A continuation and final article on how to set up cloud computing on Ubuntu. This information is originally posted here.
---
In part 1 and part 2 of this series, we saw how to set up a minimal cloud infrastructure and bundle a basic image (and test it). In this final article, we’ll play with our cloud from an end-user perspective.
Setting up the web UI
First of all, before accepting end users, as the administrator of the cloud you will have to setup a few things on the web UI. Using your favorite browser, you should:
* Open https://cloudcontroller:8443/
* Log in using the default user/password: admin/admin
* Change the default password, setup the cloud admin email address
* Logout
Setting up the cloud client
We’ll use Ubuntu 9.10 beta for this purpose, as it includes all the needed packages, and it’s so great ! You will have to install the following packages:
$ sudo apt-get install euca2ools unzip
Registering on UEC, getting credentials
As the end-user, fire up your favorite browser and:
* Open https://cloudcontroller:8443/
* Click “Apply” and enter your end user details
If you set up the email correctly on your cloud controller, it should send an email to the cloud admin address asking him to approve that request. Follow the instructions on that email to approve the account as the admin.
You should then get an email at the end user email address asking you to confirm the account request. Follow the instructions on that email, then you can log in on the web UI:
* Open https://cloudcontroller:8443/
* Login using your end user username and password
* Click “Download Credentials” in the “Credentials” tab
* Note the EMI reference you can use on the “Images” tab
Starting up an instance
You should unzip the credentials zipfile you just downloaded, then source the eucarc file and test the connection:
$ unzip euca2-enduser-x509.zip
$ . eucarc
$ euca-describe-availability-zones verbose
Setup a SSH key and allow connection to the SSH port:
$ euca-add-keypair enduserkey > enduserkey.priv
$ chmod 0600 enduserkey.priv
$ euca-authorize default -P tcp -p 22 -s 0.0.0.0/0
Then starting up an instance is just a matter of passing the right EMI and type:
$ euca-run-instances -k enduserkey emi-XXXXXXXX -t c1.medium
Enjoy !
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Run your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, part 2
A continuation on how to set up cloud computing on Ubuntu. This information is originally posted here.
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In part 1 of this series, we saw how to install the cloud infrastructure. In this article, we’ll bundle and upload an EMI (Eucalyptus Machine Image), based on Ubuntu Server 9.10 Beta, and validate that we can run an instance of it.
Download required elements
Go to the cloud/cluster controller and download the required items.
For a 64-bit image:
$ URL="http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic"
$ wget -O image.gz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-amd64.img.gz
$ wget -O vmlinuz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-amd64-vmlinuz-
2.6.31-11-server
$ wget -O initrd $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-amd64-initrd.img-
2.6.31-11-server
For a 32-bit image:
$ URL="http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic"
$ wget -O image.gz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-i386.img.gz
$ wget -O vmlinuz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-i386-vmlinuz-
2.6.31-11-generic-pae
$ wget -O initrd $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-i386-initrd.img-
2.6.31-11-generic-pae
Bundle the EMI
First you should unpack and resize your image to the desired size, lets say 4Gb. This can take a very long time (15 minutes !) on slow disks as you unpack 10Gb-worth of image space:
$ zcat -f image.gz | cp --sparse=always /dev/stdin image
$ e2fsck -f image
$ resize2fs image 4G
$ truncate --size=4G image
Then bundle and upload the kernel:
$ . eucarc
$ euca-bundle-image -i vmlinuz --kernel true
$ euca-upload-bundle -b ueckernel -m /tmp/vmlinuz.manifest.xml
$ euca-register ueckernel/vmlinuz.manifest.xml
IMAGE eki-KKKKKKKK
Take note of the EKI reference, you’ll need it later. Then bundle, upload and register the ramdisk:
$ euca-bundle-image -i initrd --ramdisk true
$ euca-upload-bundle -b uecramdisk -m /tmp/initrd.manifest.xml
$ euca-register uecramdisk/initrd.manifest.xml
IMAGE eri-RRRRRRRR
Take note of the ERI reference. Finally, bundle the image with the kernel and ramdisk, upload and register:
$ euca-bundle-image -i image --kernel eki-KKKKKKKK --ramdisk
eri-RRRRRRRR
$ euca-upload-bundle -b uecimage -m /tmp/image.manifest.xml
$ euca-register uecimage/image.manifest.xml
IMAGE emi-XXXXXXXX
Bundling will also take a lot of time ! Take note of your EMI reference.
Start an instance of your EMI
In order to access your instance using SSH, you’ll need to setup a few one-time things (create a SSH key and authorize access to port 22 of your instances):
$ euca-add-keypair mykey > mykey.priv
$ chmod 0600 mykey.priv
$ euca-authorize default -P tcp -p 22 -s 0.0.0.0/0
Now it’s time to start your instance !
$ euca-run-instances -k mykey emi-XXXXXXXX -t c1.medium
The “c1.medium” VM type is sufficient by default to run a 4Gb instance. You should take note of the i-YYYYYYYY reference that is displayed on your INSTANCE line. The first time you start an EMI, it can take some time (like 10 minutes) to move from “pending” state to “running”, depending on size. You can use the following command to automatically watch the output of euca-describe-instances, every 5 seconds:
$ watch -n 5 euca-describe-instances
Take note of the first ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ IP address mentioned in the output of the command. When the instance is “running”, ctrl-C to exit watch, then:
$ ssh -i mykey.priv ubuntu@ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ
You are in ! When you’re done playing with your instance, just run the following command on the cloud/cluster controller.
$ euca-terminate-instances i-YYYYYYYY
In the third and last part of this series of articles, we’ll talk about how to run instances from another workstation, as a cloud “customer”.
---
---
In part 1 of this series, we saw how to install the cloud infrastructure. In this article, we’ll bundle and upload an EMI (Eucalyptus Machine Image), based on Ubuntu Server 9.10 Beta, and validate that we can run an instance of it.
Download required elements
Go to the cloud/cluster controller and download the required items.
For a 64-bit image:
$ URL="http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic"
$ wget -O image.gz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-amd64.img.gz
$ wget -O vmlinuz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-amd64-vmlinuz-
2.6.31-11-server
$ wget -O initrd $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-amd64-initrd.img-
2.6.31-11-server
For a 32-bit image:
$ URL="http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic"
$ wget -O image.gz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-i386.img.gz
$ wget -O vmlinuz $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-i386-vmlinuz-
2.6.31-11-generic-pae
$ wget -O initrd $URL/beta/ubuntu-uec-karmic-i386-initrd.img-
2.6.31-11-generic-pae
Bundle the EMI
First you should unpack and resize your image to the desired size, lets say 4Gb. This can take a very long time (15 minutes !) on slow disks as you unpack 10Gb-worth of image space:
$ zcat -f image.gz | cp --sparse=always /dev/stdin image
$ e2fsck -f image
$ resize2fs image 4G
$ truncate --size=4G image
Then bundle and upload the kernel:
$ . eucarc
$ euca-bundle-image -i vmlinuz --kernel true
$ euca-upload-bundle -b ueckernel -m /tmp/vmlinuz.manifest.xml
$ euca-register ueckernel/vmlinuz.manifest.xml
IMAGE eki-KKKKKKKK
Take note of the EKI reference, you’ll need it later. Then bundle, upload and register the ramdisk:
$ euca-bundle-image -i initrd --ramdisk true
$ euca-upload-bundle -b uecramdisk -m /tmp/initrd.manifest.xml
$ euca-register uecramdisk/initrd.manifest.xml
IMAGE eri-RRRRRRRR
Take note of the ERI reference. Finally, bundle the image with the kernel and ramdisk, upload and register:
$ euca-bundle-image -i image --kernel eki-KKKKKKKK --ramdisk
eri-RRRRRRRR
$ euca-upload-bundle -b uecimage -m /tmp/image.manifest.xml
$ euca-register uecimage/image.manifest.xml
IMAGE emi-XXXXXXXX
Bundling will also take a lot of time ! Take note of your EMI reference.
Start an instance of your EMI
In order to access your instance using SSH, you’ll need to setup a few one-time things (create a SSH key and authorize access to port 22 of your instances):
$ euca-add-keypair mykey > mykey.priv
$ chmod 0600 mykey.priv
$ euca-authorize default -P tcp -p 22 -s 0.0.0.0/0
Now it’s time to start your instance !
$ euca-run-instances -k mykey emi-XXXXXXXX -t c1.medium
The “c1.medium” VM type is sufficient by default to run a 4Gb instance. You should take note of the i-YYYYYYYY reference that is displayed on your INSTANCE line. The first time you start an EMI, it can take some time (like 10 minutes) to move from “pending” state to “running”, depending on size. You can use the following command to automatically watch the output of euca-describe-instances, every 5 seconds:
$ watch -n 5 euca-describe-instances
Take note of the first ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ IP address mentioned in the output of the command. When the instance is “running”, ctrl-C to exit watch, then:
$ ssh -i mykey.priv ubuntu@ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ.ZZZ
You are in ! When you’re done playing with your instance, just run the following command on the cloud/cluster controller.
$ euca-terminate-instances i-YYYYYYYY
In the third and last part of this series of articles, we’ll talk about how to run instances from another workstation, as a cloud “customer”.
---
10 Most Useful Google Plugins for WordPress
Original post is located here.
---
WordPress is a great and most popular blogging platform for it possibility to extend functions with plugins. WordPress Plugins make blogging easier for all of us who have chosen WordPress as our content management system. This time we want to present you 10 Most Useful Google Plugins for Wordpress.
Google is best known as a search engine and Internet giant, but this time we will check what Google can offer for WordPress users. This post lists the most useful Wordpress plugins related to Google starting from XML Sitemaps and ending with FeedBurner subscribers counter.
We also are using some of listed plugins like Google XML Sitemaps, Google Analyticator or FeedBurnerCount.
1. Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.
2. Google Analyticator
Google Analyticator easily adds Google Analytics tracking support to a WordPress-powered blog. Google Analyticator also comes with an easily customizable widget that can be used to display specific information that is gathered by Google Analytics using the Google Analytics API.
3. Google Analytics for WordPress
This plugin adds the possibility to tag and segment all outgoing links, so you can see whether a click came from a comment or an article. It also adds the possibility to track just the domain, instead of the complete link, so you get a better view of how much traffic you’re sending where.
4. Google Website Optimizer for WordPress
This simple plugin lets you optimize your landing pages (as posts or pages) using the Google Website Optimizer without needing to edit the HTML code of the theme.
5. Google Doc Embedder
Google Doc Embedder will allow you to embed a PDF, PowerPoint (PPT), or TIFF file directly into your page or post, not requiring the user to have Adobe Reader, PowerPoint, or other software installed to view the contents.
6. Easy AdSense
Easy AdSense provides a very easy way to generate revenue from your blog using Google AdSense. With its full set of features, Easy AdSense is perhaps the first plugin to give you a complete solution for everything AdSense-related.
7. XML Google Maps
This plugin allows you to easily insert Google Map or Google Earth Plugin Maps into your blog.
8. Google AJAX Translation
The Google AJAX Translation WordPress plugin provides a quick, simple, and light way to add translation to your blog. A “Translate” button can be added to the bottom or top of posts, pages, and/or comments.
9. Google Custom Search Plugin
The default search engine that ships with WordPress is not the best search engine and bloggers every where should make the switch to WordPress Google Custom Search plugin. This plugin is a drop in replacement and works with minimum hassle.
10. FeedBurnerCount
A well-optimized and reliable plugin that connects to the FeedBurner Awareness API to retrieve your readers count, that you can print out in plain text.
---
As for me, I have been using Google XML Sitemap and Google Analytics for Wordpress. Might want to try the other plugins when I have the chance to do so. :-)
---
WordPress is a great and most popular blogging platform for it possibility to extend functions with plugins. WordPress Plugins make blogging easier for all of us who have chosen WordPress as our content management system. This time we want to present you 10 Most Useful Google Plugins for Wordpress.
Google is best known as a search engine and Internet giant, but this time we will check what Google can offer for WordPress users. This post lists the most useful Wordpress plugins related to Google starting from XML Sitemaps and ending with FeedBurner subscribers counter.
We also are using some of listed plugins like Google XML Sitemaps, Google Analyticator or FeedBurnerCount.
1. Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.
2. Google Analyticator
Google Analyticator easily adds Google Analytics tracking support to a WordPress-powered blog. Google Analyticator also comes with an easily customizable widget that can be used to display specific information that is gathered by Google Analytics using the Google Analytics API.
3. Google Analytics for WordPress
This plugin adds the possibility to tag and segment all outgoing links, so you can see whether a click came from a comment or an article. It also adds the possibility to track just the domain, instead of the complete link, so you get a better view of how much traffic you’re sending where.
4. Google Website Optimizer for WordPress
This simple plugin lets you optimize your landing pages (as posts or pages) using the Google Website Optimizer without needing to edit the HTML code of the theme.
5. Google Doc Embedder
Google Doc Embedder will allow you to embed a PDF, PowerPoint (PPT), or TIFF file directly into your page or post, not requiring the user to have Adobe Reader, PowerPoint, or other software installed to view the contents.
6. Easy AdSense
Easy AdSense provides a very easy way to generate revenue from your blog using Google AdSense. With its full set of features, Easy AdSense is perhaps the first plugin to give you a complete solution for everything AdSense-related.
7. XML Google Maps
This plugin allows you to easily insert Google Map or Google Earth Plugin Maps into your blog.
8. Google AJAX Translation
The Google AJAX Translation WordPress plugin provides a quick, simple, and light way to add translation to your blog. A “Translate” button can be added to the bottom or top of posts, pages, and/or comments.
9. Google Custom Search Plugin
The default search engine that ships with WordPress is not the best search engine and bloggers every where should make the switch to WordPress Google Custom Search plugin. This plugin is a drop in replacement and works with minimum hassle.
10. FeedBurnerCount
A well-optimized and reliable plugin that connects to the FeedBurner Awareness API to retrieve your readers count, that you can print out in plain text.
---
As for me, I have been using Google XML Sitemap and Google Analytics for Wordpress. Might want to try the other plugins when I have the chance to do so. :-)
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Run your own Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, part 1
This information is originally posted here.
---
Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud is the product, powered by Eucalyptus, that allows you to easily run your own Amazon-EC2-like private cloud. It’s a lot simpler than you’d think. With the recent Ubuntu Server 9.10 beta release, you are now able to easily deploy that infrastructure from the CD installer.
Prerequisites
To deploy a minimal cloud infrastructure, you’ll need at least two dedicated systems. One will hold the cloud controller (clc), the cluster controller (cc), walrus (the S3-like storage service) and the storage controller (sc). This one needs fast disks and a reasonably fast processor. The other system(s) are node controllers (nc) that will actually run the instances. These ones need CPUs with VT extensions, lots of CPU cores, lots of RAM, and fast disks. For both, 64-bit support is highly recommended.
Installing the cloud/cluster controller
Download the 9.10 Server beta ISO. When you boot, select “Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud install”. When asked whether you want a “Cluster” or a “Node” install, select “Cluster”. It will ask two other cloud-specific questions during the course of the install:
1. Name of your cluster: pick any name you want :)
2. List of IP addresses on the LAN that the cloud can allocate to instances:
enter a list of space-separated unused IP addresses on your LAN.
When it reboots, run the following to get the latest eucalyptus package and reboot:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo reboot
Installing node controllers
The node controller install is even simpler. Just make sure that you are connected to the network on which the cloud/cluster controller is already running. Take the same ISO, select “Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud install”. It should detect the Cluster and preselect “Node” install for you. That’s all.
It is also recommended to update to the latest 9.10 status:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Connect your node controllers to the cloud
After all nodes are installed, you need to return to the cloud/controller and run the following command to make it “discover” your newly-installed nodes.
$ sudo euca_conf --no-rsync --discover-nodes
Confirm all the nodes it finds, and you are done. To check that your private cloud infrastructure is ready to serve, you need to retrieve admin credentials and run euca-describe-availability-zones command. Run the following on your cloud/cluster controller:
$ sudo euca_conf --get-credentials mycreds.zip
$ unzip mycreds.zip
$ . eucarc
$ euca-describe-availability-zones verbose
This last command returns a description of the capabilities of your cloud cluster, how many instances of each type you could run on it, for example:
In part 2 of this series, we’ll cover bundling your first EMI (Eucalyptus Machine Image), based on Ubuntu Server 9.10 Beta. We’ll test it by starting an instance of it. Stay tuned !
---
---
Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud is the product, powered by Eucalyptus, that allows you to easily run your own Amazon-EC2-like private cloud. It’s a lot simpler than you’d think. With the recent Ubuntu Server 9.10 beta release, you are now able to easily deploy that infrastructure from the CD installer.
Prerequisites
To deploy a minimal cloud infrastructure, you’ll need at least two dedicated systems. One will hold the cloud controller (clc), the cluster controller (cc), walrus (the S3-like storage service) and the storage controller (sc). This one needs fast disks and a reasonably fast processor. The other system(s) are node controllers (nc) that will actually run the instances. These ones need CPUs with VT extensions, lots of CPU cores, lots of RAM, and fast disks. For both, 64-bit support is highly recommended.
Installing the cloud/cluster controller
Download the 9.10 Server beta ISO. When you boot, select “Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud install”. When asked whether you want a “Cluster” or a “Node” install, select “Cluster”. It will ask two other cloud-specific questions during the course of the install:
1. Name of your cluster: pick any name you want :)
2. List of IP addresses on the LAN that the cloud can allocate to instances:
enter a list of space-separated unused IP addresses on your LAN.
When it reboots, run the following to get the latest eucalyptus package and reboot:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo reboot
Installing node controllers
The node controller install is even simpler. Just make sure that you are connected to the network on which the cloud/cluster controller is already running. Take the same ISO, select “Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud install”. It should detect the Cluster and preselect “Node” install for you. That’s all.
It is also recommended to update to the latest 9.10 status:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Connect your node controllers to the cloud
After all nodes are installed, you need to return to the cloud/controller and run the following command to make it “discover” your newly-installed nodes.
$ sudo euca_conf --no-rsync --discover-nodes
Confirm all the nodes it finds, and you are done. To check that your private cloud infrastructure is ready to serve, you need to retrieve admin credentials and run euca-describe-availability-zones command. Run the following on your cloud/cluster controller:
$ sudo euca_conf --get-credentials mycreds.zip
$ unzip mycreds.zip
$ . eucarc
$ euca-describe-availability-zones verbose
This last command returns a description of the capabilities of your cloud cluster, how many instances of each type you could run on it, for example:
AVAILABILITYZONE myowncloud 192.168.1.1
AVAILABILITYZONE |- vm types free / max cpu ram disk
AVAILABILITYZONE |- m1.small 0004 / 0004 1 128 2
AVAILABILITYZONE |- c1.medium 0004 / 0004 1 256 5
AVAILABILITYZONE |- m1.large 0002 / 0002 2 512 10
AVAILABILITYZONE |- m1.xlarge 0002 / 0002 2 1024 20
AVAILABILITYZONE |- c1.xlarge 0001 / 0001 4 2048 20
In part 2 of this series, we’ll cover bundling your first EMI (Eucalyptus Machine Image), based on Ubuntu Server 9.10 Beta. We’ll test it by starting an instance of it. Stay tuned !
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