you cannot use cloud files for dynamic content. If you had a database larger than 10GB, you could not resize down too the 256MB cloud server plan. If your database was between 10-20GB, you can always resize to the 512MB cloud server. Although $22/mo, still quite a bit less if coming from the 4,8,16GB servers.
Q: None of this helps me, I still need more storage and cannot resize……can you please help me?
A: The great news is that we do have a permanent solution on the way. Hopefully before year end there will be a migration for cloud server backups into cloud files. At that point you will be able to backup any size server and retain the backup for as long as you like. You will also be able to retain the backup after the server has been deleted. Lastly, no longer will you be limited to only retaining the 3 most recent backups per server. The charge will be the standard fee for cloud files ($.15/GB per month).
DNS Management Cloud Servers
Oct 28
Managing DNS in the control panel is very simple. After selecting the cloud server you want to manage, you will have a DNS tab at the top of the control panel. Through the DNS tab, you will actually have access to all domain names associated with your Rackspace Cloud account, for cloud sites and cloud servers combined. After selecting the domain name you would like to edit, you are shown the following:
Several customers use a few, if not all three of the hosting products offered by the Rackspace Cloud. For those using cloud servers for their hosting, several also use the same server for email. However those using both cloud sites and cloud servers can take advantaged of the managed mail provided with a cloud sites account. Through DNS management shown above, you can make changes in order to use cloud sites for email while cloud servers is used for hosting your site, application, etc…
Resize Cloud Server Process
Oct 21
After you have chosen to resize a server in the control panel, you are shown the following steps as you wait for the process to complete:
As you can see from the images, the four steps are defined. Once the resizing is complete, you are given the opportunity to retain the new server or revert back to the snapshot taken prior to resizing:
One question that often comes up as to whether or not bandwidth between Rackspace Cloud Servers is free. Short answer, yes. With any cloud server, you can access your private IP in order to take advantage of the free bandwidth:
# ifconfig eth1
eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:18:78:56:34:12
inet addr:10.1.98.200 Bcast:10.1.98.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
This is a basic sample of what you would see. For more information visit: Free Bandwidth
At any point you can resize your server in the control panel. This process is very simple. You first select the server you wish to resize from your control panel. On the overview page for that server, there is a “resize server” link:
Once you click the resize server link, you then pick which server you want to resize too. You can either downsize or upsize the server. WIth Rackspace Cloud Servers, your data is persistent as well as the IP. This is one of the key differences currently between Rackspace Cloud Servers vs. Amazon’s EC2 offering. The resizing process can take as little as 5 minutes and sometimes up to 30, but it all depends on how much data you have. The server is not down this entire time. Instead, its only down towards the end of the resizing process to reboot the server and complete this process.
From within the control panel, its simple to view a few stats of your cloud server. You can take a snapshot of the server’s stats at any given time and it will remain in your control panel. This is great for determining load during peak times, marketing events, etc…
As you can see, you have the ability to view record CPU utilization, hard disk read/write, and network read/write.
Currently you can only backup the 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB cloud servers. In the future Rackspace Cloud plans on migrating all cloud servers customers to our cloud files system for backups. Once that is completed, you can retain as many backups as you like and backup any size server that you would like. Backups will just be charged by storage at that point, $.15 per GB per month. As of now, you can set the backup schedule first:
Aside from setting a schedule, you can also view currently stored backups and create manual snapshot/backup:
After an account is created, you can easily setup a cloud server in the Rackspace Cloud control panel. The last 256MB server I deployed took only 20-30 seconds to get going. Once in the control panel, you first go to “Cloud Servers” then click “add new server”. The next step is to pick the size of the server that you would like, as shown here:
After you pick the size of the server, you then get to pick the operating system. You can either choose a fresh install off the linux list:
Or you can deploy the new server from an existing backup of another server (for a conclusive list of distributions, see) Technical Specs/OS List :
