On Wednesday, we held a webinar titled: “Load Balancing in the GoGrid Cloud – Utilizing F5 BIG IP to Manage Traffic Spikes & Uptime“. As with previous webinars, we wanted to make this GoGrid webinar public to other users in case you were not able to attend.

The agenda of the webinar was as follows:

• Overview of GoGrid and F5 Networks
• Load balancing with GoGrid and F5 BIG IP
  • Benefits of load balancing overview
  • Use cases
  • Best practices
• Question and Answer Session

As mentioned previously, if you aren’t using a load balanced solution in your Cloud infrastructure, you may be putting your site or services at risk. Here are some reasons why you should seriously consider using GoGrid’s FREE F5 load balancing service within the GoGrid cloud:

• You can prevent application downtime – when you have more than one server in a load balanced environment, you can rest assured that if one of those servers happens to become unavailable, traffic to your site is automatically redirected to the other available server(s).
• Scaling infrastructure – without a load balancer in place, it can be difficult to scale up (or down) your infrastructure.
• 1-2-3 Process – deploying a load balancer on GoGrid is just a matter of filling out a form and once you configure it, your new load balancer is available in minutes.
• Moving beyond the “Free” offering – we have solutions that go beyond the standard load balancing offering within GoGrid. If your routing needs are more complex, we are here to help!

If you were unable to attend this webinar, the complete recording is available below as well as on our Vimeo channel:

Load Balancing in the GoGrid Cloud – Utilizing F5 BIG IP to Manage Traffic Spikes and Uptime – Webinar (August 2010) from GoGrid on Vimeo.

The presentation that was used in the webinar is also available on our Slideshare channel:

If you are looking for a Load Balancing solution in the cloud, definitely consider GoGrid’s free F5 load balancing service. If your needs go beyond what is offered for free, you can contact a GoGrid Sales Representative or if you are a current GoGrid customer, you can talk with your Dedicated Service Team and work on some more advanced solutions.

If there are any other topics you would like covered in a future webinar from GoGrid, please let me know.

GoGrid has long been supporter of open standards and the open source movement. We recently promoted how many open source solution providers are leveraging GoGrid as a platform to disseminate their open source solutions and technology in the cloud. Long before that at the beginning of 2009, we made our public API available to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License. This meant that under this licensing, developers could “share, distribute, display and perform the work” as well as “make derivative works” based on our API.

Now we are taking it one step further because we realize in order for Cloud Computing to be adopted across the business IT landscape, there needs to be more standards put in place as well as a commonality across the board when it comes to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The Deltacloud initiative is grabbing this issue by the horns by working to combine interoperability with an open sourced API. And, they are the only major cloud framework that isn’t leveraging a single company’s proprietary code, API or intellectual property.

Deltacloud, an Apache Software Foundation incubator project that provides an open set of application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable computing interoperability across private and public clouds, recently announced support for GoGrid and we are pleased to participate in this important initiative. There are quite a few advantages of this effort, specifically:

• The API can be offered by a cloud provider or individual user running their own server
• Multiple client libraries can be written in a variety of computer languages (many are already available)
• The core API logic resides on the API server, allowing consistent behavior across all client libraries
• New cloud providers can be added to the API without needing to change the clients

The driver for GoGrid is currently under development but will support the following actions:

• Create new instances
• Stop running instances
• Reboot running instances
• Destroy instances
• List all/get details about hardware profiles
• List all/get details about realms
• List all/get details about images
• List all/get details about instances

Deltacloud is hosted at Apache incubator which allows it to benefit from the Apache governance model. This means that discussion, changes and updates are based on individual contributions.

For more information on the Deltacloud initiative, please visit the project hosted on the Apache incubator site.

Recently, Microsoft announced WebMatrix, a free Web development suite of software and tools that bring together a Web Server, a database and programming frameworks all within a single, integrated solution. WebMatrix allows you to code, test and deploy ASP.NET and PHP applications, all within the same environment. What does this have to do with GoGrid you might ask? Well it’s pretty simple actually, once you have developed your application locally on your PC’s desktop, you will need an easy way to copy it over and show to the world. GoGrid has worked with Microsoft to create a seamless publishing and hosting experience practically effortless.

To make it easy for new GoGrid users, we are offering a $150 GoGrid service credit for you to get started with Microsoft WebMatrix and GoGrid. To get going, simply sign-up here.

About WebMatrix (and a bit of GoGrid)

Microsoft does a clear job outlining the features of WebMatrix, specifically:

• Small, but complete package – simply download and install WebMatrix for free on your desktop. From there, you can immediately start to use the built-in webserver, database and programming framework to jump-start your web-development. And, you can quickly get started on the hosting side of things as well by deploying a GoGrid server that is ready to automatically connect to WebMatrix.
• Grows with you – you start simple and then grow as your application and development grows, much like that of Cloud Computing. As your coding expands, you can easily integrate Visual Studio into your work environment. Similarly, you can update the built-in database from SQL Server Compact to a full-blown Microsoft SQL Server.
• Start > Open Source – if you aren’t ready to start from scratch, WebMatrix includes a variety of popular and free open source applications like WordPress, Joomla!, Umbraco and DotNetNuke. Just choose your software package from the library and WebMatrix will download and install the software. And you can tweak each environment using the built-in code editor.
• Database made simple – don’t let data-driven websites scare you either. If your web application needs to serve data like a online catalog or CMS, WebMatrix has you covered by providing a small, embedded database (SQL Server Compact). But the really nice thing is, once you are done doing all of the development on your Desktop, you can publish your database quickly and easily to your GoGrid production environment.
• Elegant interface, simple experience – WebMatrix has editors galore! It includes a rich code editor and database editor, but also has easy management consoles for SEO, web server management and FTP publishing as well. Couple this management with the ease of use of the GoGrid portal and you can’t go wrong.
• Simple to code – at GoGrid, we have always believed in adhering to industry standards when it comes to hosting and managing infrastructure. WebMatrix follows a similar suit by sticking to HTML, CSS & JavaScript standards. Your code is easy to read and by using the software suite, you can do some learning in the process as you create your next web application.
• More than “Hello, World” – WebMatrix has a variety of built-in code helpers that make development even easier by simply tagging your HTML.
• Desktop or server, it’s all the same – moving from a desktop development environment to a full-fledged production environment is practically effortless since the Desktop version is built with the same frameworks, web server and database engine as production servers.
• Tightly knit, fully integrated – WebMatrix also acts as the “traffic cop” because of its integration with IIS Developer Express and other Web server components that run your site. You can monitor things in real-time and if an issue pops up, it helps you to track down and resolve that issue.
• Optimized for search – you no longer need to pay a 3rd party to ensure that your website or application is SEO optimized. Built in guides assist you in optimizing your site to the fullest.
• Site publication – once you are ready to move your web site or application to a robust production environment, WebMatrix can help in that selection process. But you may not even need that since GoGrid has partnered with Microsoft to provide a full production-ready environment within the GoGrid cloud. And, we are giving new GoGrid users a $150 service credit to make that on-ramp even faster!

Now that you know a bit about what Microsoft WebMatrix (and GoGrid) can do for you, let’s learn a bit more about it.

Getting Started with WebMatrix & GoGrid

There are two components to setting up the WebMatrix and GoGrid environments: Desktop and Server. The Desktop environment is the one where you do all of your coding and development, all within the WebMatrix development suite. The Server environment on GoGrid is where you will host the product of your labors.

Starting with the Desktop side, you will need to download the WebMatrix installer which is located at: http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/.

Installing the Desktop version of WebMatrix

Initiating the installer. Do note that depending on your choices, the installation process could be a bit longer:

The Installer confirms your selections:

Be sure to set up a secure password for SQL Server Express (you will be prompted to change it if it isn’t very secure):

Go grab a cup of coffee while the components are downloaded and installed:

Once the installation is complete, you will receive a confirmation screen:

Installing an Application (e.g., WordPress) via WebMatrix Locally

Once your installation of WebMatrix is complete, you can either start coding on your own, or install a pre-configured Open Source application. In this case, I chose to install WordPress. There are other items that you can install as well, including:

• DotNetNuke Community Edition
• nopCommerce
• Gallery
• WordPress
• Umbraco CMS
• mojoPortal
• ResourceBlender.NET
• Kentico CMS for ASP.NET
• BlogEngine.NET
• Acquia Drupal
• ScrewTurn Wiki 3.0
• Gallery Server Pro
• nService
• Moodle
• Sitefinity Community Edition
• DasBlog
• SugarCRM
• Subtext
• SilverStripe CMS
• Joomla!
• Mayando
• AtomSite
• My Web Pages Starter Kit
• phpBB
• KoobooCMS

You choose which Web Server you want to use. I chose Microsoft WebMatrix.

The Installer confirms your installation choices:

Since WordPress uses MySQL, you need to configure a secure password for it:

Time for another cup of coffee while the installer runs:

Once you have completed the installation, you can begin configuring your WordPress (or other application) install on your local machine. Just launch WebMatrix from your Start menu:

I clicked on My Sites:

The WebMatrix management console has everything you need right at your fingertips:

You can edit files using the built-in code editor that is complete with context-color-coding:

Similarly, you can manage your database (in this case, MySQL) through the database console:

Creating a GoGrid Server Ready for WebMatrix Publishing

The beauty of the WebMatrix install is being able to develop locally on your Desktop and then publish your final site to a production server on GoGrid. Before you can do the publishing, you need to set up a GoGrid server running WebMatrix. Be sure to take advantage of our $150 GoGrid Service Credit by signing up here.

Once you log into the GoGrid Portal, click the Add button and then select Cloud Server. Within the Image Selection widget, choose the “WebMatrixServer2″ image:

After that, configure your server and click Save:

Within a few minutes, you will have your production environment ready to go. At that point, you need to use a Remote Desktop Connection to remotely manage your server. Remember that the Administrator password is within the Support > Passwords section of the GoGrid portal.

Getting Your GoGrid /WebMatrix Server Environment Ready

Once you connect to your server running on GoGrid using a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC), you will see two files on the desktop, a Getting Started document and a link to Microsoft WebMatrix.

To quickly summarize, here are the high-level steps you need to complete on the GoGrid Server:

1. Run the Certificate Preparation script
2. Change the Default Application Pool
3. (Recommended) Change your MySQL or SQL Server password from the default one listed in this blog post

1) Certificate Preparation Script

Before you configure your publishing environment, you need to run a Certificate Preparation script on the server. It is located at: C:/certprep/CertPrep.exe. Simply double-click the application and it will run quickly. You will see a DOS prompt pop up briefly and then automatically close.

2) Change Default Application Pool

In order for the publishing to work properly, you do need to change the Default Application Pool from version 2 to version 4. To do this, go into your IIS manager on the server, select Application Pools, select “DefaultAppPool” (which will probably say “v2.0″) and make the change (to “v4.0″) as shown below:

Original Setting:

Updated Setting (Note: it might show a different version – just choose the v.4.0.xxxxx one):

3) Change Default Database Password

While this is not a required step, it is a recommended one. You might want to change the default password on your MySQL or SQL Server database from the default one that the server starts with. Just use the appropriate method for the database that you are using.

Editing & Publishing from Local Environment to GoGrid

Now, we will dive into the publishing to your GoGrid server. For a test, I made some edits to my WordPress theme locally. I wanted to see how it could be pushed over to WebMatrix running on the GoGrid Server instance. Here is the minor code change:

And how it appears in the local version of my WordPress blog:

The Getting Started guide which resides on the GoGrid WebMatrix Image will tell you how to configure your local development environment for publishing, specifically:

1. Click Start and Microsoft WebMatrix Beta.
2. Click Site from Gallery or create your own website
3. Click Publish
4. Enter the following information in the Publish Settings dialog:

Protocol: Web Deploy
Server: http://IP address e.g. “http://111.222.33.44″
Username: Administrator
Password: password of local Administrator account (you can get this from the GoGrid portal)
Site Name: Default Web Site
Destination URL: http://IP address

If your application needs a database connection, use the following formats in the Publish Settings:

SQL: Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS; Initial Catalog=gogrid_db;User Id=sa;Password= $trongPassw0rd;
MySQL: Server=localhost;Database=gogrid_db;Uid=root;Pwd=$trongPassw0rd;

Note: If you changed the default password on your server, be sure to change it in the appropriate string above.

Within WebMatrix locally, click on the Configure button under Publish:

You will see the Publishing Settings:

Fill in the Publishing Settings as per the list in the Getting Started guide (as mentioned above):

Once you enter in all of the information, be sure to push the “Validate Connection” button. Assuming you have no validation issues, you can proceed with the publishing of your code/site. Clicking “Publish” will show you a confirmation screen of the files that will be published. If you want to include your database, be sure to check off that box:

Click “Continue” to publish your site/code (and database). WebMatrix will start publishing your content. You will see a status bar at the bottom showing the progress:

Clicking on “More Details” can show you what is happening:

Once you publish the site (using the Publish button) and send over the database, you may also need to change which Default Document loads first. By default, it is Default.htm. In order to have the WordPress default document show up, you should move Index.php to the top of the list within your IIS manager. Once you do that, the WordPress blog (in this case) will load, complete with the changes you had made locally:

Now, any changes that you do locally on WebMatrix can be published to your GoGrid Server.

Summing It Up

Obviously, you don’t need to use one of the pre-packaged webapps that are available. You can just as easily create your own custom code and publish it the same way as I have outlined above. Regardless, using the GoGrid/WebMatrix combo does fulfill a variety of end-to-end development, testing and publishing scenarios. And with the $150 GoGrid service credit, you can test out this environment to see if it meets your needs.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions!

We are excited to announce a joint webinar with F5 and GoGrid that discusses the top Use Cases and Best Practices for load balancing in a public cloud. When GoGrid launched several years ago, we were pleased to have F5 as a technology partner in our initial offering. It remains a core feature of the GoGrid Cloud today. Recently, with the addition of our East Coast datacenter, we released load balancing for GoGrid infrastructures in that datacenter as well.

Many current GoGrid users are not taking advantage of our free F5 load balancing so if you are one of those customers, we encourage you to attend this webinar. Things to think about:

• You can prevent application downtime – when you have more than one server in a load balanced environment, you can rest assured that if one of those servers happens to become unavailable, traffic to your site is automatically redirected to the other available server(s).
• Scaling infrastructure – without a load balancer in place, it can be difficult to scale up (or down) your infrastructure.
• 1-2-3 Process – deploying a load balancer is just a matter of filling out a form and once you configure it, your new load balancer is available in minutes.
• Moving beyond the “Free” offering – if your routing needs are more complex, we are here to help with other solutions.

Webinar Details

Title: “Load Balancing in the GoGrid Cloud – Utilizing F5 BIG IP to Manage Traffic Spikes and Uptime”
Date: Wednesday, 8/25/10
Time: 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Registration: http://go.gogrid.com/webinars/20100825

Topics to be covered in this webinar include:

• Enterprise grade hardware load balancers
• Multi-data center resource provisioning
• Configuration options at different levels: load balancing types and persistence
• And more!

Presenters:

• F5 Networks: Doug Lohf, Senior Systems Engineer
• GoGrid: David Michael, Sales Engineer
• GoGrid: Rob Larson, Product Manager

As a thank you for attending, all attendees will be eligible for a $50 GoGrid Service Credit.

Be sure that you attend this important webinar as it can help you do more with your F5 load balancing solution that you already have available within your GoGrid cloud.

GoGrid Partner, Librato, who provides a service called Silverline which enables customers to control and maximize the utilization of resources within their cloud servers and datacenter servers, today announced the availability of the Silverline service within the GoGrid cloud.

With a GoGrid server running Silverline, customers can control the amount of resources each workload can consume meaning that you can process your workloads on a smaller number of servers but still ensuring that SLAs with your customers are met. More information about Librato Silverline can be found within the GoGrid Exchange.

There are currently 10 GoGrid Partner Server Images (PGSIs) available with Librato’s Silverline installed:

• CentOS 5.2 (32-bit)
• CentOS 5.2 (64-bit)
• CentOS 5.3 (32-bit)
• CentOS 5.3 (64-bit)
• RHEL 5.4 (32-bit)
• RHEL 5.4 (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 (32-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (32-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)

The following Press Release was delivered today about this new offering:

Maximizing Server Utilization with Librato’s Silverline in the GoGrid Cloud

Instantly Deploy Servers with GoGrid Partner Images Preconfigured for Spare Cycle Harvesting, Application Monitoring and Event Triggers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Librato^®, Inc., a leading provider of software solutions that maximize the utilization of cloud and data center resources, today announced the availability of Silverline service on GoGrid’s cloud hosting infrastructure. Silverline is preconfigured for the GoGrid cloud in the form of a Partner GoGrid Server Image (PGSI) in the GoGrid Exchange and delivers spare capacity harvesting, monitoring of application resource consumption, and event handling on GoGrid servers.

Silverline encapsulates applications in virtual “containers” that precisely monitor resource consumption, up to 100 times per second. Use cases for Silverline include:

• spare cycle harvesting – where a background application uses only resources not consumed by primary applications,
• application monitoring and capacity planning – which provides detailed statistics on resource usage and demand, and
• event triggers – where thresholds are set with corresponding user-defined actions configured to occur when an application crosses a threshold.

Silverline supports Linux and Windows running on virtual or physical servers. Silverline is always available for free on Windows Desktop systems and is available for a 30-day free trial on Linux and Windows servers.

GoGrid makes it easy to build and manage cloud servers with an award-winning, web-based GUI or programmatically through an API,” said Fred van den Bosch, CEO of Librato. “Silverline is available for a free 30-day trial and provides a powerful mechanism to monitor resource usage for complex workloads that can span multiple GoGrid servers or hybrid clouds.”

Librato Silverline, when coupled with the GoGrid Cloud, allows customers to get even more out of their existing “cloudcenter” by giving them precise control over the amount of resources that each application workload on their GoGrid server consumes. This enables customers’ workloads to be dispersed among different GoGrid servers in the most efficient manner possible, which means they will now easily be able to maximize utilization, productivity, and moreover, the value they obtain from all of the servers they have running in their “cloudcenter”.

Silverline gives GoGrid users the ability to control their infrastructure utilization on GoGrid down to a level never before seen,” said GoGrid CEO, John Keagy. “While Cloud Computing gives you better control over your infrastructure, by adding the Silverline service to the mix, GoGrid users can fully benefit from increased server resource management.”

About GoGrid

GoGrid is a Global Leader in Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure hosting. GoGrid enables sysadmins, developers, and IT professionals to create, deploy, and control free f5 load balanced cloud infrastructures and complex hosted virtual server networks with full root access/administrative server control. GoGrid physical and virtual server instances maintain industry standard specifications with no requirement to learn proprietary standards. Deploying GoGrid infrastructure takes minutes via a web control panel or GoGrid’s API. GoGrid gives users the control of a familiar datacenter environment with the flexibility and immediate scalability of the cloud. For more information, please visit: http://www.GoGrid.com.

About Librato, Inc.

Librato, Inc., is a leading provider of software for maximizing the utilization of resources in clouds and data centers. Librato’s products are based on a unique, application-centric virtualization layer that is transparently interposed between application and Operating System. This allows its products to be easily deployed in existing cloud and data center environments and generate a rapid return on investment. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information visit http://www.librato.com or follow Librato on Twitter at http://twitter.com/librato.

Librato, the Librato logo, and Librato Silverline are trademarks or registered trademarks of Librato, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Please be sure to explore other Partner Solutions within the GoGrid Exchange which include offerings for Software & Applications, Development & Testing, Disaster Recovery & Backup, Cloud Management, and Security, Monitoring & Reporting.

GoGrid Partner, Sentrigo, a database security software innovator, today announced that it will host a webinar with GoGrid focusing on Building Secure, Scalable and Stable databases in the Cloud. The Webinar details are as follows:

Date: Thursday August 12, 2010
Time: 10:00 am (Pacific Daylight time)
Duration: 1 hour
Registration: http://bit.ly/bNkfd1

Topics to be covered are:

• Intro to cloud web service and management tools
• Best practices in deploying databases in the cloud
• Available data storage options
• Technical challenges when protecting remote databases
• Securing databases in the cloud

Sentrigo currently has its Hedgehog Database Compliance and Security Suite images available on GoGrid as CentOS 5.3 and Windows Server 2008 server images:

The following Press Release was delivered today discussing the upcoming Webinar.

Sentrigo and GoGrid to Host Webinar on Building Stable, Scalable, Secure Databases in the Cloud

Industry Experts Share Best Practices for Organizations Looking to Safely Deploy Databases in Cloud Computing Environment

Santa Clara, CA (PRWEB) August 10, 2010

Sentrigo, Inc. innovator in database securitysoftware, today announced that it will host a live Webinar on Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 10am PT with GoGrid, a pioneer in customizable, on-demand cloud infrastructures. The event, entitled “Learn to Build a Stable, Scalable, and Secure Databases in the Cloud,” will feature representatives from GoGrid and Sentrigo sharing their expertise on database deployments and real-time security in this latest frontier of information technology.

The interactive session will feature Paul Lancaster, GoGrid’s head of business and channel development, Andy Feit, VP of marketing at Sentrigo, and Rob David, a consulting engineer for Sentrigo with experience implementing database security for several cloud architectures – and will address topics including:

• An introduction to cloud infrastructure and management tools
• Best practices in deploying applications and databases in the cloud
• Technical challenges when protecting remote databases
• Securing databases in a cloud computing environment

“As ever-increasing numbers of organizations are looking to implement cloud computing, they are often discouraged by the perceived lack of security,” said Feit. “Our key objective for this Webinar is to provide enterprises with actionable information to allow them to most effectively move applications to the cloud, while maintaining the high level of security necessary to meet compliance requirements and prevent a damaging data breach.”

For event details and registration, please visit: http://bit.ly/bNkfd1

Tweet this: Sentrigo and GoGrid to Host Webinar on Building Stable, Scalable, Secure Databases in the Cloud

Follow Sentrigo on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/sentrigo

About Sentrigo

Sentrigo is a recognized innovator in database security solutions, offering a full suite of products for vulnerability assessment, virtual patching and database monitoring/auditing. The company’s flagship product, Hedgehog Enterprise, provides Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) and real-time Intrusion Prevention, protecting sensitive data from external threats and misuse by privileged insiders. Hedgehog can be quickly and easily deployed at small and midsize organizations, and scales to handle the largest enterprises, providing full visibility into all database activity and allowing enterprises to enforce security policy and comply with regulatory requirements, such as PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, and HIPAA. The company has won wide acclaim for its technology leadership from publications such as Network World and SC Magazine, and recently received the Cloud Computing World Series Award as the ‘Best Security Solution’ , the 2010 Global Product Excellence Award for Database Security from Info Security Products Guide and was a recipient of the 2010 Red Herring 100 North America Award. For additional information and to download Hedgehog, visit www.sentrigo.com.

Sentrigo, Sentrigo Hedgehog, Hedgehog IDentifier, Hedgehog vPatch and the Sentrigo logo are trademarks of Sentrigo, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

We hope that you can attend this informative webinar.