GoGrid offers a great storage solution called Cloud Storage. But what if you want to deploy your own storage so that you can directly control performance and redundancy? What software would you use to provide this? The simple answer is Gluster. It is a powerful software-based storage solution that offers a centralized controlled storage pool management system that is very easy to use.

There are many different ways to take advantage of the GlusterFS storage solution. (Note: in the descriptions below a “brick” is a GoGrid Virtual Server.)

1. Distributed Volumes:

“Distributed volumes distribute files throughout the bricks in the volume. You can use distributed volumes where the requirement is to scale storage and the redundancy is either not important or is provided by other hardware/software layers.” – Gluster.org

2. Replicated Volumes:

“Replicated volumes replicate files throughout the bricks in the volume. You can use replicated volumes in environments where high-availability and high-reliability are critical.” – Gluster.org

3. Striped Volumes:

“Stripes data across bricks in the volume. For best results, you should use striped volumes only in high concurrency environments accessing very large files.”

These storage volume options seem very familiar, don’t they? Well, if you are familiar with the different RAID configurations of hard drives in server deployments, you will notice similarities with these options. For example, the “Distributed Volume” for Gluster is essentially a RAID 0. You sacrifice redundancy to gain superior performance and ease of capacity scaling.

The Replicated Volume is similar to a RAID 10 or RAID 1 where data integrity, redundancy and reliability are very important. However, the cost to scale is more since you need to basically add GoGrid Virtual Servers (bricks) in pairs to maintain the Replicated Volume structure.

The Striped Volume is similar to RAID 5 where data is striped across the GoGrid Virtual Servers (bricks). This comes in very handy when you are dealing with very large files (multiple GB files) and when the file is accessed multiple servers will stream the data to the web-server needing the file – offering very fast reads.

For my blog post, I am going to configure a 4 server Distributed Volume Gluster setup using the GoGrid Gluster Partner Image. I am going to deploy 4 x 8GB Gluster servers. Each Gluster server will have 384GB of storage available. In the Distributed Volume setup (similar to RAID 10), I will have 384GB x2 worth of space equaling approximately 768GB of usable space.

First step is to deploy the 4 new GoGrid Gluster Virtual Servers using the GoGrid Partner GSI. I log into my portal and then follow the next steps:

1. Click “Add”

2. Choose “Cloud Server”

3. Filter for “Gluster” & choose that image

4. Accept the Terms

5. Fill in the server information (name, public IP, description, memory allotment)

6. Repeat this process 3 more time but using different server name and public IP address.

Once you have all 4 of your new Gluster servers deployed, you can then view the Support → Passwords page in your portal to find the login information. With this login information, you can run this command from your local Linux workstation to change the hostname, set the private IP address and reboot each system. Run the following Bash script from your Linux workstation. The script will prompt you for the server address and root login, and also ask for the hostname and private IP address/netmask you want to use. If you don’t want to use this script, simply log into each system manually, update the host names and private IP addresses, and then reboot.

https://github.com/sepulworld/Remote_Linux_System_Update/blob/master/system_update.sh

I should now be able to log into all 4 systems and see the appropriate hostnames and IPs on each.

This looks good – if you don’t see the right hostnames or IPs on one or more of the systems, double check what is configured in the /etc/sysconfig/network file and in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 file. Also, confirm if your host performed the intended reboot (this is necessary for the host name to update at the command line).

From one of your Gluster servers, confirm private network connectivity by pinging each of the other Gluster servers via their private IP addresses. See image below.

Once this has been confirmed, we can take a look and see if the Gluster process is already running. It is configured on this GoGrid Partner Image to start on boot.

Now I need to configure the trusted server storage pool. Basically, I log into just one of my 4 Gluster servers (I choose Gluster_1) and I run a single command to put each of the other 3 members into the trusted server storage pool.

[root@Gluster_1 ~]# gluster peer probe 10.129.151.107

See image here -

Next, I run the command to create the distributed volume using my 4 Gluster servers.

command: gluster volume create DataStore1 replica 4 transport tcp 10.129.151.105:/store1 10.129.151.98:/store2 10.129.151.108:/store3 10.129.151.107:/store4

You can name the directories anything you want. I used “store1” thru “store4”. You can also name the volume whatever you would like. I choose DataStore1.

Now let’s start the Volume with one simple command: gluster volume start DataStore1

And finally let’s view the volume information: gluster volume info DataStore1

Helpful link:

http://gluster.com/community/documentation/index.php/Main_Page

If you run into any issues or have questions about the Gluster Partner GSI, please email gogrid-beta@gluster.com

That is it! You have successfully deployed the GoGrid Gluster servers from the GoGrid Partner GSI and configured 4 of them in a new replicated storage volume. My next blog post will cover deploying a web-server and connecting to this new storage volume. The third and final post will cover how to scale your replicated storage volume on GoGrid.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Below is the entire GoGrid Newsletter (October 2009):

Hello Michael,

In this edition of the GoGrid newsletter I cover recent feature releases, planned features for the next release, and the end-of-life (EoL) of Server Images with preinstalled applications.  Here are the specific topics:

1. MyGSI Enhancements: Edit, Delete, and Restore
2. Revamped Billing Summary Widget
3. Cloud Storage: Data Import via Postal Service
4. Sneak Preview: Planned features for the next two releases slated for early and mid November:
   • Windows 2003 32 bit base operating system
   • Windows 2003 64 bit base operating system
   • RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.4 base operating system
   • CentOS 5.3 base operating system
   • New Monthly and Annual Pre-Paid Price Plans
   • Partner GSI
   • Ubuntu 9.04
5. Server Images: EoL Image  List

MyGSI Enhancements: Edit, Delete, and Restore

---

You can now edit, delete and restore GoGrid Server Images (MyGSIs).  Michael Sheehan, GoGrid Technology Evangelist, has provided an excellent screencast of the new functionality located at the GoGrid Blog.
Here is a quick snapshot of the enhancements:

• Edit allows you to change the “Name” and “Description” of a MyGSI
• Delete allows you to delete a MyGSI
• Restore allows you to restore a MyGSI up to 24 hours after it was deleted

The enhancements are live and available in the GoGrid portal and API.

Revamped Billing Summary Widget

---

The Billing Summary Widget has been revamped to make it clearer.  The widget includes 3 new sections:

• Billing Cycle: displays your billing start and end date
• Memory: displays RAM deployed and projected monthly Server RAM usage
• Transfer: displays Transfer used and projected monthly usage

View Michael Sheehan’s screencast for complete details or read the documentation in the GoGrid wiki.
Cloud Storage: Data Import via Postal Service

---

If you have a large set of data that you want added to your Cloud Storage account, and you don’t want to upload it via the internet, simply ship us a physical hard drive(s) with the data and we will upload it for you.  There is a one-time fee of $99.99/per device and you are not billed for the data transfer from the hard drive to Cloud Storage.  Read Michael Sheehan’s blog post for more details about this service.

Sneak Preview: Planned Features for the Next 2 Releases

---

The next two releases are scheduled for early and mid November 2009 and include:

• Windows Server 2003 32 and 64bit base operating systems with no preinstalled applications
• RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.4 32 and 64-bit base operating system with no preinstalled applications
• CentOS 5.3 32 and 64-bit base operating system with no preinstalled applications
• New Monthly and Annual Server RAM Hour and Transfer prepaid pricing plans:
  • We are revamping all Pre-Paid plans.  Server RAM Hour pricing will start as low as $0.05/Server RAM Hour.  Annual Pre-Paid pricing plans are available today.  With Annual Pre-Pay plans, pay annually and receive 2 FREE months of service, which is a savings of 17%.  Speak to your account manager for more details.
• Partner GSI:
  • We are working with several Partners to make their Partner GSI images available to all users through the GoGrid portal.  A Partner GSI is a customized GoGrid Server Image that comes preloaded and configured with a partner’s software.  Some Partner GSIs have a monthly fee.  Expect detailed information on Partner GSIs in the next GoGrid Newsletter. To learn more about our partner programs and explore partnering with GoGrid to release your own Partner GSI please visit the partner page: http://www.gogrid.com/partners/index.php or contact Kole Hicks, GoGrid Product Manager, at Kole AT gogrid.com.
• Ubuntu 9.04 64-bit base operating system

Please expect more details on all these new features in the October newsletter, which will be sent out in late October.

Image Templates: End-of life list

---

The below images will be end-of-life on 11/03/2009; moving forward our focus is on the root OS (of course you can add software installations as you see fit).  If you want to continue to use the images below, please create a MyGSI and save it to your Cloud Storage.  We will continue to support all current Windows and Linux base operating systems.

• Windows 2003 IIS (32 bit)
• Windows 2003 IIS (64 bit)
• 32-bit Windows Server 2003 IIS6 / MSSQL Server 2005 Express / ASP.NET
• 32-bit Windows Server 2003 R2 MSSQL 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / PHP / MSSQL 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / PHP / ASP.NET / MSSQL 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / PHP / MySQL
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 Apache / PHP / MSSQL 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7+FastCGI(PHP)+MSSQL 2005 Express
• 64-bit Windows Server 2003 R2 IIS6 / MSSQL Server 2005 Express / ASP.NET
• 64-bit Windows Server 2003 R2 MSSQL 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / MS SQL Server 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / MS SQL Server 2005 Express / ASP.NET
• 64-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7
• 64-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / MS SQL Server 2005 Express
• 64-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / MS SQL Server 2005 Express / ASP.NET
• 64-bit CentOS 5.1 Apache 2.2
• 64-bit CentOS 5.1 Apache 2.2+PHP 5.1
• 64-bit CentOS 5.1 LAMP
• 64-bit CentOS 5.1 MySQL 5
• 64-bit CentOS 5.1 PostgreSQL 8.1
• 64-bit RHEL 5.1 Apache 2.2
• 64-bit RHEL 5.1 Apache 2.2+PHP 5.1
• 64-bit RHEL 5.1 LAMP
• 64-bit RHEL 5.1 MySQL 5
• 64-bit RHEL 5.1 PostgreSQL 8.1

Become a Fan of GoGrid on the Facebook Fan page!

---

If you have pictures of your hundreds of GoGrid servers or photos from an event where you saw GoGrid in action or met with some of our employees, we encourage you to post them to the Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/GoGrid/12731148364

As always, you can find more information about GoGrid at:
GoGrid Product Site – http://www.gogrid.com
GoGrid Blog – http://blog.gogrid.com
GoGrid Wiki – http://wiki.gogrid.com
GoGrid Forums – http://forums.gogrid.com

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly.
Mario AT gogrid.com

Thank you,
Mario

This email newsletter was sent out by our VP of Products, Mario Olivarez.

• Edit, Delete & Restore MyGSI Images
• Updated Billing Widget
• Updated GoGrid API

On August 11, 2009, we announced the availability of GoGrid 2.0 which included the new personal server images (MyGSI) functionality. Details on that important release are found here. Using MyGSI to manage your server repository or inventory is a great way to not only speed up your workflow in terms of deploying copies of servers quickly and easily, but also save money in the process (by storing your personal server images in GoGrid Cloud Storage for just a few dollars a month).

Edit, Delete & Restore MyGSI Images

As our customers were demanding this feature (MyGSIs), we got it out to market as quickly as possible. This new release now provides you with the ability to Edit, Delete and Restore MyGSIs that are located within the Server Images tab.

DELETE

Hopefully many of you are already enjoying the MyGSI feature. Here are a few things you should know about the newly pushed functionality. Within the Server Images tab, you should now see a new icon to the far right hand side of the server images that looks like a trash can:

Should you ever need to delete a stored MyGSI, simply click on the trash icon. While you are only paying a few dollars a month to store your personal server images, you might want to “clean shop” to further reduce your charges. The three size allotments shown in the image above that are around 800 MB are for a CentOS DB server and Web server respectively, and the third for a Windows Server 2003. At $0.15 per GB per month (note, we do round up to the next full 1 GB increment), the total costs would be…FREE since it is under the 10GB free allotment you get with Cloud Storage (if you were over your 10 GB free allotment, it would be about $0.60/month!).

But if you simply want to clean shop and want to remove older images or ones that you don’t need anymore, click the trash icon. You will get the following Delete Confirmation Warning:

When you click Yes, Delete, your server image will be flagged for deletion. You can check the status of it in two places. First, under the State column in the Server Images tab, the state will change from “Available” to “Trash”. Also, if you look in the Jobs tab, you will see details on the deletion request:

RESTORE

BUT WAIT! I didn’t want to delete that image! Have no fear, we give you UP TO 24 HOURS to restore an image from the Trash. Simply click on the new icon that is next to your deleted server image to remove it from the trash:

When you click the restore icon, you will get a Restore Confirmation Warning:

Simply click Yes, Restore to remove the image from trash. As with the delete process, all restoration actions are logged within the Jobs tab:

If you don’t restore your image, GoGrid will automatically purge the image from your GoGrid account. Once the image is purged, it will no longer appear within the Server Images tab. You can always see if the system has purged any of your images automatically by looking for an entry within the Jobs section similar to the one shown below:

Remember, you will still be charged for Cloud Storage while your image or images are in the Trash.

EDIT

Let’s say you want to change the Name or Description of your stored MyGSI to something a bit more meaningful or to add a version number, we now provide you with a quick and easy way to do this^[1]. To edit the Name or Description, simply click on the image within the Server Images tab. A dialog box similar to the one below will automatically launch:

In this example, I will change the title to “CentOS DB Server” and add a version number to the description:

Clicking Save will change the Name and/or Description of the MyGSI. The edits are available immediately.

Updated Billing Widget

While a bit minor in the grand scheme of things, we also have refreshed the look of the Billing Widget which appears in the left hand column. The previous version looked like this:

The new version looks like this:

Obviously, these screenshots are from different GoGrid accounts (I have added a second “after” screenshot that shows how the billing from the first screenshot displays in the new version). If you have a GoGrid Promotional Code (hint: if you are new to GoGrid, just ask a GoGrid Sales Rep for one!), the code and remaining balance will be shown. The new widget is then broken out into two distinct billing areas: Memory (RAM usage) and Transfer (outbound bandwidth usage/inbound is always free) (note: Cloud Storage charges are not currently shown). Within both sections, your Plan that you signed up for is displayed, including the allotments for each service according to each plan (the Trial Grid is a pay as you go service so no allotment is displayed).

Within the Memory section you see:

• GB in Use – this is the amount of RAM that you have currently deployed within your GoGrid account (includes servers in on AND off states)
• GB Hours to Date – a running total of consumed RAM hours
• Monthly Projection of GB Hrs – based on your current usage, how much RAM you will use for the entire month
• Monthly Projection of RAM Overage – based on your current usage and Memory Plan, the overage you might expect to hit
• Monthly Projection of RAM Total – based on current usage and possible overage, what you might expect for your final charge at the end of the month

In the Transfer section you have:

• GB Transfer to date – this is the amount of outbound bandwidth you have consumed to date
• Monthly Projection of GB Transfer – based on your current usage, how much bandwidth you will use for the entire month
• Monthly Projection of Transfer Overage – based on your current usage and Transfer Plan, the overage you might expect to hit
• Monthly Projection of Transfer Total – based on your current usage and possible overage, what you might expect for your final charge at the end of the month

We hope that those changes provide this information in a more useful manner.

Updated GoGrid API

Full details of what has been changed or added to the GoGrid API can be found on the GoGrid Wiki API page. At a high level, here are the API Server Image Methods that have been added:

• grid/image/get – function call to get a server image object
• grid/image/edit – function call to edit the name and description of a server image
• grid/image/delete – function call to delete a server image and send it to the trash
• grid/image/restore – function call to restore a server image from the trash

The following API Objects have been updated:

• Billing Summary (Object)
  • gbHours – Projected RAM GB Hrs that will be used in current billing period.
  • ramOverage – Projected total of dollars spent on RAM overages in current billing period in $.
  • ramTotal – Projected total of dollars spent on RAM in current billing period in $.
  • gbTransfer – Projected Transfer in GB that will be used in current billing period.
  • transferOverage – Projected total of dollars spent on Transfer overages in current billing period in $.
  • transferTotal – Projected total of dollars spent on Transfer in current billing period in $.

Summary

We hope you enjoy these changes. They round out the MyGSI features quite well. If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment on this post, send me a tweet (@hightechdad), send GoGrid a tweet (@GoGrid), or email me: Michael AT GoGrid DOT com.

Also, please be sure to check out our GoGrid Facebook Fan page and become a fan!

1. Note: some browsers are not supported for this functionality. Please use Internet Explorer 7 or higher or FireFox 3

GoGrid Cloud Storage

First, you might be asking, what is GoGrid’s Cloud Storage anyway? It’s pretty simple actually. It’s an instantly scalable and reliable file-level backup and storage service for Windows and Linux cloud servers running in the GoGrid cloud. You basically mount GoGrid’s Cloud Storage, which uses a secure private network, using common transfer protocols like SCP, FTP, SAMBA/CIFS and RSYNC to move your data in and out of Cloud Storage. Your storage scales dynamically, on-the-fly, and you only pay for what you use.

Another nice thing, we give you an initial 10 GB of space for FREE! Each additional GB is $0.15/GB per month. More info can be found on the GoGrid product page as well as on this (older) blog post.

The New Data Transfer Service

If you have a large data set that you want to get into GoGrid’s Cloud Storage, transfer you data to an external hard drive and snail mail it to GoGrid. When we receive the external hard drive, the data will be manually transferred into GoGrid’s Cloud Storage within your account. There is a one-time fee of $99.99 to execute the transfer. Please note that you are not billed for the data transfer.

Sounds too good to be true! Of course, you could have transferred the data to a server running in your GoGrid cloud (remember that INBOUND transfer is FREE with GoGrid) but that takes a lot of time depending on how big your pipes are on your end (ours are quite large, btw!). This manual process is a bit easier on your bandwidth and leaves the grunt work to us.

Frequently Asked Questions

I’m sure you have questions about this service. I know I did, so I asked our Product Management team to provide some answers to the following questions. If you have others, feel free to leave a comment on this post or contact a GoGrid Sales Rep (or your Service Team).

1. Is the $99 fee per hard drive and per occurrence?
   Yes, the $99 fee is per hard drive and per occurrence. There is no charge for the data transfer itself (e.g., based on GBs)
2. Is there a limit to the amount of data I can load?
   There is no limit to the amount of data you can load.
3. Is there a limit to the number of hard drives I can send?
   You can send us as many hard drives as you see fit.
4. Is there a particular type of hard drive that is supported or not supported?
   The hard drive MUST be an external hard drive with a USB connector. Please include the USB interface cables, power supply and return shipping postage and address information.
5. How long does the process take? Hours? Days?
   Typically this depends on the amount of data as well as the number of hard drives, but normally, you can expect the data to be loaded within a day or two.
6. How can I check on the status of my data load?
   GoGrid Support will email you once your data has been fully uploaded to your GoGrid Cloud Storage.
7. Is my hard drive returned to me? If so, do I pay for shipment?
   We can ship back your hard drive provided that you include pre-paid return postage, a mailing address and detailed contact information.
8. Do you go through any type of verification process to ensure that all of the data is loaded properly?
   We will load any and all data that is contained within the hard drive.
9. What format does the data have to be in?
   We accept just about any type of format (raw, uncompressed, graphics, text data, compressed, etc.). There is truly nothing complicated about preparing the data. Simply copy it over from your existing data repository and ship it as is.
10. What filesystem should the drive be formatted in? Does it depend on the Operating System?
    The hard drive should be formatted in a common filesystem format like FAT32 or NTFS. Proprietary filesystems will not be accepted.
11. Do you scan the drives for malware or viruses?
    It is the responsibility of the customer to provide virus and malware-free data, subject to the GoGrid Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy.

Hope those Q&As help! If you have any questions not answered here, please leave a comment. So, you can now get your data into the Cloud without breaking a sweat (we will do the sweating for you)!

What is new with GoGrid in the 2.0 release?

• MyGSI – GoGrid Server Images
• Improved Server Deployment Times
• IP Addresses in Passwords Tab

The 10,000 Foot View

Before I get into the 100 foot view, it is probably important to talk about what MyGSIs mean to you from a higher level.

The great thing about using a MyGSI for server creation is that you are creating copies of a server that you have already pre-configured. Some use cases that immediately come to mind are:

• Vertical Scaling – if you find that your current server needs more RAM to run more efficiently, you can quickly deploy a new server based on a MyGSI with more RAM allocated in minutes
• Horizontal Scaling – now you can create “clones” of a master image (MyGSI), all running the same customized code that is defined in the MyGSI
• Server Parking – many GoGrid users have been asking for a way to “park” a server without having to leave it fully deployed. Once you create a MyGSI, you store in within Cloud Storage for a nominal monthly fee. Servers can be instantiated quickly from MyGSIs, used, and then deleted, eliminating the need to always have a GoGrid server running.

A bit more detail on using Cloud Storage to store MyGSIs. For one, you can utilize the free 10 GBs we give you with every GoGrid account. Also, since each additional GB on Cloud Storage is $0.15/GB/mo, you can effectively store multiple MyGSIs for just a couple of dollars a month. When a MyGSI is prepped for storage, we heavily compress it before loading it there. Typically, Linux MyGSIs are just a few GBs in size and Windows MyGSIs slightly larger. For example, an 8GB MyGSI would cost you only $1.20 per month!

So, let’s get into the practical details of this release.

MyGSI – GoGrid Server Images

Perhaps the most exciting feature in the GoGrid 2.0 release is MyGSIs. Back in April, I gave some information about MyGSIs. Today, the full details are revealed. We have stuck to making the process of creating personal server images on GoGrid as straight-forward and easy as possible. There are THREE steps:

1. Add an Image Sandbox
2. Run the Preparation Script
3. Save your Image

Really, that is all there is to it! We mirrored much of the functionality you were already accustomed to when you create a GoGrid server, again with the goal of making your work intuitive and simple.

Understanding the Terms

• Image Sandbox – the Image Sandbox is a development environment (an actual server running on GoGrid) where you create a “MyGSI”. The Image Sandbox varies slightly from a traditional GoGrid server in that it has a fixed hard-drive size (20 GB) and RAM allotment (2 GBs).
• MyGSI – a personal server image that is used as a “Golden Master” server image to deploy GoGrid servers based on that image.
• Preparation “Prep” Script – a script that resides on all Image Sandboxes that allows you to prepare a server for imaging. The script is available on Linux and Windows servers and is executed by the end-user once the Image Sandbox is fully configured and ready to be imaged.

Step 1 – Adding an Image Sandbox

You will notice now that we have reorganized and added some things to the Add menu of the GoGrid Dashboard (which has some changes as well including a new Images tab).

At the top, you now see Image Sandbox which is where you start when you want to create a new MyGSI. Also note that we have changed the order of the elements, since logically, you only deploy a Load Balancer at the end of an Infrastructure build-out. Note: Please be sure that you have Cloud Storage deployed before trying to save a MyGSI (at the end of the process).

To start creating an Image Sandbox, click Add > Image Sandbox. You will be presented with Step 1 of the Image Creation process:

Be sure to familiarize yourself with the steps and details of each item (note: the text in these screenshots may not accurately represent the final wording within GoGrid as they were taken prior to the release of GoGrid v2.0). Once you have read the details, click Yes, Continue to proceed.

You will see the familiar Server Image selection widget:

Note: Some server image availability may change over time

With this recently introduced Server Image widget, you can search, sort, filter, group and drill-down quickly and easily until you find the GoGrid server image you would like to base your Sandbox Image on. In the image below, I have filtered by “Database Server” and “CentOS” operating system.

Note: Some server image availability may change over time

Click Next to continue. You will be presented with a form where you can define the Name, Description and IP Address of your Image Sandbox.

Note: Some server image availability may change over time

Once you have completed the information, click Save and the server will be saved to your GoGrid dashboard.

Step 2 – Run Preparation Script

After clicking Save, you will be presented with Step 2 of the Image Creation process. This is known as the Image preparation stage.

During this stage, you should fully configure your server to your liking. What that means is you can upload data, code, programs, web applications, etc. to your Image Sandbox, essentially anything that you would want to include in future GoGrid servers that are spawned based on this image. If you do have lots of data you want to include, it is recommended that you store this within Cloud Storage and then retrieve the data from there once other servers have been instantiated from the MyGSI.

Connect to your Image Sandbox the same way you would a standard GoGrid server, either via SSH (for Linux servers) or RDC (for Windows servers). Your Image Sandbox will feel and act like a traditional GoGrid server. Once you have configured the Image Sandbox and you feel it is ready to be “imaged,” you need to execute the Preparation Script.

The Preparation Script is conveniently located within both Windows and Linux servers:

Linux – In the root directory, type “ls” and you will see a script called: “prep.py“:

To execute this script, type: “./prep.py” and hit Enter. You will be presented with some information about the Preparation Script:

If you are ready to start the Imaging process, type “yes” otherwise type “no”. You can execute the script whenever you are ready. When the script starts, you will receive the following message:

Windows – to execute the preparation script in Windows, go to the Start button and select “Run”. In the Run box, type in “prep” and hit Enter.

When the preparation script runs, you receive the following alert. If you are ready to image your server, click Yes, otherwise, click No.

Once you click Yes, you have another chance to exit out of the imaging process. Read through the information carefully.

After clicking Yes, the script will start and the imaging process will begin.

At this point on either Linux or Windows, your Image Sandbox will shut itself down. Return to the GoGrid Dashboard and wait until the icon that indicates that status of your server turns RED.

Once your Image Sandbox has stopped, you are ready for Step 3 of the Image Creation process.

Step 3 – Save Your Image

Now that your Image Sandbox is in a stopped state, you can save it as a MyGSI which will load it to Cloud Storage for later use.

When you select your Image that you want to save, you will see a new action that you can do, either by right-clicking on the image:

Or by looking at the menu on the dashboard:

The action you would take is Save. Choosing this will delete the Image Sandbox and transfer it over to Cloud Storage. When initiating this process, you see Step 3.

It is at this point that you should be sure that you have Cloud Storage mounted within your GoGrid Dashboard. Once you click Yes, Continue you are asked for an Image Name and Description:

This process typically takes about 15 minutes to 1 hour to complete, depending on the Operating System and the amount of data you have loaded to the Image Sandbox. Once the imaging is complete, the Image Sandbox will no longer appear on the Grid Dashboard but will appear under the new Images section. The picture below shows the image being saved:

Once the process is complete, the State column will show “Available” meaning that the image can be used for creation of GoGrid servers. Note: the current release does not support the deletion of stored images, however, we will be releasing this functionality shortly.

You can always see a history of all of the actions that take place within the Jobs tab.

You are now ready to deploy new GoGrid Cloud Servers using your newly created MyGSI!

Creating Servers from MyGSIs

The process for creating a new GoGrid server from a MyGSI is the same as creating a standard GoGrid server. Simply click Add and launch the Server Selection widget:

Note: Some server image availability may change over time

You will see that the MyGSI created earlier appears with the Name that you entered when defining the MyGSI as well as has an Owner name different than “GoGrid”. In the example above, the owner is called “ServePath”.

Note: Some server image availability may change over time

Remember that you can Group columns within the Server Image widget, making it quite easy to find the MyGSIs you have created previously.

Note: Some server image availability may change over time

Another nice thing is, if you want to create a new MyGSI based on a previously created MyGSI, you can do this the same way you would create a new MyGSI. This allows you to create different “versions” of your own images which is especially helpful if you are doing lots of performance tuning of your code or trying new configurations.

So there you have it, MyGSIs in a nutshell. I will bet you didn’t think it would be THAT easy to do!

Improved Server Deployment Times

While much of our engineering effort was focused on bringing MyGSIs to life, in that process we also completely overhauled the system that stores the base GoGrid server images, resulting in a dramatic decrease in deployment times. We have benchmarked the following:

• Linux servers now deploy in less than 2 minutes and are accessible via SSH after 5 minutes
• Windows servers instantiate in less than 5 minutes and are available via RDC after 8 minutes

Do note, however, server deployment times can vary depending on overall system load (e.g., if multiple “adds” are being processed in succession), but on average, users should see much faster deployment times as of this release.

IP Addresses in the Passwords Tab

Lastly, I want to mention a small but incredibly useful change. We have added “IP Address” as an additional column to the Passwords tab. With this change, you now have all of the required information to connect to your servers remotely in one place:

In Summary

Pretty exciting stuff if I do say so myself. We would love to get your feedback on all of the new features and the performance of GoGrid version 2.0 so drop us a note or leave a comment! Remember, more information can also be found on the GoGrid product site, within the GoGrid Wiki (for full documentation) and in the GoGrid Forums. We have some showcase videos posted to the main GoGrid site as well so be sure to review the “How It Works” section.